FOOD

Lady grey tea with raspberry macarons

LADY GREY TEA IS A BLACK TEA, SCENTED WITH OIL OF BERGAMOT AND A HINT OF LEMON AND ORANGE. PAIR IT WITH DELECTABLE RASPBERRY MACARONS FOR A VERY SPECIAL AFTERNOON TEA TREAT.

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I N G R E D I E NT S 1¾ cups icing sugar 1 ¹ Ŗ ³ cups ground almonds or almond meal 4 large egg whites a pinch of salt ½ cup caster sugar red food colouring gel ¾ cup high fruit-content raspberry jam

UTENSILS a food processor 2 or 3 baking sheets, lined with baking parchment a piping bag

Extracted from

Tea & Cake, perfect pairings for brews and bakes by Liz Franklin, published by Ryland, Peters & Small Ltd

FOR 1 POT OF TEA 5 teaspoons Lady Grey tea

Warm the teapot and add the tea. Pour in boiling water and leave to brew for 5 minutes or so. Serve with lemon.

METHOD

Draw 4 cm circles (spaced a little apart) on the baking parchment as templates so that all the macarons come out the same size; they’ll look much prettier when finished.

Blitz the icing sugar and almonds in a food processor until very fine, then push the mixture through a finemeshed sieve. Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites and salt together until stiff and glossy. Add the sugar, about a third at a time, beating again each time, until the eggs are stiff and glossy, and all the sugar has been incorporated.

Carefully but thoroughly fold the almond mixture into the egg whites, until fully incorporated but still light. Fold in enough food colouring to achieve the desired pink colour. Spoon the mixture into a large piping/pastry bag and pipe circles onto the parchment, following the circles you drew earlier.

When all the macarons have been piped, take hold of the baking sheet and tap it firmly on the work surface 2 or 3 times to knock out any air bubbles. Preheat the oven to 140°C (275°F) and leave the baking sheets to stand for 30 minutes.

Bake the macarons for about 15 minutes, until the shells are crisp, and they have grown little ‘feet’. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once completely cool, sandwich with the raspberry jam and serve.