Amaretti

Preparation Time: 10 minutes approx
Makes around 15-20 small ones

2 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar
drop of almond essence
1 cup almond meal
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons of plain flour
blanched almonds to top each

Rub butter on a flat oven tray or you can use grease proof paper.

Preheat the oven to around 150 degrees fan forced.

Place egg whites and the cream of tartar into a mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form.  Then add almond essence while beating and then the sugar.  Keep beating until its glossy and kind of thick.

Gently fold in the almond flour and the plain flour and stir until combined.  Spoon into a piping kit with a star nozzle.  Pipe the rounds to what size you like spacing them about 3cm apart.  Top each with one blanched almond.  Bake for around 20 minutes or until lightly golden in colour.  Transfer them when cooked to wire racks to cool then you can keep these in airtight containers for up to two weeks.