Look! Sweet and healthful, too

More and more people I know are turning away from wheat  products, either because they’re allergic to them, they’re on a low-carb diet, they have celiac disease or they simply find that eating wheat makes them feel bloated.

Once you start to look for them, there are alternatives to wheat. Cornmeal, obviously. Potato flour, apparently. One I hadn’t thought of before: almond flour.

I came across this ingredient by accident, while reading a recipe for French macarons, which are light and chewy little cookies that look like flat Easter eggs. They’re made with almond flour.

You can learn a lot about almond flour online at the gluten-free Web site, Elanaspantry.com. Elana Amsterdam and her young son are both allergic to wheat. She has created a blog devoted to cooking without it (her “Gluten-free Almond Flour Cookbook†was published in 2009).

On her Web site, Amsterdam explains that almond flour is not only an alternative to wheat, it’s also high in protein (a quarter cup of almonds has more protein than an egg), low in carbohydrates and low in sugar. It’s a good choice  for people with diabetes and others who want to eat foods with a low-glycemic index; and it’s relatively easy to digest, and good for people with irritable bowel syndrome.

Almonds are generally considered a kind of nutritional wonderfood. They have high levels of magnesium (which improves the flow of blood and oxygen in your body) and potassium; lots of cancer-fighting antioxidants; and even though they’re high in calories, people tend to lose weight when they eat them regularly. Almonds are also a good source of calcium.

You can buy almond flour online; Elana’s pantry has a list of sources. She warns against using Bob’s Red Mill, which is generally an excellent line. She finds it makes her baked goods runny.

If you’re not using loads and loads of almond flour, it’s pretty easy to make your own. First, be sure to use blanched, slivered almonds (no skin). Whirl them in your food processor for a few minutes, frequently stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom, until they are uniformly ground. Be careful not to leave them in too long or they’ll turn into almond paste. The finished product will be grainier than regular wheat flour, but that’s OK.

This recipe for macarons is from an article in the December 2009 issue of Food and Wine. I tried two different recipes this week, and this one is the best. It’s very simple, but it has a few super-fussy steps; Those steps will lead you to a genuinely better macaron and shouldn’t be avoided. The full Food and Wine article is a step-by-step with chef Francois Payard; you can find it online.

These cookies are meant to be filled but they’re delicious without filling. If you do want to fill them, use buttercream, a chocolate sauce, raspberry jam, lemon curd (which you can make with the leftover egg yolks) or dulce de leche.

Macarons

                                                                     About 10 cookie sandwiches  

 adapted from Food and Wine magazine, Francois Payard

1 cup blanched, slivered

almonds

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

3 large egg whites, room

temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons water

2-3 drops red food coloring

In a food processor, grind the almonds into flour. One cup of almonds should give you one cup of almond flour. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the almond flour and confectioners’ sugar with one (unbeaten) egg white, just until the dry ingredients are all moistened (you’ll need to  stop and stir a few times). Remove to another bowl, a fairly large one. Clean and dry your beaters and mixing bowl.

These next two steps must be done at the same time. Beat two egg whites at medium speed until they are fluffy and form soft peaks. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan on medium-high heat, bring the granulated sugar and the water to a boil (use a moist pastry brush to wipe down the sides of the saucepan if you get any sugar spatter). If you have a candy thermometer, you want to bring the syrup to 240 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, you want all the sugar to have dissolved and you want big fat, vigorous bubbles to be popping in the syrup for at least 15 seconds.

Turn the mixer to high speed and then carefully pour the (scalding hot) syrup into the egg whites and beat for less than a minute, until the whites are firm and glossy. Be careful not to overbeat. Add in a few drops of red food coloring at the end (you can use other colors, of course, but the red seems to work best, especially if you fill the cookies with raspberry  jam).

You’ll be tempted to skip this next step. Don’t. Mix one quarter of the pink egg whites into the almond flour paste. This won’t be easy. Be delicate but determined, because the paste is hard and the egg whites are soft. Mix them all together. Once that’s accomplished, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

At this point you can spoon the batter into a pastry bag, or a heavy resealable plastic bag (cut the corner off when you’re ready to squeeze out the batter). But I found it was just as easy to use two spoons to make circles of batter on the parchment paper. These cookies should be about 2 inches in diameter. Size does make a difference here; too big and they aren’t pretty, too small and they don’t get the right mix of crunchiness and chewiness. Don’t put them too close together because they will spread a little. I leave at least an inch on all sides. Try as much as possible to drop the batter into circles.

You’ll be tempted to skip this step, too. Don’t. Once the batter is on the trays, tap the trays lightly two or three times on your counter. And then let them sit for at least 15 minutes, or as long as an hour. This lets them form a glossy shell, and it keeps them from spreading too much in the oven.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put the cookie trays in the oven. Turn off the oven for five minutes (if you leave the cookies in at a steady 400 degrees, the tops will turn brown). Then turn it back on, to 400 degrees, and bake for another five minutes or so. Keep a close eye on them because when they begin to overbake, the tops crack.

After you take them out of the oven, let them cool on the tray on wire racks; then carefully lift them off the parchment paper.

These cookies theoretically stay fresh for up to a week. But, unless you hide them, they’ll be gone within 24 hours.