macaroons recipe Ingredients 175g icing sugar 125g ground almonds 3 large free-range egg whites 75g caster

sugar For the filling 150g butter, softened 75g icing sugar Method 1. Preheat the oven to 160C/fan140C/gas 3. Whizz the icing sugar and ground almond s in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl. 2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy. (At this point you can stir in flavour extract, such as peppermint or lemon, and corresponding colouring such as blue or yellow, to your meringue mixture, depending on what ki nd of macaroons you want see chef's tip. Or divide the meringue among different bowls if you want to make more than one colour.) 3. Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining half, making sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixtur e until it is shiny and has a thick, ribbon-like consistency as it falls from th e spatula. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle. 4. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Pipe small rounds of the macaroon mix ture, about 3cm across, onto the baking sheets. Give the baking sheets a sharp t ap on the work surface to ensure a good foot . Leave to stand at room temperature f or 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin. This is important you should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger. Bake for 15 minu tes. Remove from the oven and cool. 5. Meanwhile, make the filling/s (unless making chocolate macaroons see chef's t ip). In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the icing s ugar. (You can now add flavouring or nuts, and colour see chef's tip.) Use to sa ndwich pairs of macaroons together. Nutritional info Per macaroon: 160kcals, 9.7g fat (4.2g saturated), 1.8g protein, 17.5g carbs, 16 .4g sugar, 0.2g salt Chef's tip Macaroons taste wonderful plain, but why not add flavouring and colouring? Flavo ur extracts such as raspberry, lemon and peppermint and colourings are available in supermarkets and cake shops. Try squires-shop.com to buy online. To flavour and colour your macaroons, in step 2, add around tsp flavour extract, then add t he appropriate colouring, a drop at a time, until you reach the desired intensit y. Flavour and colour the buttercream in the same way. For chocolate macaroons, replace a quarter of the icing sugar with cocoa powder and use Nutella as the fi lling. For pistachio macaroons, replace half the ground almonds with ground pist achios (whizz in a blender or finely chop by hand), and use green food colouring to achieve a pastel green. Fold chopped pistachios through the filling, if you like.