Brown Sugar Macaroons – A treat with tea, and both dairy and gluten free
I hate waste and another carbonara dinner meant another egg white seeking a purpose in life. While my meringue recipe is delicious, I just wasn’t in the humour for meringues tonight.
My nightly flick through my cookbooks paid off and I remembered a macaroon recipe which contained an egg white. No, I didn’t spell it wrong, it’s “macarOOn” not those pretty pastel coloured “macarOn”s that are so fashionable at the moment.
MacarOOns are coconutty loveliness, think of that 10p sweetshop favourite the Macaroon Bar. They are just perfect with a cuppa and with the added bonus of being both dairy free and gluten free. If mine had lasted longer I’d probably have dipped some of them in chocolate, or even half of some of them.
I used a Rachel Allen recipe, but I used brown (light golden) sugar instead of her recommended caster sugar and the result was a rich, almost toffee like taste. The whole process was very easy, it’s hard to see what could go wrong. I used only one bowl and spoon, so very little washing up and the whole process took about 15 minutes from weighing the ingredients to putting them to cool on the wire rack. The recipe makes 12 if you make them by yourself, or in my case 11 as I let the boys stir and they helped themselves.
Ingredients
100g dessicated coconut
1 egg white
75g light golden brown sugar (or caster sugar)
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a big baking tray with parchment/baking paper.
Lightly beat the egg white with a whisk in a mixing bowl, then add the other two ingredients and mix them together. The mixture will be loose but that’s OK.
When mixed, wet your hands and make small balls with the mixture, it should make 12. (We’ve been trying to decide on our couch how to decide what size the balls are and we’ve settled on “a bit bigger than a Ferrero Rocher but smaller than a Creme Egg”). Place the balls on the tray and put it in the over. Cook til golden, it should take 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and place on wire tray to cool.
Macaroons cooling on wire tray
Apparently they will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container, but I can’t testify to that as they are all gone.
Macaroons and cuppa
