[Sca-cooks] help with macaroons

[devra at aol.com]

I used a recipe from Colonial Williamsburg's restaurant, virtually identical to the one in The Horizon Historical Cookbook, and awfully similar to the one in Joy of Cooking. To wit:


8 oz can of almond paste

3/4 C granulated sugar
.5 tsp almond flavor
3 egg whites
pinch of salt





You are to break up the almond paste and then beat in the sugar and flavor and salt, followed by 
the egg whites. Beat well. Drop by teaspoons on parchment paper. Smooth the tops of the cookies 
with a pastry brush dipped in water and bake at 350* about 18-20 min, until puffed and golden.


The JOY uses 1 C of confectioner's sugar, and tells you to cook the mixture gently for about 
4-5 minutes before dropping the cookies. 

Unfortunately, I found that the dough (batter, really) was VERY runny, and the cookies came out
very flat, sort of like a wafer. There was no way I could have smoothed the tops of the cookies!
They still tasted good, but they were very thin.



I am wondering if my use of powdered egg whites could have caused this problem.  I haven't yet tried it with fresh egg white, but 
wondered if people had an opinion on this.
Devra, concerned baker








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