Hey Guys, so I decided to try and make the famous delicate cookies (the French Macaron)s, a little history on the macaron that it dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.  When Louis Ernest Ladurée thought of the brilliant idea of putting two macaron shells together with a delicious ganache filling in the center.  Anyways, enough about that and on with the recipe 🙂

So here are all the ingredients to make yourself those fabulous macarons.  We have granulated white sugar, icing sugar, food colouring, almond pieces, cream of tartar, egg whites and butter.  I did not end up using the chocolate chips in this recipe, I decide to go with a buttercream filling instead of the chocolate ganache.   Preheat oven to 375.

The original recipe calls for almond flour however, I could not find any at my local grocery store so I decide to get slivered almonds without the shells, make sure if you are going to do it this way you get the ones without shells on,or your going to have an expensive mess on your hands.

Pulse almonds in food processor.  I used my handy Kitchen Aid (chef’s chopper).

You want your almonds to resemble the picture below.  I used this as my “almond flour” which is basically the same thing with no added extras.

So for the next few steps you want to get going on your meringue, whip your egg whites starting off slow and then gradually getting faster.  While doing this you need to be on the look out for soft peaks, sort of like a foam sub-stints.  Once you see this add a pinch of cream of tartar, this will help achieve that stiff peak we have been talking about.  A few minutes after that you can lower your speed to add the granulated sugar.  You want to add only a little at a time not all at once, this will ruin your meringue if you do so.  Once you have added all remaining sugar raise your speed to high, going for about 8 mins or so.

Once you have turned your mixer up to high speed, you can sift your icing sugar and almond flour together, this is going to get out any of those horrible lumps and bumps that could ruin the cookies.

After you sift your sugar and almond flour, if your peaks have become stiff then you are ready to add your dry ingredients to the wet.  Folding gently, you do not want to deflate the meringue, deflating is caused by over mixing.

After this step you can divide batter and add food colouring if you would like, I like using the jelly paste because it gives it a nicer colour. Then put batter into a piping bag or you can use a zip lock bag and cut the end.  TIP-for filling your pastry bag place into a cut and fold the edges over, helps for easier access.

Lastly, after piping macarons onto a baking sheet turn your oven down to 325, tap your baking sheet to make sure you release all the air that can form bubbles in your cookie.  Then let them rest for 15 mins before popping them into the oven for 10 mins.  The recipe that I followed said turn them half way through, but I didn’t bother with it and they turned out fine.  All I need to do is practice my piping skills a little more and they will be perfect.  Remember first time making them so be nice.  Once they are done you want to let cool for a few minutes so they will release themselves from your parchment paper. Ice flat side of cookie and attach another to make a little sandwich

TIP-Make sure to turn your oven back up to 375 and wait 5 mins before turning it back down to 325, and only bake one sheet at a time.

And these are how mine turned out, pretty good for a first try! They are stored in this vintage drink mixer because its a B-day present for my friend.

French Macarons

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of icing sugar (also known as confectioners)
• 2 egg whites (room temp)
• 3/4 cup of almond flour or (processed almond slivers)
• pinch of cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar

Directions:

1. What you want to do first is combine your icing sugar and almond flour in a food processor until combined. Sift mixture, making sure you have no clumps.
2. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Whisk the egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until foamy.
3. Then add your cream of tartar, and whisk until soft peaks form.
4. Then what you want to do is reduce your speed to low, add sugar in small batches.
5. Increase speed to high, and whisk until stiff peaks form, ruffly about 8 minutes. Then sift flour mixture over whites, and fold until mixture is smooth and shiny.  (When i was making mine I did not shift it over the whites I just added the mixture into 3rds, starting off with a large amount at the beginning and followed by 2 smaller amounts).
6. Then transfer your batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, and pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on your baking sheets lined with parchment paper, dragging pastry tip to the side of rounds rather than forming peaks.
7. Then what you want to do is tap the bottom of each sheet to release trapped air.
8. Let piped cookies sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
9. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating halfway through(which I did not do and they turn out great), until macarons are crisp and firm, about 10 minutes.
10.  After each batch, increase oven temperature to 375 degrees, heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to 325 degrees.
11. Let your macarons cool on the baking sheets for about 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
12. Lastly, sandwich 2 same-size macarons with 1 teaspoon of filling.

For original recipe click here; French Macarons Martha Stewart