macarons

Ingredients (about 70 plain macaron shells):

• 160g ground almond 
• 160g icing sugar
• 140g egg white
• 130g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 drops or so of liquid food colouring, unless you are using powder, don't go excessive on it, or it will ruin the consistency (use paste if possible)

1. Sift and weigh ground almond and icing sugar and mix with a spoon until everything has been mixed 
2. Whisk egg white with an electric whisk until soft peaks and add 1 tbsp caster sugar at a time whilst continuing the whisking until all the the sugar has been added and dissolved. Continue whisking for a few more minutes until the meringue is stiff and glossy
3. Pour almond/icing sugar mixture, vanilla extract and colouring into the meringue (if you are any particular flavouring, now would be the time to add it)
4. Start by gently folding in the dry ingredients into the meringue until combined, then the mixing can be speeded up slightly to get even distribution of the colour, but slower mixing the better to prevent removing any trapped air in the egg white
5. Keep mixing/folding until mixture JUST falls off spoon and mixture from the side of the bowl runs back to the centre slowly 
6. Pipe it onto a baking parchment on a baking tray, I do the size of a 2 pound coin, make sure they have good volume as they will flatten when tapped and they only rise a little, always do an odd number, you'll see why in a bit
7. Tap baking tray on the table to remove trapped air and flatten the mixture, if you still have small peaks after tapping, that means you haven't mixed the batter enough
8. Leave the piped mixture at room temperature in a dry(ish) room until soft shells have formed on the macaroons 

For chocolate macaron shells, reduce ground almond by 6g and replace with 6g of sifted coco powder.

How do you know whether you macarons have formed a good enough shell? Use the tip of a dry finger and poke a macaron shell. It should not stick at all, and also, you should see cracks form around the area where you poked it. This is the shell you've just sacrificed for testing, that's why I told you to pipe odd numbers. 

1. Bake for 150 degrees C for 15-20 minutes (I'm afraid this is very oven dependent, best way to test it is to see if the top shell has become crisp
2. Take it out of the oven and see if you can lift the macaron off the parchment paper without it sticking, you have to be quite gentle with this. If it sticks, put it back in the oven for another  two minutes

For filling

I used chocolate ganache, so this really is a very generic recipe, for chocolate ganache, you can read my other blog posts. Similarly, buttercream also works really well. 

This recipe is practically foolproof (I hope), great texture and a lovely shine on the surface. Again, HAPPY BAKING!

Helpful tips

• If you have not mixed the meringue with almond enough, then your mixture will be quite stiff and looks like it is full of big lumps
• If you have over mixed the meringue with almond, then your mixture will be VERY runny, unfortunately at this stage, you can only put it in the oven and hope for the best, but don't get your hopes up
• Always add colouring and flavouring last to avoid changing the consistency of your mixture
• Absolutely make sure the shell has formed on the macarons, or it WILL crack when you bake them