Macarons

Hi guys! Since I love french macarons (and since they are VERY expensive!) I wanted to learn how to bake them on my own. This was my first try! But I have to say - I'm proud of myself, yay! At first, I thought they wouldn't turn out as good, but then I modified my oven and here's what I came up with! Definitely a success, given it's my first time ever doing such a thing!

This is the recipe I followed:

1st  bowl: 140 g of eggwhites

2nd bowl: 190 g of almond flour + 190 g of powdered sugar

3rd bowl: 60 g of sugar + 140 g of powdered sugar

Whip the eggwhites almost meringue - like, but not all the way! I actually was scared to overdo it and stopped too soon! Add bowl number 3 into the mixture and whip until the batter starts to climb up the whip tool!

Now is the time to add bowl number 2. Gently mix it all together, you can add food colorant if you'd like to. Definitely don't over mix the batter!

Preheat the oven on 150 °C, put a cookie sheet over the baking pan and put your mixture into a pastry bag. Draw small circles with your batter onto the cookie sheet. Those will be your macarons.

Tap the baking pan or smack it - this way the air bubbles get out and leave the macarons smooth. Some recipes suggest to leave the macarons on air for about 45 minutes. 

Now, in the recipe I found was suggested to bake the macarons for 8 - 10 mins at 125°C, but this wasn't enough for me. I finally baked them for 30 minutes at 150°C. Keep in mind that every oven is very different!

After you take your macarons out of the oven, let them cool of, turn the sides and fill them with whatever filling/topping you want. I chose peach jam (very sweet, but my mom liked it) and nutella (I liked those macarons better...).

[With peach jam!]

[With nutella]

[I couldn't find almond flour - so I just used shreded almonds - that's why the top of my macarons isn't so smooth. Next time I'll put them into food processor with the powdered sugar before mixing with the rest of the ingredients.]

Good luck! And be patient :-)

Adelka