Limoncello Macarons

Macarons are a French cookie made with almond flour so they are gluten free! They come in many different flavors and they are absolutely delicious. They are pretty labor intensive to make traditionally so when I saw this simple recipe on 101 cookbooks, I had to try making them. Check out the site for much prettier pictures. Macarons are absolutely addictive though-I'm warning you now!

14 ounces almond paste (found at Whole Foods)
1 large egg white
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for shaping cookies
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp limoncello
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt

I used 2 tubes of Odense almond paste. I will definitely be looking up how to make it myself though. The almond paste is thick, so I recommend using an electric mixer.

Back to the directions. First, blend the almond paste with the egg white and the powdered sugar until creamy. The mixture will be thick. Then add the almond extract, lemon zest, limoncello, and salt until thoroughly mixed.

Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. The author rolled out the dough into logs and then sliced them to make little pillow shaped macarons, but I just dropped a teaspoonful of dough into a bowl of powdered sugar to coat it. Then, making sure your fingers are covered with powdered sugar, pinch the dough into a pyramid shape. The cookies can be placed closely together since they don't really expand while baking.

Bake each tray for about 15 minutes until lightly golden brown on the top. You can barely tell the difference between the baked ones and the raw ones because of the powdered sugar.

Let cool for about 2 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto drying racks. It's a little tricky to get them off of the paper but it just requires some patience and a metal spatula. Of course, you can eat the broken ones!
The cookies should be slightly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Store in a sealed tupperware container. These can also be frozen. They are pretty good eaten frozen too since they just melt in your mouth.