So as the fad of the amazing French Macaron still lingers our taste buds, I decided to attempt the oh so very difficult  desert. I kid you not it took me about 14 tries with trial and error, mixing different things from different recipes to actually be able to make something up myself that without fail works every time and like a charm! For this post I will share my French Macaron recipe for the shells itself – and for the filling I will go with a plain vanilla buttercream filling which is super easy to make – the recipe for this will be uploaded soon.  Later on we can explore together all the wonderfully tantalizing flavours 😉

On a note – I will be making an Italian Merengue for the Macaron as I have felt through all my many tries that this is the best merengue that works for making it at home.

Here’s how you bake them!

INGREDIENTS :

The Macaron Shell –

• 150g Almond Flour
• 150g Icing Sugar
• 2x55g Egg White (can be the egg white of 2 or 3 eggs depending on how small or large they are)
• 50g Water
• 150g Granulated Sugar
• A couple drops of food colouring

Method –

1. Sieve the almond flour and icing sugar twice until only the fine flour remains without any lumps. Mix together in a bowl.
2. Add 55g of egg white to the flour mix. Mix until the dry ingredients become a paste like texture.
3. On medium to low heat boil the granulated sugar with water together. Do not stir, just let it bubble until it reaches 118 °C .
4. In a separate bowl whip the remaining 55g egg white until frothy and once the water/sugar mixture reaches the correct temperature pour into the frothy egg white slowly and from an edge of the bowl. This is to make sure that the water/sugar does not splash around or outside of the bowl. Mix while pouring at a high speed. Once the mixture starts becoming a thick merengue add the drops of your desired food coloring. And mix at low speed until the color is evenly distributed.
5. Pour in all the merengue mixture into the almond paste and mix with a spatula. This is a vital point in the baking – as you Must mix around the bowl and then cut through the dough making sure that there is air coming into the merengue and almond paste mixture. Don’t be too rough with the mixing. And mix only until the mixture falls off the spatula in a ribbon like manor.
6. At this point heat up your oven to 100 °C .
7. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and using a round plain nib make small disks about a 1/2 inch diameter on your baking sheet. You can always buy silicon sheets which are reusable and have the circle marking for you to pipe onto for ease. The silicone mats work just as well as regular baking paper. You should end up with around 30 macaron disks on one baking tray and this batch should make two trays.
8. Once all your Macarons are piped, tap your pan twice to release any air bubbles you may see. Sometimes it takes more taps – just make sure no bubbles appear and the disks look smooth. Leave for 20 min outside to rest. This period of resting helps the macaron create its ‘shell’ so once it starts baking that’s when the shell rises and you see the ‘foot’ which is a skirt like formation being created on the bottom of the macaron.
9. Once the 20 min are done turn your heat up to 150 °C and pop in one tray. (From my experience one tray at a time works best) leave to bake for 8 min, then open the oven for 10 sec exactly, close and bake for another 8 min.
10. Take out your Macaron shells and let cool on a cooling wrack. And now they are ready to be filled! YAY!