A traditional American dessert based on Italian macaroons is easy to prepare, incredibly tasty and satisfying enough for a small snack with a cup of aromatic tea. We offer you to try out several macaroon recipes that are easy to execute in the home kitchen.

Macaroons - the history of Italian pastries

According to legend, the recipe was created by Carmelite nuns. The monastery has always had very strict rules not only regarding the life of the girls, but also on the diet. One of them said that the sisters could not eat dishes with meat, but in return they should eat almonds, because it is very healthy and nutritious. Two young novices have figured out how to get around strict rules and diversify fresh food. They made sweet cookies from almond flour.

The first macaroons became the basis of modern macaroons. Subsequently, the recipe became known in different countries, confectioners began to experiment with the composition and method of preparation. For example, Americans have replaced classic almond flour with coconut flakes. And today, coconut macaroons have become one of the most popular simple and delicious desserts.

Classic macaroon recipe

  • 2 egg whites;
  • 200 g coconut flakes or chips;
  • 100 g of sugar;
  • 3 g of almond extract (if it is not possible to purchase, dry vanillin or extract is suitable).

How to make macaroon:

  1. Turn on the oven 170 degrees. On a baking sheet, spread the parchment and evenly distribute the coconut. Put in the oven so that the chips are slightly fried. 3 minutes is enough.
  2. Beat a thick mass of eggs and sugar.In the process, it will slightly increase in volume, but you do not need to bring it to splendor, like a cream for meringues.
  3. Stir the fried chips and cream using a spatula. The result is a fairly dense and slightly porous structure.
  4. We cover the baking sheet with greased parchment oil. On top of it we lay out manually formed coconut balls, slightly flattening them. Put the billet in the oven for about a quarter of an hour and bake.

Remove the macaroons from the pan when they cool.

On a note. If you want to give a special taste to a coconut delicacy, add a few drops of lemon juice, peppermint extract or other aromatic additives to the whisk of the protein mass. The use of 1 - 2 drops of food coloring is also allowed.

On the Italian merengue

For Italian meringue, you need to take the following components:

  • 100 g egg white;
  • 200 g of sugar;
  • 100 ml of water.

Cooking is very simple:

  1. First of all, we prepare the syrup by heating the water and diluting sugar in it. The syrup should boil, after which you can turn off the fire.
  2. When the sugar has completely dissolved, leave the composition so that its temperature drops slightly.
  3. Beat the whites until soft peaks.
  4. By this time, the syrup should have cooled slightly. Pour it in a thin stream into the protein mixture and continue to whisk. You get a thick sweet mass with a uniform smooth texture.
  5. Next, add the remaining components, depending on what macaroons you plan to cook - coconut, chopped nut, almond flour, dyes and flavorings.

Important! To create a natural dessert taste, you need to prepare a mixture of 1 part of a dry component (flour, starch or albumin) and 9 parts of a wet product (juice, fruit puree). Proportions must be observed in order not to violate the structure of the meringue.

With butter cream

Perhaps the easiest and most common cream is cream.

It always turns out and goes well with any sweet pastries:

  • pack of cold oil;
  • cream - 1 tbsp. l .;
  • vanilla - 1 tsp;
  • icing sugar - 350 - 400 g.

The cream is prepared very quickly: first, beat the smooth, fluffy mass of oil and powder, and then add the vanilla and cream and whip again. Use such a composition immediately.

On a note. When assembling the cake in the cream, you can put fresh berries. Another option is to prepare a thick fruit puree and mix with the base (butter cream).

Italian Chocolate Ganache Cakes

An ideal chocolate ganache consists of only two components:

  • 100 g of dark chocolate;
  • 200 ml of cream from 33%.

The cream itself is unrealistically simple to prepare: you just need to put pieces of chocolate in the heated cream. Then, stirring, bring the composition to homogeneity. The mass should not be hot, make it pleasantly warm.

If you want to form a more airy structure, beat the chocolate mass with a mixer. However, before doing this, it is important to let the ganache cool.

Ready macaroons can only be covered with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with powder or coconut.

On a note. Finely crushed walnut can be added to chocolate. You can also experiment with the chocolate itself - use milk or white. In this case, reduce the amount of cream from that indicated in the recipe by 50 or 100 ml, respectively.

Mint Macaroons

Macaroon cake with a mint note:

  • ⅓ Art. coconut flakes;
  • the same amount of sugar;
  • 1 ½ - 2 tbsp. l premium flour;
  • ½ tsp vanilla or vanilla sugar;
  • a pinch of fine salt;
  • 2 egg whites in raw form;
  • ¼ tsp peppermint extract;
  • a slice of oil to prepare the pan.

Cooking is very fast:

  1. Immediately set the oven to warm up to 160 degrees.
  2. The baking sheet is either covered with parchment greased with oil, or we process the form itself with oil.
  3. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, stirring them well with a spoon.
  4. Beat the protein mass with peppermint additive until airy and introduce the dry mass into it, gently stirring with a spatula until the products are evenly distributed.
  5. Using a spoon, spread small balls of dough on a baking sheet or parchment.
  6. Bake about a third of an hour.

If desired, the finished cooled macaroons can be dipped in melted chocolate. It is believed that the combination of dark chocolate and a fresh note of mint is very unusual and original.

Lemon dessert

For cream:

  • 1 lemon fruit;
  • 1 lime;
  • 1 tsp corn starch;
  • 80 g of sugar;
  • 2 eggs;
  • 100 g of soft oil.

Description of the preparation:

  1. Rinse citrus fruits well, peel them. From the pulp we prepare fresh juice.
  2. In one bowl, combine starch with sugar and dilute with juice. Stir thoroughly so that the dry ingredients absorb moisture well.
  3. We put the composition in a water bath and warm it so that the sugar dissolves in the workpiece.
  4. We beat the eggs in turn, whisking the mass with a whisk, without removing from the stove. Stir for a few more minutes and spread the butter.
  5. We remove the mass from the fire and quickly work through the mixer. Then let cool, tighten with foil and cool in the refrigerator for several hours.

Macaroon and pasta, what is the difference

Many have heard about macaroons and macaroni. Unknowingly, we can assume that this is one and the same, and the difference in pronunciation is caused by difficulties in translation. In fact, these are completely different desserts. The difference between macaroon and pasta is not only in one letter of the name, but also in the method of their preparation, and in appearance.

If you delve into history, it turns out that the ancestor of both delicacies is a simple Italian macaroon. The name comes from the Italian ammaccare, which means “squeeze”, “crush” in translation.

But over time, almond cakes became known throughout the world, especially in France. In French style, the name began to sound makaron, and local chefs experimentally improved the dough, making it airy and lush, like meringue. So, macaroni, popular today, appeared - a cake made of two moist inside, but crispy outside cookies with a perfectly smooth surface, glued together with cream.

It is interesting. Only in the French MacDonalds can you find macaroni dessert.

But in the UK, Italian cakes were called makaroon. Subsequently, macaroons were very fond of the Americans and became their traditional dessert in most cafes.

Macaroon looks completely different - it's a crispy, slightly thick cookie. That's just the Americans began to use coconut flakes as a base, and sometimes they add chopped nuts to them. Unlike its relative, macaroons are very satisfying and more dense in structure.

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