Almond macaroons: comments, please

Tomorrow I'm going to make some almond macaroons for Passover. The recipe I'm planning on using comes from Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook. I'm a little skittish about it because the hamentashen recipe I tried from the same book failed miserably. Please have a look at the recipe and see if it seems right. I plan to dip them into melted semi-sweet Scharffenbarger chocolate. I like them slightly crisp outside and chewy inside. The recipe advises using matzah meal-dusted baking sheets to bake them on, but can I use my silpats? Can I make them smaller and cut the baking time a bit?

Almond Macaroons (page 387)
2-1/2 cups blanched almonds
2-1/4 cups sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
sifted matzah cake meal for dusting
1/4 cup blanched toasted almonds, split, for topping (I'm omitting because I want to dip one half of each cookie in chocolate)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grind the almonds very fine with 1 cup of sugar in a food processor or other grinder.
3. Place the almonds in a bowl. Add the remaining sugar and the eg whites, 1 at a time, blending by hand or with a food processor until a paste is formed that can be manipulated with the hand. Add the almond extract. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
4. Dust a large cookie sheet with matzah cake meal.
5. Take a piece of dough the size of a plum. Roll between the palms to make a ball and pinch the top to shape like a pear. Place, wide side down, on the cookie sheet. Place half a blanched toasted almond on top.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, until the cookies rise and brown a little. Cool slightly and separate with a spatula, taking care not to break them.

Makes 24 macaroons

Thanks, Pam! I'm going to try the first batch with Joan Nathan's recipe in a few minutes. If they turn out, I'll experiment with the other recipe (after running to the store for more nuts! ;) )

I'd appreciate comments from anyone who's made them before. Will I run into trouble dipping them today, but serving them tomorrow?

Lessons learned

Okay, I learned a thing or two.

First, this is the first thing I've ever tried that stuck to the Silpat! They may have been underbaked by a minute or so, but man- what a mess.

Second, the macaroons spread a lot, so the first tray was too smooshed together.

I made the third tray (it's in the oven now) and made the balls much smaller, just a bit smaller than an egg yolk. I have an ice cream scoop that's about the size of a large melon baller; that worked better than hand-rolling them.

Also, I used jumbo eggs. That may have made the batter looser. I'd cut back a white if I use jumbos again.

Finally, parchment paper works perfectly. I took the baked macaroons on their sheet from the pan to the (granite) counter to cool for about 1 minute. They popped right off the paper.

I'm not sure I'll dip one side of them in chocolate, but I'll see.

Thanks, Pam. I suspected there was too much egg white after I looked at your recipe suggestion. If I have time tonight I'll dip them as you suggested. The cookies are quite crisp.

Just for fun, I tried using the last of the batter to make them in my convection-microwave. They came out okay, but were softer and chewier than the ones baked in the oven. They did brown, as the model I have allows that.

I dipped them in semi-sweet chocolate, chilled them, and packed them in a container. I left a few natural. They were very easy to make; now I'll just have to experiment with the ratio of eggs/sugar/nuts to get the thicker, less flat macaroons. A local deli/catering place has them and they are thicker and chewier. They're about 2" in diameter. That's what I was shooting for! I'd also like to make them French-style, sandwiched with jam. Mmm...

Pam, I used the recipe I printed above- but I used jumbo sized eggs, so the batter was too loose and the cookie spread too much.

I'll cut back on the egg whites. A sticky dough-like mixture would be much better than the loose mixture I had. I can't see this being too finicky a mixture, as it has no leavening to it and no fat (except what's in the almonds).

Here's what I'm going to tell my friends:

2-1/2 cups blanched almonds
2 whites from large eggs with one more in reserve
2-1/4 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract


The method would be the same as above, but I'd skip the matzo meal and just use parchment paper.

I know we've discussed macaroons here before. I'll check with the sarch feature and see what comes up.

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Just type "macaroons" into our search feature and you'll be amazed at all the posts! This one was interesting:

http://www.cheftalkcafe.com/forums/s...ight=macaroons

Splenda was my next experiment!!! I love it, although most people don't know that if you consume a cup of it, it's 24 carbs or something like that.

That would make it a great low carb/low sugar dessert. I have also mixed up low carb chocolate using unsweetened chocolate and mixing in some Splenda. I haven't tried to temper it, but for me it works fine.