- 5 oz blanched almonds, finely ground or almond meal
- 5 oz sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/3 cup egg whites (from ~ 2 eggs)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 18 - 20 whole blanched almonds
In Turkey, you can find these cookies in practically every bakery. If there is one Turkish cookie, this is it. In Turkey, these macaroons are referred to as "bitter almond cookies" since traditionally, a small amount of bitter almonds used to be added to the dough. However, because bitter almonds are poisonous, they are no longer easy to find even in Turkey and they are certainly not available in theUS. In this recipe, we have substituted almond extract in place of the bitter almonds.
These macaroons are relatively easy to make. The rick is the consistency of the dough and you will learn the feel of it after a few tries.
Preheat the oven
to 265F.
Cut a baking a sheet
for your baking tray. We recommend using a silicone baking sheet, which you can easily find in kitchen stores.
If you are beginning with whole blanched almonds, grind them finely in your food processor. You can also use raw almonds with the brown skins, the cookies will be a little darker but you may even like that. Alternatively, you can use almond meal or almound flour.
Combine the almond flour, almond extract, sugar and egg whites in a non-stick pan.
At very very low heat, allow the sugar to melt while mixing the batter continuously with a wooden spoon. Approximately 10 minutes should be sufficient to reach the desired consistency. In this step, the temperature is very critical, we do not want to cook the egg whites.
Pour the mixture onto a cold surface and let it cool down to room temperature. This can be a non-stick silicone liner. You have to be patient here! The batter hardens as it cools down and this is essential for the cookies to preserve their shapes when you drop them on the tray one by one.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice to the mixture, mix well.
Transfer to pastry bag. Pipe 1.5 - 2 inch mounds onto the baking sheet. If the mixture is too dry for piping, add a teaspoon or two of egg whites. If the mixture is too runny, add almond flour. When dropped, the cookies should not spread on the baking sheet easily. Achieving this consistency is the most important thing you will have to learn.
Optional: Place a
whole blanched almond on each cookie - the original recipe calls for half
an almond on each cookie - we believe this is preferred to reduce the
weight of the the almond so the cookie can rise freely.
Bake on the middle
rack for 30-35 minutes.
Move the tray to the upper rack and set the temperature to low broil (if your oven has this feature). Broil until the macaroons turn light brown.
Do not overbake these cookies. They will
harden fairly quickly - they are supposed to have a thin crust with a
chewy core. For the same reason, when you take the tray
out of the oven, we recommend taking the baking sheet off the hot tray
so the cookies do not continue baking. This is very easy to do if you use a silicone sheet or baking sheet on your tray.
To remove the cookies
off the baking sheet, wait until they cool down to the room temperature.
Last Update: August 21, 2011