I feel like I am pretty late to the Biscoff party; I can’t quite remember when the penny dropped, that the delicious complementary biscuits you get in hotels/hairdressers had been turned in to something you that you could now spread on top of your morning toast. It is now a staple item in my kitchen, often being dolloped on top of porridge, granola, or sometimes just eaten straight out of the jar.
It had been a while since I made macarons and as they can be finicky little things, I was slightly worried I might have lost my touch! However I must say that I was actually pretty happy with how these turned out.
Makes 12
Ingredients:
For the shells:
100g Icing Sugar
50g Ground Almonds
1 Tablespoon of Cocoa Powder
25g Caster Sugar
62g Egg Whites
Lotus Biscuits
PME ‘Old Gold’ Gel Colouring
For the Filling:
A jar of Lotus Biscoff Spread
Method:
1. Set the oven to 150°C/ 300 F/ Gas Mark 2
2. To make the shells…Sieve the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa powder in to a bowl, discarding any bits of almond that wont go through the sieve.
3. Separate your eggs, discarding the yolks and keeping the whites.
4. Whisk the egg whites and caster sugar together until you have a stiff glossy meringue. It helps if you add the caster sugar a bit at a time.
5. Whisk a small amount food colouring into the meringue, until the colour is evenly distributed and resembles a golden colour. When this mixes with the cocoa powder in the dry ingredients it will make a biscoffy caramel colour.
6. Now for the slightly tricky bit; Tip your dry ingredients into the meringue mix and using a spatula, begin to gently fold the dry mix into the wet.
7. You want to keep doing this until the dry mix is totally incorporated into the wet meringue mix. Pick up your spatula with some of the mixture on it and then let it run off- you want it to fall from the spatula like a ribbon and leave a trail on the surface of the mix in the bowl. Knowing when it’s done can be quite tricky, but I would say that under mixed is better than over mixed.
8. Once you are happy with the mixture, pour it into a piping bag and cut a small hole into the tip.
9. Now it’s time to pipe your shells. I found a macaron template online which I printed off and lay on my baking tray. You then just need to lay some non stick baking paper on top and you should be able to see the outline of the circle to guide you.
10. Crush up some Lotus Biscuits and sprinkle on top of the wet macaron shells.
11. You now need to leave the shells out in the open for 20-30 minutes so that they form a shiny top. They are ready when you can touch the top of the shell and the mix doesn’t stick to your finger.
12. Once you are satisfied that they have a shiny top you need to put them in the oven for 12-14 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven leave them to cool before trying to handle them, as they can be quite delicate while they are still warm.
13. Once they are cool you need to sandwich the shells together with Biscoff spread. I used a piping bag to do this, but you can also just spread it on with a knife.
14. I also drizzled some Biscoff spread over the top of the macarons but this is entirely optional. Just warm a bit up in the microwave and drizzle it over the macarons using a teaspoon or piping bag.
Crumble and Crunch 