Afternoon tea recipes Archives

Afternoon tea

Nutty Wheat, sweet potato, orange and dark chocolate bundt cake with milk chocolate ganache and white chocolate shavings

1 hour

Afternoon tea

Gooey brown-sugar meringues with white chocolate mousse and coffee syrup

45 minutes

Afternoon tea

Milk stout-and-chocolate cake with butterscotch sauce, caramel chocolate shards and dark chocolate icing

30 minutes

Afternoon tea

Classic vanilla cupcakes

20 - 25 minutes

Italian macaroons (macarons)

Serves about 40 macarons

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cooking Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the base

300 g ground almonds
300 g icing sugar
110 g egg whites (about 3 eggs)
food colouring of your choice

For the Italian meringue and sugar syrup

110 g egg whites
330 g caster sugar
100 ml water

Method

Preheat the oven to 140°C and line 3 large baking trays with baking paper.

To make the base, sift almond flour and icing sugar three times through a fine sieve and adjust the weight so that you have a total of 600 g.

Mix in the egg whites and add food colourant or flavourant. (This is from about 3 eggs, but it is vital that you weigh it out.)

To make the Italian meringue, using an electric beater whisk 110 g egg whites until foamy. Add the 30g castor sugar

To make the sugar syrup, in a medium saucepan heat the 300 g castor sugar and water to 113°C and pour in a thin stream into the lightly whipped egg whites. Whisk until completely cool.

Fold the italian meringue into the almond mixture until you achieve a 'sea creature' consistency - it should be sagging and 'relaxed', like molten lava. It takes about 40 turns using a rubber spatula and is called 'macaronage' which essentially means knocking the air out of the egg whites.

Scoop mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 8-mm and pipe onto the lined baking trays.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely.

Cook's notes: Pipe a filling of your choice, such as chocolate ganache, on one shell and sandwich with another. You can also use cream cheese mixed with berries, lemon curd or salted caramel or a simple butter filling made with 100 g soft butter mixed with 5 T caster sugar and optional food colouring and flavourings. Click here for more filling ideas from Abigail's French macarons article.

For flavourings, you can add a teaspoon of pistachio paste, or, for a coffee flavour, dissolve 1 1/2 teaspoons espresso powder in 1/2 teaspoon warm water.

TASTE'S take

This recipe for classic Italian macarons was created by TASTE expert contributor, Chef Monché Muller. Read up on all her tips and tricks for perfecting Italian macarons (aka macaroons!).

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Italian macaroons (macarons)

Italian macaroons (macarons)

Ingredients

Method