Langues Des Chats (Cat’s Tongues)

Since the acquisition of a new and improved ice-cream maker, I’ve been churning out the ices. But I was craving something else to serve them with – these are dead easy and work beautifully as a garnish or even just served with a cup of tea.

Ingredients
-80g icing sugar
-100g butter
-3 egg whites (at room temperature)
-100g plain flour
-1 tsp vanilla essence (can use almond essence instead for a marzipan flavour)
-1 tsp lemon zest (optional)

Method
-Preheat oven to 200C.
-Use electric beaters to cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and creamy, then add the vanilla essence and lemon zest.
-Beat in whites, one at a time. (The whites are NOT stiffened first. They are just plain, normal, straight out of the shell egg-whites).
-Sift in the flour and fold to combine.
-Pipe onto lined pans using a plain nozzle and be aware – they do spread. If you don’t have a piping bag, get a freezer bag, put all the batter into the bag and snip off the corner. Works absolutely beautifully.
-Bake for around 10 minutes, or until the edges are a golden brown colour. Keep a close eye on them because once they start to cook, they can finish up incredibly quickly, so it’s easy to burn them.
-Remove from oven and cool on wire racks immediately.
-These can be stored in airtight container, but slip in some moisture-absorbing sachets to retain their crunch.