Cookies - Almond Macaroons


Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free

Meal Type
Dessert
Cuisine
Seasonal
Author
Nigella Lawson
Serves
6
Preparation Time
10 minutes
Cooking Time
12 minutes

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 200g ground almond meal
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamom or the seeds from 6 pods.

Wet Ingredients

  • 2 vegan eggs (1 Tbsp ground flaxseeds + 1/4 cup boiling water, OR 2-4 tsp Psyllium husk + 1/4 warm water per egg)
  • 1-2 Tbsp rosewater for rolling

Topping

  • 25g blanched almonds (1 per cookie)

Instructions

  1. Prepare vegan egg replacement of choice (make choice and boil kettle)...
  2. Measure out dry ingredients and stir well to ensure the cardamom is evenly dispersed as possible.
  3. Once egg replacement is loosely gelled, add to dry ingredients and mix into a soft dough ball.
  4. wet fingertips and rub palms with rosewater or alternative liquid and pinch or use a Tbsp or smaller spoon to collect enough dough to form a smallish walnut sized ball. Place on a baking tray about 3cm apart. Re-moisten hands as necessary.
  5. Place an almond flat on the top of each ball and depress slightly to flatten ball and secure the almond.
  6. Oven should be at 200 degrees celsius and cookies will take 10 - 12 minutes depending on how big they are and how aggressive the oven is.
  7. Cookies should be slightly golden around the edges when cooked. enjoy warm or cold, they keep for almost a week if they last that long (severely unlikely).

Notes

  • Gluten free cookies that aren't awful and dry :D
  • Original recipe says it makes 28 cookies, we usually make them slightly smaller and end up with a few more... so moreish, smaller seems wiser.
  • Cookies should be slightly crispy on the outside and essentially soft marzipan in the centre, if not cooked all the way through... vegan, so still perfectly safe to eat :)
  • if you wanted to use raw sugar i would recommend pulsing it into finer grains in a blender of some description as the cookies do not take very long to cook and may feel gritty otherwise.
  • The rose water adds a great scent, but you can easily use orange blossom water, or just water. The cookies will roll smooth with little residue and you can scent them or not as you wish.
  • the original recipe used 2 egg whites from large eggs... being vegan now, we use either flax or psyllium husk and boiling water to make a sticky gel replacement that works really well and adds fibre et cetera. The flax meal can make the cookies look wholemeal speckled, so psyllium husks work well, but work fast, if you are not careful the gel can set too firm too fast..
  • we fail to care about the speckles, so we often use the flax egg and then do not bother to blanch the almonds either... we blanch our own when we can be bothered by soaking them in boiling water for a scarce few minutes and wiping the loosened skins off (rather than buying them that way, we reduce the packaging requirements and buy raw almonds in bulk so we can snack, roast or blanch as needed).