MACARONS! Recipe & Tutorial!

MACARONS. Macarons. MACARONS.

     My favorite little bites of heavenly heaven.

Yesterday was the best day of my life..... because.....I finally succeeded in making a batch of Macarons!!!!

This process took about 7 failure batches throughout the course of about 2 years, I've wanted to make them ever since I started baking!

The main things that make or break Macarons in my experience was making sure the egg whites are at room temperature and also to really sift the dry ingredients!

Also, i found that the shape and size of piping them out affected the "feet" production.  The smaller circles gave the best "feet". For some reason, the bigger circles fell flat and did not develop that "Macaron" look.

Good luck to everyone who wants to make them, remeber dreams do come true!!!!!!

Keep reading for recipe and tutorial

Chocolate Macaron Recipe

Makes about 40 Macaron shells or 20 sandwiched macarons with filling

Ingredients for Macaron shells:

• 3/4 cup Almond Flour (can be found in health section of grocery store or can just use whole or slivered almonds without skin and grind in blender or food processor)
• 1 cup powdered sugar (also known as confectioner's sugar, icing sugar)
• 4 tablespoons white granulated sugar (just normal sugar)
• 2 egg whites (MUST be at room temperature!)
• a pinch of salt
• pinch of Cream of Tartar (optional! but sometimes helps egg whites to have more stable stiff peaks)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Ingredients for chocolate ganache

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or a chocolate bar
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream + more to achieve desired thickness

           *Macarons are GLUTEN FREE! So even people with a gluten intolerance can enjoy these treats!*

Chocolate Macaron Tutorial

(used from my Lemon Raspberry Macarons)

1. Take eggs out of the refrigerator! Place them into a cup with warm water for 5 minutes. This will ensure that the egg whites are NOT cold, but room temperature! This is a very important part! When you take the eggs out of the water, they should not feel cold. 
2. Separate the eggs. You will only be using the whites not the yolks.  You can save the yolks for later use (I had an awesome omlette with them this morning!) Place the whites into a clean, metal mixing bowl. A stand mixer would be really helpful but not absolutely necessary. Grab that whisk! Whisk these egg whites until they are foamy and frothy, about 2 minutes.
3. At that point, when the egg whites are visibly foaming, you can slowly add in the white granulated sugar(not powdered sugar), one tablespoon at a time! At this point also add in the pinch of salt and cream of tartar if you are using that.
4. Now beat this mixture of egg whites, white sugar, salt and optional cream of tartar until it reaches stiff peaks! A stiff peak means that when you raise the whisk, the egg whites stick to it and look like a nice and stable pointy mountain. This whole mixture should look very white, glossy, shiny, and not a liquid!

photo by theheritagecook.com

     5. Now, you can put in the food coloring and any flavoring extract! I used 2 drops of red liquid food coloring to achieve this soft raspberry pink color. 

     6. In a separate bowl, sift the almond flour and powdered sugar into the new bowl. Make sure you sift everything a few times to make sure those two ingredients are a fine powder when you're done sifting them. Discard any large lumps of almond flour that don't go through the mesh sieve. 

     7. It is time for the tricky part! Be very aware and careful in this step! You now have 2 bowls, one that has a colored egg white mixture, and another bowl that has very finely sifted almond flour and powdered sugar. Add 1/3 of the flour and sugar mixture into the egg white mixture, and using a spatula, gently fold the two mixtures. I used about 10 strokes of the spatula. Try not to deflate the egg whites because they need that air! My method of folding with a spatula is to go around the bowl in a circle. Start and end at the same point of the circle so you can count the number of strokes. 

     8. Add in the second 1/3 of the flour and sugar mixture and fold the exact same way, very gently! When you don't see any white powder, you can add in the last portion of the flour and sugar, and again fold very carefully. When you don't see any traces of almond flour or powdered sugar, this is when you are almost done folding the batter. The consistency of the batter should flow off the spatula like lava or magma from a  volcano: very slow and thick. Don't overmix!! When I was making the Chocolate and also the Raspberry Lemon Macarons, I stayed around 40 strokes of my spatula for the entire folding process!

     9. Place the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip, or the lazy way: a giant ziplock bag and just snip off the corner!

    10. Start piping your circles your desired size and shape onto either parchment paper or a Silpat like mine (basically a reusable silicon baking mat). DO NOT use wax paper or aluminum foil or bake them straight on the tray. THEY WILL STICK and become a huge nightmare!

  

    12. Let the Macarons rest on the sheet for about an hour! They need to dry out and form a hard and dry coating on the outside so that when they bake, they form the beautiful little ruffly edges called "feet". After resting, touch a few of the macarons gently and if the batter does not stick to your finger at all, then they are ready to be baked!

    13. Bake at 300 F for 8-10 minutes, then rotate the rack and bake for another 8-10 minutes! I found 8 minutes to be the perfect amount for my oven. When completely baked, they should be easily taken off the sheet without breaking, and the bottoms should be smooth!

     14. When the shells are baked and cooled, you can now fill them with the filling! For these, I filled them with a rich chocolate ganache. On the stove, heat the chocolate in a bowl until melted. In another bowl, heat the cream until simmering. Combine the cream into the chocolate bowl and whisk until it becomes a shiny and glossy chocolate ganache. It can be placed in the refrigerator to thicken if desired.

     15. Fill ganache into a piping bag and pipe a nice plop of ganache onto every other Macaron. Then, place the empty macaron on top to make a sandwich!

** I've found that macarons reach the best chewy texture if placed in the refrigerator for a few hours before eating them!***

Enjoy!!