Passover Cooking: Almond-Lemon Macaroons

Big thanks again to Abbi, who directed me to this recipe from NY Times Online. At her suggestion, I dipped the cooled cookies in chocolate, and skipped a long refrigeration stage included in the original instructions. They were so easy to make – I just sort of zipped it all together in between other cooking tasks, and hardly noticed the work. Except that dipping cookies in chocolate is fun. I’ll be baking these cookies for the holiday. They are wonderful.

Almond-Lemon Macaroons

Ingredients:

2 cups whole blanched almonds; or sliced blanched almonds or almond meal (ground almonds)

30 whole blanched almonds for decoration (if using)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Zest of 1 lemon – if not using a food processor, grate the zest finely.

Method:

If you are using almond meal, you don’t need to use the food processor. But I recommend using whole or halved almonds and grinding them yourself, because in the process the lemon peel will also be ground finely.

1. Put the almonds in the food processor, fitted with the metal knife. Add the lemon zest.

2. Grind in 10-second spurts, checking frequently in order to stop the process before you wind up with almond butter.

3. Add 3/4 cup sugar and the egg. Turn the FP on again and work it till the ingredients roll up around the blade like dough.

- Here the instructions from the NY Times say to transfer the dough to a medium bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 12 hours. I didn’t, but  appreciate that the cookies may come out better if allowed to rest.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 °F, 180° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl.

5. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut. Roll them into balls. Then roll the dough balls in the sugar, covering all sides.

- Here we’re supposed to press and almond point into the top of each cookie, so that half the almond shows. I preferred to dip in chocolate.

6. Arrange cookies 1″ apart on the baking sheet.

7. Now this is important – bake no longer than 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just barely colored. They should be soft when removed from the oven. For me, 9 minutes worked best.

Cool completely. If you want to dip them in chocolate, melt yourself a couple of bars and dip away, replacing them on the baking sheet till the chocolate has cooled down and re-hardened.

Once they’re done, store in an airtight container.

This recipe yields about 30 cookies. Abbi has made it with hazelnuts, too, and I’m going to try that.

Cosmetic note: You can make a very good facial scrub by removing a teaspoon of the ground almonds and lemon – before adding the sugar and egg – and gently massaging into your skin. For a softening hand scrub, whizz the sugar in before adding the egg, remove a teaspoon of the dough, and do the same for your hands. Then add the egg to the cookie dough for baking – don’t forget that! In either case, rinse with warm water and pat dry.