Perhaps there was a sneaky underlying message in a recent present, I need to bake more! Win-win I say – delicious LSA Macaroons were the result!
My beloved Englishman was gifted a cook book for this birthday. This made us both giggle as he is not a baker nor particularly familiar with the kitchen, but I nabbed it and he is now enjoying the benefits of sharing presents.
The cook book is called Cooking Times ‘a culinary journey through Kiwi Kitchens from the 1930s to the present day’ and is rather fun. I love old cook books and recipes as they made the most of the most simple ingredients available to them. Bananas and coconut for example were exotic and not readily available (or known) to many New Zealand cooks.
A macaroon recipe caught my eye. There are so many recipes ‘out there’ these days it’s sometimes hard to know which way to turn, but these ingredients were so basic, I just had to make it. I must say that (a) I didn’t have 4 cups of almond meal so I’ve adapted the recipe to include LSA (ground linseed, sesame and almond) and (b) I didn’t have enough icing sugar so I made my own icing sugar, which works a treat if you are ever caught-short.
When should one dabble with a recipe? I say, often! You do need to know some rules before you set out to break them, and I couldn’t go wrong with my macaroon adaption. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest you use 4 cups of LSA as the linseed can be a bit overbearing in large quantities. My recipe adaption, including half almond meal and half LSA, I’d definitely recommend…deliciously crunchy on the outside with a chewy centre, perfect!
LSA Macaroons
Makes: approx 30
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond meal
- 2 cups ground LSA (ground linseed, sesame seed and almonds)
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 egg whites, unbeaten
- 2 egg whites, whisked to soft peaks
- slithered almonds
Method
- Preheat oven to 150°C.
- Combine almond meal (and LSA) and icing sugar in a bowl and combine well.
- Stir through unbeaten egg whites.
- Whisk remaining egg whites until they form soft peaks, and fold them into the mixture too.
- Place spoonfuls (soup spoon sized) onto a greased or baking-paper lined oven tray, then press slithered almonds on top.
- Bake for 25 minutes then remove from oven. Allow to cool.
