To Make Macaroons

The Saturday night potluck at events seems to be a growing trend. While I am sure for many these meals provide not only an opportunity to demonstrate period cooking to the public, but a much needed fill up after a long day of activities and an excuse to socialize with your neighboring camps, they are more stressful than enjoyable for me. I generally find myself with no time to prepare even basic foods for myself or L, much less time to prepare something for a shared meal. Plus, I have never been very good at knowing what to bring to a potluck, add keeping things historically accurate and I find myself completely lost. For the past year The Pie and it's variations has been my Saturday potluck friend and frankly, I'm tired of pies.

Please welcome my new potluck savior, the macaroon.

To make Macaroons New England Manner- TAKE half a pound of almonds and as much double refined fugar beat and fifted lay the almonds in water all night blanch and dry them well in a cloth beat them in a mortar with a little rofe water take the whites of two eggs beat to a froth and fift the fugar into the eggs put in the almonds and drop them upon wafer duft them over with fugar.
In the interest of time, and sheer laziness, I followed a modern recipe with the following modifications suggested by the highly skilled Boulanger: lower the cooking temperature to between 325'-350', and bake for about 20 minutes. Further, the macaroons will have a more distinct puff, and not spread Willy nilly all over the baking sheet, if the batter is allowed to sit for 30 minutes prior to baking. I substituted orange extract for the original rose water, which gave the cookies a nice fragrance without overwhelming them.

I'm pleased to announce that not only were these easy to make, but they traveled extremely well and even remained crispy and delicious after sitting out all night!

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works cited:
Charlotte Mason, The lady's assistant for regulating and supplying her table, 1777, p. 377

Comments

  1. very cool! thanks! i def want to try them out! i usually use the bake oven at our site so this will work great!

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