Macaroons
So, growing up with the Mary Plain adventures, I have always liked the idea of macaroons, but have never seen them. With all the macarons cropping up everywhere, and Kate making them, and macaroons supposedly being easier to make, I thought I might as well give them a try.
I used a green and gold recipe, although there was a recipe in my "Cookery the Australian Way" book. The CtAW recipe had loads more coconut in it, but I thought I'd give the Green and Gold one a go, because it was from a time closer to the Mary Plain books.
For some reason I decided to put grated chocolate in the first ones, which came out... weird. They developed these macaron feet and these very smooth, flatish tops. After half an hour in the oven, they were quite hard. They tasted a bit like toffee mixed with cocopops, which is always good, but didn't look like I thought they'd look like.
I tried some more the next day, with lemon instead of chocolate. They were more like flat biscuits, and I think half an hour was a little too long for them--either that, or they went brown because of the lemon. They tasted alright, though.
At the moment, I'm in the process of making some more chocolate ones. About half of them have macaron feet, and the ones who don't are all cracked on top. I thought it was the smaller ones that were non-maracon-like, but now I'm comparing them, this is not the case.
I was reasonably sure they weren't going macaroony because they needed more coconut, but now I've talked to my father, and he has suggested the opposite--which makes sense, because I'm getting rid of bubbles. I shall do an experiment next week.
The chocolate things, even if they're not particularly macaroony, are reasonably nice to eat, so I'll put a recipe here.
Chocolate macarooooooooons.
2 egg whites
1 'breakfast cup' caster sugar (I'm using a tea mug, so around 1 cup)
3-4 heaped tablespoons coconut
3-4 non-heaped tablespoons grated chocolate (I'm using dark cooking chocolate)
Step one: beat the egg whites until you can make little peaks.
Step two: add the sugar; beat until stiff.
Step three: add the other ingredients.
Step four: spoon out onto papered baking trays, put in a 180 degree C oven for 30 minutes.
Step five: wait until cooled, then eat.
I used a green and gold recipe, although there was a recipe in my "Cookery the Australian Way" book. The CtAW recipe had loads more coconut in it, but I thought I'd give the Green and Gold one a go, because it was from a time closer to the Mary Plain books.
For some reason I decided to put grated chocolate in the first ones, which came out... weird. They developed these macaron feet and these very smooth, flatish tops. After half an hour in the oven, they were quite hard. They tasted a bit like toffee mixed with cocopops, which is always good, but didn't look like I thought they'd look like.
I tried some more the next day, with lemon instead of chocolate. They were more like flat biscuits, and I think half an hour was a little too long for them--either that, or they went brown because of the lemon. They tasted alright, though.
At the moment, I'm in the process of making some more chocolate ones. About half of them have macaron feet, and the ones who don't are all cracked on top. I thought it was the smaller ones that were non-maracon-like, but now I'm comparing them, this is not the case.
I was reasonably sure they weren't going macaroony because they needed more coconut, but now I've talked to my father, and he has suggested the opposite--which makes sense, because I'm getting rid of bubbles. I shall do an experiment next week.
The chocolate things, even if they're not particularly macaroony, are reasonably nice to eat, so I'll put a recipe here.
Chocolate macarooooooooons.
2 egg whites
1 'breakfast cup' caster sugar (I'm using a tea mug, so around 1 cup)
3-4 heaped tablespoons coconut
3-4 non-heaped tablespoons grated chocolate (I'm using dark cooking chocolate)
Step one: beat the egg whites until you can make little peaks.
Step two: add the sugar; beat until stiff.
Step three: add the other ingredients.
Step four: spoon out onto papered baking trays, put in a 180 degree C oven for 30 minutes.
Step five: wait until cooled, then eat.