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Dessert

Spanish Macaroons

A sweet almond-based cookie made with blanched almonds, powdered sugar, rice flour, eggs, and flavored with almond or vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Spanish Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Pound the blanched almonds and powdered sugar together until fine.

  2. Add the rice flour and egg yolks, and beat until creamy.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  4. Flavor the mixture with almond or vanilla extract.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto white paper in desired sizes.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and coarse sugar.

  3. Bake immediately in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Almond + nutstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the macaroon.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, smooth texture when pounded with almonds.
Rice flour
Adds light structure so the macaroons hold their shape while baking.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture, helping the batter bind and turn creamy.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the batter and help it rise in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Folding keeps the air trapped in the whipped egg whites. Vigorous stirring deflates the batter, so the macaroons spread flat and bake up dense instead of light.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, rice, flour, egg):

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, rice, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More macaroons recipes

Almond 89Coconut 62Chocolate 43Oatmeal 33Hickory Nut 16Peanut 11 See all 48 →

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