Courgette macaroons with lemon icing

These are another one of Kate's creations we shot at hers in Leamington Spa a couple of weeks ago. Leamington Spa is rather a pretty town with some gorgeous shops and cafes. A perfect town for a food and prop stylist to live, full of inspiration and car boot sales, at which Kate finds some of the lovely props in our pictures. If friends, family and work weren't all in London I'd move up there in a jiffy. The courgettes add colour and moisture to the macaroons and form part of your 5 a day of course. I'm a particular fan of the rice/edible paper used on their base (yes I know I have freekish food tastes!).

Photo © Charlotte Tolhurst

Ingredients

175g ground almonds
75g sifted icing sugar
1 level tsp ground rice
225g granulated sugar
1 courgette grated
juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 large egg whites
2 tbsp poppy seeds
rice paper

Method

* in a bowl mix together the ground almonds with 25g icing sugar, ground rice and granulated sugar
* stir in the unbeaten egg whites, juice of half the lemon, zest of the whole lemon and the grated courgette
* spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a 2cm nozzle on the end
* cut rice paper into 3 inch circles and place on baking tray
* pipe out rounds of the mixture onto your rice paper allowing space for expansion
* sprinkle each biscuit with poppy seeds and bake for 25-30mins until tinged golden brown
* leave to cool completely before icing
* to ice, mix the remaining icing sugar with a squeeze of lemon juice. add in more lemon if required to reach a good drizzling consistency
* drizzle onto your biscuits or ice on using a piping bag and small round nozzle

Connect with Charlotte 

Instagram | Facebook | Visit her website