All Spiced Up: Almond Macaroons

Nigella is a baking god. Did I already tell you this? Well, i'm telling you now. Her charming and attractive ways of rummaging around the kitchen to whip up a cake, or get ready to sink a chef knife into a leg of ham is so pleasing to me.


This sounds really weird doesnt it? Well if you've ever watched Nigella Bites you'll know what I'm talking about.


One fine day in my little kitchen I was thinking of ways to fill up my boring Sunday with some activity. No better way then to bake some macaroons that had been craved the whole weekend by my family, right?


Wrong.
Out of Almonds. Disaster. Annoying and fustrating.


Take two, on a Saturday afternoon the following weekend. And everything went according to plan. Yay!
I've baked these macaroons about 3 times already now, can't get enough of them.
The cardamom spice really lifts it to a whole different level.
Spice is nice.

Almond and Cardamom Spiced Macaroons
                                        Nigella Lawson

- 200g Ground Almonds
- 200g (1cup) caster sugar
- 1/4 t of cardamom powder
- 2 Egg whites


Method
Place the ground Almonds, sugar and cardamom powder into a mixing bowl of your kitchen aid. Or if doing this by hand, a large bowl.
Combine the dry ingredients by simply pressing that nifty little on button on your mixer, or getting out a wooden spoon.. that always works.
Slide in the 2 egg whites and keep stirring/mixing until combined
Rub a couple of drops of Rose water on your hands and pick up the sandy mixture and roll into walnut sized balls, place each ball faaaar apart on the baking tray (Trust me they spread..alot!)
Pop into the oven for 10 minutes-ish, pop in to retreive it, pop onto a plate then pop into your hungrily awaiting mouth. Or in this case, my familys mouths...

Anzac Biscuits

I was in the kitchen just then making anzac biscuits with my sister, and remembered just in time to whip out my camera to start flashing away.

Anzac biscuits are basically just oaty, sugary biscuits that can either be chewy or crunchy (I prefer chewy!).
It's a biscuit made for the commemoration of Australian soldiers back in the war.. but thats the boring part.. lets get on to the nitty gritty.

Okay, so i started the biscuits by melting some butter and golden syrup into small pan.

And then in a seperate bowl (for the dry mix) I combined some Coconut (mmm)and brown sugar

And to that fabulous mixture, in went some sifted plain flour


Then finally, for the dry ingredients, some oats. I then added a teaspoon of bicarb soda (baking soda) to 2 Tablespoons of hot water and mixed it up in a tiny bowl.
I then added it to the dry mixture.
I also added the melted butter and golden syrup mixture.

And mixed until all combined. (of course!). It was tricky, but I rolled tablespoons of the mixture and pressed it down lightly with a fork on to my prepared baking tray. I say it's tricky because mine was waaaaay too dry, so adding a little bit of more hot water is good.

ahhh

Put 'em in for about 10 minites-ish...

And you'll end up with these beauties. Oh, and transfer to a wire cooling rack when out of the oven!
Here are some pictures to feast your eyes on



store in a airtight container.. but they will probably all get eaten just on the cooling rack alone.


AMAZING ANZAC OATY RECIPE:
- 1 cup plain flour (All-Purpose flour)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup coconut
- 220 grams of unsalted butter
- 2 Tbs of golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon of bicarb soda (baking soda)
- 2 Tbs of hot water


METHOD:
Preheat oven to 155c degrees celcius.
Combine flour, coconut, sugar and oats and let rest.
In a small saucepan melt butter and golden syrup until just melted.
In a small cup or bowl (save on the dishes) combine 1 teaspoon of bicarb soda to 2 Tablespoons fo hot water, and mix up. Pour bicarb mixture in to dry mixture, and also pour in golden syrup mixture.
Mix together, if mixture is too dry to work with (if you cant press it into a ball easily) then just add some more hot water.
roll mixture in to balls and place on prepared oven tray. press down lightly with the back of a fork to slightly flatten.
Place in the hot oven, and cook for about 10 easy miniutes.

Cucina felice!!

Shortbread Biscuits

So, a couple of days ago for the easter weekend, i made some shortbread biscuits.. mmmm.
They were actually amazing, like buttery, crumbly and everything. It made about 40 small biscuits (that i cut out from a biscuit cutter).
I started by creaming butter and icing sugar with my trusty electric beater and then slowly adding corn flour.
Corn flour?? I know, but it actually makes the result amazing, so i guess its a pass.
And then added plain flour and spent like a lifetime rolling the cookies.

Put them in the oven, and walla!! Heaven came out!

Sorry, I didn't take the step by step pictures..
The sad thing is that a delicious morsel like this contains hundreds of calories..note the butter below.
Yea.. 200 grams of that. If your weight concious, I reccommend you don't try it because you will end up eating the whole batch.
But if you don't care about weight.. indulge and let the buttery crumbly cookies melt in your mouth.

The pictures may not be so great because of our dodgy camera, but hopefully
we'll get that flashy snazzy expensive professional camera soon!

xoxo

THE ULTIMATE SHORTBREAD RECIPE:
- 1 Cup Plain Flour (All-Purpose)
- 1 cup Corn Flour
- 1/2 Cup Icing sugar (Confectioners Sugar)
- 200 grams unsalted butter


METHOD:
Beat together butter and sugar until light, creamy and fluffy. Slowly add corn flour and beat again until same fluffly consistency.
Sift plain flour and slowly add to mixture. The mixture will still be wet, so its quite hard to roll out and cut. An easier method is to push it through a piping bag and just make shapes onto your prepared pan. Or try to roll them into shapes (hard, but worth the really pretty end result).
Bake at 180c degrees for about 10 minutes. Check every five miniutes.

Note* You dont want the shortbread to be golden brown, just a very pale gold.