Macaroons

400g ground almonds
150g sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon, unwaxed
2-3 drops almond essence
1 large egg white
icing sugar

Put all the ingredients except the icing sugar into the food processor, and blend into a soft malleable paste.

Put some icing sugar on a plate and rub your hands with oil so they don’t stick. Take lumps of the paste the size of walnuts and roll into a ball. Press one side down into the icing sugar flattening it a little, and place it on a buttered baking sheet. Bake at 200c for 15 minutes, and allow to cook before lifting them off the sheet.

These cookies are from Arabesque . I love these cookies. I have always loved macaroons. I love the way they are a little hard on the outside, and beautifully sticky and chewy on the inside. These seemed like they were too easy to make to yeild such a complicated cookie, but they were exactly right.

Actually, funny story... I had to make them twice, because I was really tired, and the first time, I left out the sugar all together. Actually, they were interesting like that, but then when I realized what I had done, I had to re-make them, using all the ingrediants. They would be a perfect cookie to have along with coffee or ice cream or both.