I made these today with my newly found skills. They are raspberry. The basic recipe is taken from this amazing book.

Three main tricks:

1. The egg whites need to be at room temperature before you start.
2. Be very careful when you fold in the almonds and icing sugar. Cut the mixture in half with a spatula and then sweep underneath the mixture then turn the bowl.
3. Draw circles on the baking paper to act as a guide to make your piping neater.

These went a little bit wrong but not as much as the ones before. Next time, the oven needs to be cooler. I reckon 140C will be about right. Still – they are a second attempt I can be proud of.

I feel a category dedicated to macrons will be in order soon.

It was the absolute perfect gift as I’ve tried so many times to make these but failed miserably. It turns out that sucess is mostly determined by the consistency of the meringue mixture. The picture below is of the compeleted chocolate and coconut macarons.

A very heartening first attempt and a massive improvement on all previous attempts. Watch this space.

These are rather decadent for biscotti. I love coffee so always need something to dunk. I find american cookies too rich and english biscuits too plain. This seems a happy compromise. Yum.

Makes 50

200g plain flour (and some for kneading)
150g caster sugar
60g cocoa
100g roasted macadamia nuts
3 medium eggs, beaten
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Place the cocoa, flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and pull together in to a dough.
2. Cover the dough in flour and knead in the macadamia nuts. Split the dough into 4 pieces and shape each one in to a roll about 3cm wide and 30cm long.
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with greasproof paper and then bake for 25 mins. Allow to cool.
4. Use a serrated knife to cut the rolls in to pieces 1.5cm wide and place on the baking sheet. Bake for another 15 mins.

The biscuits will keep for up to 10 days in an airtight container.

It goes:

250g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
300g self raising flour
175g milk chocolate (the fancier the better), broken by hand
50g peanuts, halved roughly

Makes 16

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan oven 160C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
2. Beat together the sugars and butter until fluffy.
3. Stir in the flour and milk. Combine and then add the chocolate and peanuts.
4. Seperate the mixture into 16 pieces and roll in to balls. Place on the baking sheets and flatten slightly so the dough is about 5cm across but don’t squash too much. Leave space between pieces to allow for speading.
5. Bake for 7 mins and then turn. Bake for another 7 mins.
6. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 mins and then transfer to a cooling rack.