The Enid Blyton Society

I'm reading Mystery of the a Strange Bundle and Fatty & co have just ordered a plateful of macaroons that are 'all gooey and crunchy'. This is'nt the first book or reference to them and it's got me wondering. Just what cake exactly is Enid describing? Macaroons that I know of are either those tiny colourful french ones or a golden brown cake made with dessicated coconut on a piece of rice paper with either a jam centre or chocolate drizzled over it. I wouldn't describe either as gooey or crunchy in any way at all so I can't think that Enid's idea of a macaroon fits with what one actually is. The only cakes I can think of that fits a description of 'gooey and crunchy' are Japs and as the children eat four or five each I doubt it was one of those, so what is it?

We had a discussion about macaroons before...in fact you took part in it!

I don't think we really came to any real conclusion about the type of macaroons...and don't recall mentioning them being 'crunchy', so I agree maybe Enid's were different - or maybe the home-made ones were more crunchy?

here's the thread -
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... ns#p263294

I imagine the Find-Outers would have eaten almond macaroons like the ones in the link below. We've often made them at home. They're slightly crisp on the outside and sometimes have a crunchy half almond on the top (though we've generally used a half glacé cherry instead), but they're melt-in-your-mouth in the middle:

https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.co.u ... roons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stef and I made macaroons sort of like in Anita's link but not as smooth-looking. They were slightly crunch on the outside (very crunchy if they were burnt at the edges) and gooey inside.

Rob Houghton wrote:We had a discussion about macaroons before...in fact you took part in it!

I don't think we really came to any real conclusion about the type of macaroons...and don't recall mentioning them being 'crunchy', so I agree maybe Enid's were different - or maybe the home-made ones were more crunchy?

here's the thread -
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... ns#p263294

I genuinely don't remember either that thread nor posting in it .

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I imagine the Find-Outers would have eaten almond macaroons like the ones in the link below. We've often made them at home. They're slightly crisp on the outside and sometimes have a crunchy half almond on the top (though we've generally used a half glacé cherry instead), but they're melt-in-your-mouth in the middle:

https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.co.u ... roons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They look nice and easy to do but can you make them without a food processor or blender Anita? As I don't have either. They do look quite small though so I can see how the children could eat several of them each.

There is apparently a distinction between a "macaron" and a "macaroon". But I can never remember what the distinction is.

I think "macarons" are the French-style ones which tend to be coloured pink, green, blue, etc. and are lighter in texture (maybe they have more egg white in relation to ground almonds?)

IceMaiden wrote:

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I imagine the Find-Outers would have eaten almond macaroons like the ones in the link below. We've often made them at home. They're slightly crisp on the outside and sometimes have a crunchy half almond on the top (though we've generally used a half glacé cherry instead), but they're melt-in-your-mouth in the middle:

https://theenglishkitchen.blogspot.co.u ... roons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They look nice and easy to do but can you make them without a food processor or blender Anita? As I don't have either. They do look quite small though so I can see how the children could eat several of them each.

I've never actually used the recipe in the link but I don't have a food processor or blender either - I always use a mixing bowl and wooden spoon when baking.

This is the recipe (almost identical to the one in the link) we've used many times in my family for traditional almond macaroons. It's quick and easy and makes about 12 largish macaroons (or you could make more smaller ones):

2 egg whites
a few drops of almond essence
150 g/5 oz ground almonds
150 g/5 oz caster sugar
sheets of rice paper
glacé cherries (cut in half) to decorate - or you could use halved almonds

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C/Gas Mark 4. Whisk the egg whites till frothy, add the almond essence, ground almonds and sugar, and mix. This should be enough for about 12 macaroons (or more if you're doing small ones). Put spoonfuls of the mixture on to rice paper on a baking tray, leaving a reasonable gap between the macaroons because they spread out while cooking. Decorate each one with half a glacé cherry or half an almond. Bake for about 20 mins. Allow to cool before cutting around the rice paper.

(My daughter was unable to get rice paper a couple of times, so she used ordinary greaseproof baking paper and found that the macaroons peeled off it okay.)

Thanks for the recipe for macaroons, Anita.

The thought of them makes my mouth water and so I'll keep the information for future reference.

If you Google Coconut macaroons there are a number of recipes there and the pictures look like the ones I remember from the 1950s.

A friend makes excellent Blyton-style macaroons though sometimes she 'glues' two together with a chocolate ganache making them more like the French/Belgian style ones.

Hers are melt-in-the-mouth crunchy on the first bite and gooey on the inside, as described above, and seem to get gooier IF you can hold off from eating them all in the first couple of days after baking

I will have to post a photo of them here. That gives me a good excuse to drop hints to her. lol

A really popular restaurant where I live has the BEST macaroons... And they're gooey and crunchy too.
Kinda like two crunchy discs, with some sort of paste or ganache in the middle. It's heaven and they have so many flavors. That's what I've seen all over the world under the name 'macaroon', didn't know there were so many types

I look forward to eating some of Eddie's macaroons!

Thank you for the recipe Anita . I will have a try at those, I did attempted the ones in the link but while they were chewy they most certainly weren't gooey! They also went really flat no matter how much I tried to pile up the mixture, I doubt the Find Outers would have been asking for seconds of these ones somehow .

A macaroon caused me to end up in A&E last year! I started to choke on one, and although it seemed to clear, it still felt even a few hours later that there was something stuck in my throat. So I called the NHS direct line, described my symptoms, and they recommended I visit Casualty. A tiny camera up my nose later (not a particularly nice experience), the nurse couldn't see anything lodged in my throat and told me I had probably just scratched it when choking which would continue the sensation.

She also sounded quite envious when I told her I had been eating macaroons in the first place. Mind you, I haven't had one since!