From Donuts to Delirium

If you don’t have an iPhone, what are you waiting for daaaaaahling? I mean, once you have one, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. It is as indispensable to me as Mr P’s credit card, I tell you.  It is quite simply one of the coolest things I own. Some girls say they feel naked without a swipe of lipstick, but I feel that way about my iPhone. One really fun feature of an iPhone is that you can download all kinds of cool applications on it. A recent app to become available was one by Nigella Lawson. I thought £5 was quite a lot for an app, I mean they are usually a lot less, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I purchased it– I told you, Mr P’s credit card has many uses.  I’ve got to say Nigella Lawson’s app, is beautifully done. Every recipe has a picture, and some even have videos! It’s incredibly user friendly, and a pleasure to use. My only real complaint is that I wish there were more recipes, as there are only 70 (10 of which are from her newest book which is yet to be released). I do hope that there will be some updates in the future.

Well, I thought the best way to test the app was to actually make one of her recipes. I chose one which I thought would be relatively simple, but I didn’t find it as easy as I would have hoped. In the fist batch of chewy macaroons that went into the oven, all the macaroons kind of melted into one big mess. That was my fault for not spacing them far enough apart. Another problem was that they were so sticky that I couldn’t even get them to come off my silicone baking liner! The trick is to let them cool completely on the liner before trying to remove them.

These macaroons were very pleasant, with a crispiness around the edges. They were chewy and had  a slight scent of rosewater. They were good, but in all honesty, I didn’t love them enough to make them again. If you’d like to try your hand at these, here’s the recipe. It makes about 20 cookies.

Nigella’s Chewy Macaroons

Ingredients

• 200g ground almonds
• 200g caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of finely ground cardamom (optional)
• 2 egg whites
• 1-2 tablespoons of rosewater
• blanched almonds for decoration

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F and line a pan with baking parchment.

Mix together almonds, sugar, ground cardamom and egg whites. Knead with your hands or use the flat beater in a freestanding mixer until you have a coherent paste.

Sprinkle some rosewater onto your hands and, thus scented and dampened, form little balls- about the size of small walnuts- out of the grainy thick paste.

As you put them on the lined baking sheet- about 3cm apart- squish them down slightly so that they are more like flat little patties. Stud the centre of each macaroon with a blanched almond.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, and remove from the oven when they are starting to turn a pale golden colour around the edges. Let them cool on a baking sheet.