Rachel Lambert: forager, author, guide
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What's Wild, Yellow and Subtle?

I warn you, this might be a blog with questions.

I did wonder what to make the title, it could have been; what's yellow, subtle with a crisp outer and soft centre? Though it sounded too much like a chocolate advert. Here's the answer, a recipe, and a few other questions.

Gorse Flower and Coconut Macaroons

I first made these macaroons a few years ago for a journalist's break in Lamorna Cove, I'd trialled them a few times and loved the play on coconut with the association of gorse flowers - you know, that lovely coconut aroma when you pass a gorse bush on a sunny spring day. Revisiting them more recently I decided to tweak the recipe and replace the golden syrup in favour of using my own, wild, homemade gorse syrup. The result was even better and blending fresh flowers into the mix added wonderfully to the colour too.

These Gorse Flower and Coconut Macaroons are light and moist with a slightly crispy outer, coloured and scented with gorse flowers. Well to be honest, the colour is bright and the scent subtle with just a sniff of moorland gorse flowers, though friends decided the recipe was too good to exclude.

Which asks the question; what's important? Using wild food for the nutrition, the flavour or the fun and the experiment of it all? I'll let you answer that for yourself, though for me, we enjoyed the macaroons, a lot. And maybe, just maybe knowing they were handmade, and incorporated something wild and fresh increased that pleasure and their goodness. After all, my understanding is that relaxing pleasures can also increase the body's ability to absorb nutrients well - making it a win-win situation.

Back to the recipe.

Coconut macaroons are so much easier to make than the French macarons, which I've never tried to make as I'd heard too many stories and rumours about the failure to success ratio. You can't go wrong with these, just gather some gorse flowers at any time of year, a few extra ingredients and set to. Oh, and they're gluten-free too.

 Gorse Flower and Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients

250 ml gorse flower syrup

50 g unrefined sugar

A little coconut oil (for greasing)

4 egg whites

¼ tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp baking powder

25 g fresh gorse flowers

30 g ground almonds

250 g desiccated coconut

 

Place the syrup in a small pan with the sugar, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced to 180ml and thickened a little, it will thicken more as it cools. Pour into a jug or food processor and blend in the fresh flowers and leave to cool. Grease a baking tray and pre-heat the oven at 150°C. In a spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they begin to stiffen then add the baking powder.

 

In a second bowl combine the ground almonds and coconut, and then pour in the flower syrup. Fold in the egg whites until the mixture is even and using one tablespoon per macaroon, spoon onto a greased baking tray. The macaroons should be in slightly loose rounds. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and crispy around the edges and remove from the tray while still warm. Keeps well in an air-tight container.

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