List of 23 recipes using Icing sugar (lactose free)

Amaretti

Amaretti are little Italian almond biscuits. They are a bit like meringues, very sweet, and made with ground almonds.

Amaretti almonds and lemon

These delicious little Italian cookies, both soft and crunchy, with their almond and lemon flavour, will delight you.

Amiens macaroons

These macaroons, famous since the 16^th century, are small, soft almond-flavoured cakes. This recipe is much easier to make than the one for the classic Parisian macarons.

Calissons

Calissons are a sweet from Provence - Aix-en-Provence is famous for them - made with almonds and candied fruit, covered with royal icing. This is a slightly simplified version, which is every bit as good.

Coconut "croute à thé"

Here's a coconut version of the classic French "croute à thé" cake. The double coconut flavour comes from the sweetcrust pastry as well as the filling.

Coffee croquants

The croquants, those delicious little cookies so crunchy that live up to their name, are here in a hazelnut-almond coffee version.

Finger biscuits

These small biscuits, that look a bit like savoy biscuits, are delicious alone or with Champagne, but are also the base for charlottes or Tiramisu.

Hazelnut and cocoa amaretti

You may already be familiar with almond and lemon amaretti, so here's an equally delicious hazelnut and cocoa version, with a simplified recipe.

Macarons (the original French macaroons)

This recipe really is "of the moment": the success of these small, highly-coloured cakes, in an infinite variety of flavours, is impressive. It's a recipe which needs some care, in order to produce a result worthy of a professional pastrychef. No problem, I will guide you through the recipe, particularly the tricky parts. This variety of flavours means that I test many alternatives, so don't be surprised if in the pictures the colour of the macarons changes, I used the best photograph available...

Pink Reims biscuits

These biscuits are a speciality of Reims. They have a light texture, rather like finger biscuits, and are traditionally rectangular and coloured pink.

Santiago Cake

Santiago cake (or Torta de Santiago) has a lovely moist texture. It is made with almonds and lemon and contains no butter or flour. This Spanish speciality from Galicia is still often decorated with the cross of St James.

Stuffed prunes

Stuffed prunes are a sweetmeat made with halved dried prunes sandwiched together around a morsel of marzipan flavoured with Armagnac.

Succès praliné (praline meringue)

The "succès" (success) is a classic of traditional French patisserie, made with two layers of almond meringue filled with praline butter cream. It's very rich and a little old-fashioned these days, but still has many faithful fans. The original recipe comes from the master chef Gaston Lenôtre, and became one of his most famous cakes, but this version is a little easier to make.

Tiramisu balls

For this astonishingly quick and easy recipe, you form balls from sponge-cookie powder, mascarpone and coffee, and roll them in cocoa. The tiramisu taste is guaranteed.

Almond dacquoise

A dacquoise is a sort of almond meringue that can be eaten like a biscuit or can be used as the base of more sophisticated desserts.

Armagnac marzipan

Almost the same as plain marzipan, but this almond paste is flavoured with a hint of Armagnac or Cognac.

Coconut paste

Similar to marzipan or walnut paste, coconut paste can be used in a variety of cake or sweet recipes, but you can enjoy munching it just as it is.

Marzipan (almond paste)

Very easy to do if you have a food processor which can slice or grate a lot of things.

Royal icing

Royal icing is a mixture of egg white and icing sugar. From its pasty consistency when fresh, it dries to give a lovely white crust.

Swiss meringues

Swiss meringues are a variant of the classic French meringue. The eggs whites and sugar are beaten together in a bain-marie at first, then beaten stiff as normal. This makes for a firmer meringue which can be used to make small items or figures to decorate cakes or ice creams (such as mushrooms, snowmen, etc.).

Walnut paste

Very similar to marzipan (almond paste) in method, walnut paste is very tasty.

How to dust

"Dusting" in cooking is sprinkling a very fine layer of something in powder form. Icing sugar or cocoa powder on cakes for example. As this is not very easy to do evenly, here is a way to do it.

How to make marzipan decorations

Making marzipan decorations for cakes or desserts is fairly simple. Here are some tips to make it even easier.