Equipment needed: scales, thermometer, sieve, whisk attachment for mixer or electric hand whisk, wooden spoon, silicone spatula, piping bags with a round piping tip, saucepan,
If you've ever tried to make macarons before, you'll know that these delicious little treats can be the most frustrating of all the treats to get right! I must have tried every method and alteration under the sun until I finally landed on a recipe that has kept me right (and sane) ever since! So hopefully me sharing this with you will help you avoid tearing your hair out as much as I did!
1. Preheat your oven to 150℃ and line a baking tray with some baking paper. If you have a macaron template, place it under the baking paper as a guide (tip: make your own template by drawing around a 2p or £2 coin on A4 pieces of paper)
2. Sieve the ground almonds into the mixing bowl - do not skip this step it helps create a smooth surface! Use the wooden spoon to help push the almonds through the sieve, discard any of the larger lumps of almonds that don't make it through.
3. Sieve the icing sugar into the same bowl then mix them together. Sieve the mixture again a final time, this helps to ensure the mixture is fine.
4. Separate the egg yolks and egg whites into two separate bowls. You only need to use the egg whites for this recipe. Place the egg whites into the microwave for 10 seconds.
5. Pour one of the bowls of egg whites into the icing/almond bowl and mix in until it forms a paste.
6. Next, put the caster sugar into a saucepan and mix in the water. Place on a hob or stove on a medium heat and use the thermometer to cook the mixture up to 118 ℃.
7. Whilst the sugar is cooking, add the remaining egg whites to a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use an electric hand whisk) and whip them till they are foamy.
8. Once the sugar syrup has cooked, gradually pour it down the side of the bowl into the egg whites while the mixer is on a slow-medium speed.
9. Once all the sugar syrup is in the bowl, turn the speed up to high to create a meringue with stiff peaks - this should take about 5 minutes. The mixing bowl should start to feel cool as the meringue forms. You'll know your meringue is right if you can hold the bowl upside down over you head and don't end up with meringue in your hair!
10. At this point you can split the mixture to make 2 different colours or just make 1 coloured macaron.
11. If you want to make 2 different coloured macarons, divide the almond paste into 2 bowls (approx 240g), and add half the meringue (approx 320g) into 1 bowl of almond paste.
12. Add food colouring into the mixture and start to fold the meringues into the almond paste. Keep mixing till you can lift your spatula and let it fall to draw a figure ‘8’ with the mixture. Don’t mix any further than this.
13. Repeat with the other bowl and another food colour.
14. Spoon both mixtures into piping bags with round piping tips. When piping the macarons onto the tray, hold the piping bag vertically and pipe 1 1/2 inch rounds spacing them 1 inch apart.
15. Tap the tray a few times quite firmly to release any air bubbles and use a cookie scribe or toothpick to pop any air bubbles that don’t disappear.
16. Let the macaroons rest for 30-60 minutes until they dry out and form a skin. They should be slightly tacky to touch but not stick to your finger.
17. Bake in the oven at 150℃ for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
18. Once cooled you can match up each shell with a partner of similar size. Et voila! You should now have about 30 pairs of macaron shells ready for filling!
18. Fill your macarons with a buttercream, curd, jam or ganache of your choice, the possibilities are endless! Check out my video at the top of this post for a couple of ideas.
