Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches

Recipe yields 4 large ice cream sandwiches For macaron shells cookies: 55g almond meal (ground almonds/ almond flour) 100g icing sugar 25g caster sugar 50g egg whites at room temperature Gel food colouring Other ingredients: Choice of ice cream Sprinkles or other toppings DIRECTIONS: To prepare the ice cream Scoop ice cream onto a pan and flatten it out with parchment paper. Put the pan in the freezer to freeze for at least 1 hour or overnight. To prepare the macaron cookies Trace approx. 3 inch circles on the parchment using a round cookie cutter or drinking glass Beat egg whites on low speed in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. Turn the mixer on high speed, gradually add caster sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks and becomes shiny. Sift the almond flour and icing sugar over the meringue. Fold the almond and icing sugar mix carefully into the egg whites. You can add your desired gel food colouring at this point. Slowly fold the mixture until it loosens a little and becomes smooth. Careful not to overmix. The mixture should flow off the spatula with a lava consistency. Fill a piping bag with the macaron mix fitted with a round tip. Flip the parchment paper around such that the macaron batter does not come in contact with the pencil/pen mark. Starting in the centre and working your way out, pipe spirals of batter inside each traced circle. Leave shells in a dry area to dry for about an hour, so that when you press the surface it is dry and not sticky. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool before removing from the tray. The cookies should lift off easily from the tray. Assembly Remove the tray of ice cream from the freezer. Use a cookie cutter approx. the size of the macaron shell to cut out the ice cream. Sandwich the ice cream between the macaron shells and add as many toppings as desired.