Macaroons (attempt god I lost count)

After my first incredible failure at making macaroons, I have tried again and again and again, once a day after work to make macaroons. At last after about a week, my mixtures began to rise in the oven, though still not as much as I had hoped for and I just can't get the shine and smooth surface on the macaroons no matter what recipe I followed! 

This is the ingredients and recipe I used for my most recent and successful (and stressful) batch. I hope this helps some of the people out there struggling with making macaroons by learning my mistakes. Apparently better results can be achieved using the italian meringue instead of the french one, maybe I'll give that a go next.

Ingredients (makes about 40 shells, so about 20 macaroon sandwiches):

1. 2 large eggs separated
2. 110g ground almonds
3. 100g icing sugar
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 4 tbsps caster sugar
6. Colouring (I used pink because it just somehow looks more pleasant when I had chocolate fillings)

• Whisk egg whites until soft peaks and mixed in vanilla extract, colouring and caster sugar, 1 tbsp at a time
• Continue whisking until firm peaks have formed and the meringue is very thick and stays on whisk when it is lifted off the bowl
• Mix ground almonds and icing sugar in a separate bowl and sift the mixture. 
• Add half of almond/icing sugar to meringue and gently fold in the dry ingredients until mixture is smooth
• Fold in the other half of the dry ingredients, again until mixture is smooth and avoid knocking the air out of the meringue
• Pipe the mixture onto baking tray lined with baking parchment and tap out the air trapped under mixture by knocking the baking tray against the table 3-4 times
• Leave the mixture to stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes
• Now switch on oven and pre-heat it to 150 degrees C
• Put in mixture and bake for 20-30 minutes
• When the macaroons are done, the surface should be crisp and should gently lift off from the baking parchment. 

For the filling

1. 40g dark chocolate
2. 60g icing sugar
3. 60g unsalted butter
4. 10ml double cream

• Melt the chocolate over simmering water, I hate doing this in the microwave, I always burn it. Leave it at room temperature to cool down
• Whisk butter, cream and icing sugar together until mixture goes very smooth and light
• Mix in the chocolate and put it in the fridge for an hour
• Put the fillings into the macaroon shells

If anyone can offer any help on how to make macaroon tops smooth and shiny, please please PLEASE share your techniques here. Thank you!

What not to do: 

• Whisk egg whites until firm peaks, add caster 1 tbsp at a time to the egg white, until it is VERY firm, some recipes will say soft peaks, but I have never achieved the same rise using soft peaks
• It's easier to make the filling in advance, either before or during the bake, this just makes sure that your filling is ready for piping and not too soft when you put it on your macaroons
• This actually applies to all the recipes, if you are using sifted flour or sugar, make sure you weigh the sifted product, not beforehand, otherwise this will affect your weighing, surprise surprise!