Macaroons

Anna Olson's delectable French macaroons topped with chopped pistachios. Makes about 3 dozen macaroons.

Preparation time: 30 minutes 
Cooking time: 20 minutes 
Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 2 cups sliced almonds
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 3 large egg whites
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• food coloring paste – pink and green
• crushed pink peppercorns
• chopped pistachios

Directions

1. In a food processor, puree almonds with ½ cup icing sugar until very fine and pour into a bowl. Stir in remaining 1 cup icing sugar.
2. Whip egg whites with salt in a clean bowl until foamy, then add sugar and continue to whip until whites hold a stiff peak.
3. Stir almonds into whipped whites in 2 additions. Add food colouring in small amounts (and split macaroon batter into smaller bowls if you wish to add a variety of colours).
4. Spoon batter into a piping bag fitted with a ½-inch plain tip, and pipe batter into ¾-inch “kisses” onto a parchment-lined baking tray, leaving an inch between each macaroon.
5. Top pink macaroons with a little sprinkle of crushed pink peppercorns and green macaroons with chopped pistachios. Let macaroons sit to dry for 20 minutes.
6. In the meantime, preheat oven to 300 F.
7. Bake macaroons for about 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through cooking, until edges and tops of macaroons are visibly dry but not browned.
8. Let macaroons cool on tray before removing.