I’m a macaroon lover from way back. I’m not talking about macarons, the French sandwich cookies made with beaten egg whites. Macaroons do contain egg whites, but they’re simply stirred into the other ingredients. Coconut macaroons are among my favorites—chewy and sweet and altogether a pleasure to eat. But what about almonds?
I just adore almonds, so I decided to see how they’d work in macaroons. I wanted a cookie that was crunchy, yet chewy and had chocolate in it. And I wanted to keep the recipe simple.
Using a Food Processor to Grind Nuts
Food processor to the rescue! I ground the almonds with unsweetened chocolate and sugar until they formed a fine meal. This I dumped into a large bowl. To hold everything together, I stirred in egg whites with almond and vanilla extracts.
I shaped 24 macaroons, rolling pieces of dough between my palms to form balls, and baked them briefly in a moderate oven. The baking wizard found that timing is the crucial factor—in this case, less is more.
The cookies have crisp outsides and chewy insides and are delightfully bittersweet. When you want just a bit of something sweet—with chocolate—these macaroons are it.