Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 3 tablespoons caster sugar
- raspberry jam
-150 g icing sugar
- 100 g peanut butter
- 75 g butter
(I know there's a mix of American cups and English metric measurements, but I used two different recipes...)
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and line some baking sheets with greaseproof baking paper.
2) Unfortunately, pain in the arse, blanch the peanuts if they have shells - they need to not have anything but pure nut. This is time consuming but essential. Once shelled, blitz into a very fine crumb/powder. Add in a cup of icing sugar and blitz to combine.
3) Whisk the egg whites and caster sugar together until there are soft peaks. Fold in half the peanut/sugar mixture, until combined, then fold through the remaining half.
4) Transfer this mixture into a piping bag and pipe mounds of the mixture into about the circumference of a 2 pence piece. Once all the mixture has been piped, tap the sheets on the side to help the batter settle. Leave the macarons for about 15 minutes to allow a skin to form on the top.
5) Bake the macarons for about 15 minutes, until crisp. Allow them to cool.
To make the filling...
6) Mix the peanut butter, butter and icing sugar until a buttercream has been made.
To complete the the macarons...
7) Spread about half a teaspoon of buttercream onto the flat side of one macaron, add a smear of jam, and sandwich with another macaron. Repeat until you have a complete batch.
These sweet treats are light as air and incredibly moreish. I would be inclined to make the batter even more peanutty next time - and I definitely need to refine the smooth top of my macarons!