French Macarons are notoriously tricky to get right and I’d read so much about how difficult they are to make that I must admit it really put me off attempting them.  After seeing an IG friend saying she had a foolproof recipe I decided to give them a go. I watched a few YouTube tutorials and took careful note of all the tips before I started but like many recipes it’s really a case of trial and error and it’s the best way to perfect a recipe. My first attempt was pretty woeful and they looked like pink blobs so went straight into the bin! Second attempt looked better but were still very rough looking on the top but they tasted lovely, see pic below.

So I went back to the drawing board and watched some more tutorials on YouTube to see how to get the perfect macaron with the smooth top and little ruffle or feet on the bottom.  It took me around 5 attempts to get them looking as they should and I was very pleased to finally get the hang of them! I’ve made them many times since and they really aren’t that difficult once you know what you’re doing!

Ingredients

1 cup ground almonds

1 cup icing sugar

Quarter cup caster sugar

2 egg whites (eggs must be at room temp)

pinch salt

Quarter teaspoon baking soda

Food colouring gel

 

Method

Put egg whites, salt and food colouring into a clean bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add in caster sugar whisking all the time until glossy peaks form ( you should be able to turn bowl upside without it moving)

Then put the icing sugar & ground almonds into food processsor for a couple minutes before sieving with baking soda into meringue mix.

This is probably the trickiest part and where it can go wrong. If the mixture is under mixed or over mixed the macarons won’t work and I def recommend watching some tutorials for this part. First of all fold the mixture together with spatula and then, once all mixed together  but still slightly frothy looking you have to mix some more until it falls,ribbon like,  from the spatula.

 

You then spoon mixture into a piping bag ( I don’t  use any nozzle) and pipe little circles onto a baking tin lined with grease proof paper.  You then bang the baking tray onto work top to get rid of air bubbles and leave to sit for around 30 minutes before putting into oven.

Place in preheated oven (not fan) at 150 degrees Centigrade for 16 minutes

Open oven half way through the 16 minutes and then close again for remainder of time. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

There are lots of different fillings for macarons and for the pink ones I would use either raspberry buttercream or white chocolate ganache.  For the ganache heat a small tub of double cream in a saucepan and then remove from heat and pour over  2 and half large bars of broken up milky bar choc and beat until thick and glossy (if it’s too runny just gradually add a few more squares of choc and pop into microwave, for a few seconds at a time, till melted through)  Pipe ganache onto one macaron before placing another one on top and pushing together like a sandwich. They can then be  decorated them with edible gold leaf if desired.

Happy baking!

Louise xxx