Macadamia-Lime Marzipan Macaroons with Honey

No eggs, no flour, no dairy, no sugar.

This recipe is quite simple to make and takes little time. You can vary the amount of honey and lime to taste. Use a local honey. Tallow wood is good in Australia, Linden in Europe.

Get
500 g organic macadamia nuts, raw
8 tbsp honey, e.g. tallow wood, or linden, lime flowers
3-4 limes

Do
Grate nuts finely with a hand grater. Add honey and mix in. Add enough of the lime juice to make a paste. It should hold all the gratings together. The paste is quite sticky.
Preheat the oven to 180°c. Oil 2 baking trays (use macadamia oil or butter).
Use 2 spoons to form the paste into almost oval shaped pieces and place them on the baking dishes.
Bake for 12 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom until slightly golden. Turn off oven. Leave in open oven for another 10 minutes.
Remove from baking trays onto plates.
Cool.
These macaroons are quite moist because of the lime juice. Store on a plate wrapped in a linen cloth to prevent them becoming soggy.
An alternative presentation is to spread the paste onto the baking trays and cut it into rectangles when it is baked.

Serve with herbal tea, such as Lemon-scented verbena, Lime flowers , Lemon Myrtle, (Backhousia citriodora) or any other drink you fancy
Alterations for the southern hemisphere could be to use Australian limes, such as Citrus glauca, C. australasica or C. australis

Lemon slices

This is a new recipe for lemon slices which we developed while living next to a few well-endowed lemon trees. The slices are very juicy and the filling is very thick. It is an alternative to the lemon slices recipe previously published, but more time consuming.

get
300 g light wholemeal flour
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
140 g butter

500 g almonds
5 tbsp honey
4 juicy lemons

7 tbsp icing sugar

do
Add honey then egg in the middle of the flour in a bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon into a paste and then into the flour. Add butter in flakes. Knead to a pastry. If it is sticky add more flour. If it is too dry, add more butter. Cool for 15 minutes covered with a linen cloth (tea towel).
Blanch almonds. Grate finely with a hand grater.
Grate the lemon peel into the almond meal. Add the juice of 3.5 lemons. Add the honey. Mix to a sticky paste.Sieve the icing sugar. Add lemon juice slowly until it is a thick liquid while mixing with a spoon. If there is too much lemon juice add the rest to the almond paste.
Preheat the oven at 190°c. Butter two baking trays.
Roll out half of the pastry on a linen tea towel. Turn it over from time to time and use the tea towel to fold over and straighten the the edges. Roll out a thin pastry, rectangular if your baking tray is rectangular. When it is as thin as possible, turn it again and cut into the pastry along the middle so two identical rectangles are mirrored by the cut.
Spread half of the almond paste on one side evenly, right to the edges. Use the tea towel to lift to other side onto the first so it fits exactly. Use the flat edge of a knife to press the almond paste inside the pastry, straightening the edges.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes on the second shelf from the bottom.
Remove from the oven and paint with half of the icing while hot. Allow to cool.
Repeat with the other half of the pastry and the rest of the almond paste.
When cool, or before serving, cut off edges for private use. Cut into slices about 2 x 6 cm for public presentation.Store on a plate wrapped in a fine linen cloth. Linen is highly absorbent so the biscuits will remain dry. Do not put in a tin or under a bowl or they will go soggy quickly. Use fine linen to prevent linen fibre getting on the biscuits.


Macadamia Lemon Slices without icing