Macaroons - gooey and fresh!

"You're here again!" she said, in pleasure. "Mum's made some macaroons this morning, see - all gooey and fresh!"
"Now how did you guess that we are all very partial to macaroons?" said Dick, sitting down at one of the two little tables there. "We'll have a plateful, please."
"What, a whole plateful?" exclaimed Janie. "But there's about twenty on a plate!"
"Just about right," said Dick. "And an ice-cream each, please. Large. And don't forget our dog, will you?" ...

...Soon they had a plateful of delicious macaroons in front of them - and they were indeed nice, and very gooey inside, as Janie had so rightly said. George gave Timmy one, but it was really wasted on him, because he gave one crunch, and then swallowed it! He also chased his ice-cream all over the floor again, much to Janie s delight.

"How do you like it at Mrs Philpot's?" she asked. "Kind, isn't she?"
"Very!" said everyone together.
"We love being at the farm," said Anne. "We've been all over it this morning, in the Land-Rover."
"Did Bill take you?" asked Janie. "He's my uncle. But he don't usually say much to strangers."
"Well, he said plenty to us," said Julian. "He was most interesting. Does he like macaroons?"
"Oooh yes," said Janie, rather astonished. "Everyone likes mum's macaroons."
"Could he eat six, do you think?" asked Julian.
"Ooooh yes," said Janie, still astonished, her blue eyes opened wide.
"Right. Put six in a bag for me," said Julian. "I'll give them to him in return for a jolly fine ride."
"That's right down nice of you," said Janie, pleased. ...

...her mother began to arrange the goods on the counter. "Let's see now - what did you have?" she said."Good gracious, where are all those macaroons gone? There were at least two dozen there!"
"Er - well - we had almost twenty - and the dog helped, of course - and Janie put six in a bag for us - let's see now...
"There were twenty-four on that plate," said Janie s mother, still amazed. "Twenty-four! I counted them!"
"And five ice-creams," said Julian. "How much is that altogether? Most delicious macaroons they were!"

Enid Blyton Five On Finniston Farm

Jemimah and her bestie, the Princess Pea, decided this morning to spend the day in bed. They had Abba on their iPods, a big pile of books and a bigger bowl of lollies. At first it was an adult free zone, but they soon discovered that visits by Auntie Jeanne bearing gifts of food were acceptable, and I was allowed to deliver breakfast on trays - provided I didn't stay too long and remembered to close the door as I left.

They lasted until 11.30am. Apparently it was then time to do some cooking, they thought.

We settled on macaroons. Yummy fresh, gooey macaroons. Not too many ingredients, and no icing afterwards. Not so much potential for mess. Only they dropped the eggs. Ever tried cleaning up broken eggs from the floor? Icky Sticky. Especially under the fridge.

Anyhow, the macaroons were a triumph. Ooey gooey in just the right way. Unlike the eggs.

Despite Janie's mum's amazement, it is actually quite easy to eat two dozen macaroons between four. We managed 15 between the three of us with no trouble at all. And we didn't even have the help of the dog.