Thanks to MasterChef and Adriano Zumbo, the french Macaron has become the sweet treat du jour. A notoriously tricky confection, the success of a Macaron depends on using ‘old’ egg whites, not folding too much, and getting all the rounds exactly the right size.

Why would you bother, when the less-glamorous (but just as tasty) macaroon gives you the same wonderful nutty sweetness and gooey, chewy inside?

Chef Vicki Davis of Petit Pois Catering whipped up these amazing Pistachio Macaroons for the HerCanberra and Handmade Canberra International Women’s Day event, and they went down an absolute treat! Sweet, but not overly so, they are incredibly moreish!

Vicki is kindly sharing her usually top secret recipe with HerCanberra readers…trust me, you’ll be glad she did!

what you need

2 egg whites

125gms shelled pistachio nuts, ground

20gms rice flour

160gms caster sugar

1 pinch of cream of tartar

Green food colour (optional – I don’t use it)

what to do

Preheat oven to 160C then cover baking trays with non-stick paper.

Using a clean bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

Mix the ground pistachios , rice flour, sugar and cream of tartar together. With a metal spoon, fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites (this can be rough as it’s just getting the ingredients incorporated).

Then, gently fold in the rest of the eggs whites, in two batches. If you decide to add the food colouring, now is the time to do it!

Place teaspoons full of the mixture on baking trays (leaving space to spread) and allow to sit for 10mins prior to putting into the oven.

Bake for 20mins or until just firm to the touch. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cooling rack. This will let them crisp on the bottom and stay deliciously chewy and moist on the inside!

Vicki’s tip

Use whole pistachios and blend until ground, almost to a paste. This will truly give an incredible pistachio flavour that you just can replicate with pre-packaged ground nuts.