Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Macaroons

Almond macaroons are made by blanching almonds, mixing them with egg whites and sugar, then baking until pale brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds, then wipe them dry.

  2. Place the almonds in a cool oven to dry completely.

  3. Pound the almonds into a smooth paste with a little egg white.

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth.

  2. Gradually mix in the sugar with the egg whites.

Combine and bake

  1. Combine the almond paste with the egg and sugar mixture, whisking well.

  2. Drop the mixture onto wafer paper.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until pale brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the paste that gives the macaroons body.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Egg whites
Whipped to a foam, they give the macaroons lightness and bind the paste together.

The step that matters

Drying the almonds in the cool oven. Almonds that retain moisture make the paste wetter and the macaroons spread or turn dense. Drying them fully keeps the mixture stable and the texture light.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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 almond macaroons recipes

Bitter 9 See all 89 →

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes