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Italian Macaroons
Blanch and pound 8 ounces of sweet almonds (expose them to the air for a day or two before they are required to be pounded) with a little orange-flower water, 1 pound of sifted sugar, and the frothed whites of 3 eggs. Smooth the ingredients by rubbing them well together, and add very gradually the frothed whites. When the paste looks soft and smooth, drop it, in quantities about the size of a walnut, through a funnel on to some wafer-paper. Bake on the ordinary plate, in a rather slow over, to a pale color. A strip or two of almond should be stuck on the top of each macaroon before baking. Time, fifteen to twenty minutes to bake.
A straightforward almond macaroon in the old style: no flour, no leavening, just ground almonds, sugar and egg white. The whole thing depends on getting a paste that is smooth but not oily.
- Drying the almondsBlanched almonds left out for a day or two lose surface moisture and pound to a drier, less greasy paste. If you use a food processor instead of a mortar, pulse in short bursts with some of the weighed sugar to keep the nuts from turning to butter.
- Weights8 oz blanched almonds is about 225 g; a pound of sifted sugar is 450 g. Volume equivalents vary with how finely the sugar is sifted, so weigh if you can. The 2:1 sugar-to-almond ratio produces a very sweet, crisp-shelled macaroon.
- Orange-flower waterUse it sparingly, by the half-teaspoon. Orange-flower water varies a good deal in strength between brands, and too much in this quantity will taste of soap.
- Oven temperatureA rather slow oven is usually taken to be somewhere around 300-325F (150-160C). The aim stated in the recipe is a pale color, so bake to just set and barely blond rather than browned.
- "The ordinary plate"Most likely the standard oven plate or baking sheet rather than a dish. Line it with parchment even though wafer paper is used, so the sheets slide off cleanly.
- Wafer paperEdible rice or wafer paper is still sold for confectionery and baking. It sticks to the base of each macaroon and is eaten with it; trim the excess with scissors once cool. Parchment alone works, though the bottoms will be less tidy.
- Adding the whitesThe recipe calls for three whites, added very gradually as directed. Work them in until the paste is soft enough to drop from a funnel or spoon and still holds a mound; too slack a paste and the macaroons spread flat.
- Timing and yieldFifteen to twenty minutes suits walnut-sized mounds. Expect roughly 30 to 36 macaroons. They firm up considerably as they cool, so judge doneness by color and a dry surface rather than by feel.
Almond macaroons predate the modern French macaron by centuries: they are a confection of ground almonds, sugar and egg white, often traced in popular accounts to monastery and convent kitchens where almond paste was a staple sweet. The name comes into English through the Italian maccherone; the further derivation is disputed, and the frequently repeated link to a root meaning to crush or pound is only one suggestion among several. Macaroons appear in English cookbooks from the seventeenth century onward.