1 cup sugar, confectioners
1 cup almond paste
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Beat egg whites until stiff. Mix thoroughly with almond paste and
salt. Add sugar and beat thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto
slightly oiled baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375 F) about 15
minutes. Remove from oven. Set baking sheet on wet towel for a few
minutes. Remove macaroons with a wide spatula. The almond paste may
be made by pounding 2 1/2 cups shelled blanched almonds until a paste
is formed.
The Household Searchlight
Servings: 36 cookies
Almond Macaroons Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cookie; Nut
The History of Recipes
Historians have found proof that recipes existed far back into distant history, certainly as far as early Egypt, and potentially, even further back. Having said that, sadly, these ancient recipes were just simple pictorial recipes for meal preparation.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are some tablets in ancient Sumerian which describe the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel wonderful and blissful. Later on, in Roman times 25BC a roman called Apicius wrote a few documents detailing recipes prepared by wealthy roman citizens. In his works, Apicius tells us how the meals were divided into appetizers, main course and dessert, something we still use today. Additionally, he tells us how the Roman cooks made use of many different aromatic flavours, including some familiar names for example bay, rue and asafoetida. Closer to modern times, we find a couple of cookery books which appeared in the fourteenth century - one book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, these two books are not about the indian food that is familiar to us all today, but rather recipes for the types of food cooked for the rich and wealthy people of the time. In the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and herbs from middle-east cuisine, including spices like coriander, basil and rosemary. These new spices and herbs led to an increase in recipe manuscripts, most of which still exist in private collections. During the succeeding few hundred years, the powerful and wealthy competed to lay on the most exotic meals, and because of this the best chefs and their recipes were highly sought after. Even so, it was during the nineteenth century that fine cookery and recipe books became really popular. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to collating, trying out, and writing down the recipes of their peers. By the arrival of the 1900s, cook books were highly popular mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having increased spare time and being a little richer. |
We hope you enjoy this Almond Macaroons recipe.
