A Family Recipe for Macaroons (Macarons?) with an Even More Delicious Family Backstory Involving a Cookie-Baking Crazy Relative Aunt Lene - from German Food Blog "Delicious Days" - FASHIONTRIBES SWEET TOOTH RECIPE BLOG

(Photo & recipe from DeliciousDays.com)

...So it was down to my grandma, or even better, aunt Lene. If I had to name one cookie baking crazy relative, yes, it would be aunt Lene. Anyone in the family (and family to her meant neighbors as well as friends from her sewing class) could give her an empty container or box - which within days was miraculously filled with an amazing variety of cookies, each in perfect shape and lovingly decorated. Her husband, my uncle, was also breeding rabbits back then, needles to say I was pretty keen on joining her for one of her countless christmas cookie baking sessions in the first days of every December. Not sure if I was of big help to her - carrying around young bunnies and nibbling away from all the cookie trays coming straight from the oven…

With the egg whites as a basis for the cookie dough (would batter be more adequate?), I suppose they qualify as macarons. An important difference: They are prepared in no time and their outward appearance is not crucial, no uniform shapes are required! Taste-wise often underrated, because eaten still warm, they simply melt in your mouth and are a delicious treat. A little aged (one to two weeks) their “biting experience” changes, they’ll burst into lots of crumbly, dry chunks when you bite into them. Of course they are still fine (kept in a tin can), it’s just that these are typically the first cookies I make each year, so they usually never pass the 3rd or 4th day. via DeliciousDays.com

NICKY'S MOTHER'S SPECIAL WASPS' NEST MACARONS

Ingredients:

• 120g almonds, coarsely chopped or better: gestiftelt (is there an English expression?)
• 75g sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 100g dark chocolate, grated
• for decoration: melted chocolate

Yields around 40 pieces. For the recipe, visit DeliciousDays.com,

- Lesley Scott

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