I have a dentist appointment coming up and the receptionist always telephones beforehand to remind me about it and put her order in for cake or biscuits! So it was Emma’s turn this time and she wanted coconut macaroons which I have not made for years but I have not forgotten the recipe. The only problem was finding edible rice paper to cook them on! I did not find any locally but I have to order some online. In the meantime I have used some greased baking parchment to stop the macaroons sticking to the paper. If they stick to the paper you end up with a cup shaped biscuit and the inside of the biscuit left on the paper!  You will need:

3 egg whites (I know egg white again!)
10 oz Caster Sugar
10 oz ground almonds or desiccated coconut or a mixture of both which is what I do
2 dessertspoons of cornstarch
a few drops of almond essence

Oven at 160 C Fan oven  or 180 C /350 F electric,  or gas mark 4.

If you have rice paper then line your baking sheets with it if not grease well baking parchment and use to line the baking sheet.

Whisk the egg white lightly then add half the sugar and continue whisking. Then with a spoon stir in the remaining sugar, ground almonds, coconut, cornstarch and almond essence, mix to a soft dropping consistency. If you use large eggs then you may need extra ground almonds. With wet hands take spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls and place on the paper. Flatten down a little but leave some space for expansion although they do come apart when cooked.

You can make them any size you like but this amount of mixture should make about 20 medium sized ones or a dozen large ones.  Bake for 20 mins until pale brown. spread out and cracked on top.  Allow to cool before lifting onto a cooling rack.  If you have used rice paper then cut round the macaroons before lifting them on to the cooling rack.  These are, of course, very sweet and a fairly strong black Assam tea would work best with these.

~JB