Just a disclaimer, I recently started using a cooking scale when baking (grams/ounces). I've found it's much more accurate and easier in general. Also, I'm trying to learn things American to English conversions because I'm going to be living in England for 6 months starting in the Fall! Anyway, my recipes are going to be in grams/ounces now for accuracy and so I can learn the conversions! I'll still have American cups/pounds on the recipes though.
So I don't know if I never tried macarons or if I just avoided them because of their high prices and the fact they were made with meringue (which I've never been a huge fan of and used to scrape off of my lemon pie as a kid), but I got the sudden urge to make some and I was pleasantly surprised and happy with how delicious they were. I made six separate different batches in a matter of two days a few weeks ago, trying to perfect them my first time making them (it doesn't usually work out that way). Anyway, me and my family greatly enjoyed eating the 50+ macarons that were piled into containers throughout the kitchen, and the pretty ones made great gifts for neighbors. They probably will not be pretty the first many batches you make, and even then it's sometimes luck and whether the icing tube is spilling out the top or not (that seems to happen to me more than I'd like to admit). Anyway, here's the recipe for the chai/spice macarons, because those are the ones I thought were the most successful (and they happened to be my last batch…I think.)
I adapted from this recipe, but there really isn't much you can change due to the delicacy of macarons (just the coloring and spices). http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/easy-macaron-macaroon-recipe/
Ingredients:
Cookie:
Filling:
I really didn't spend that much time working on, and perfecting the macaron filling, and some of them came out pretty gross, but the one filling that I thought was delicious - although I would like to mess around with it some more and try and change it up, which I'll post a recipe of when I get around to that - was this recipe for sour cream honey buttercream filling. Because I didn't change anything on the recipe (yet) I'm just going to give you the link to the website I got it from below.
The filling:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/11/the-secret-to-perfect-honey-buttercream.htm
I adapted from this recipe, but there really isn't much you can change due to the delicacy of macarons (just the coloring and spices). http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/easy-macaron-macaroon-recipe/
Ingredients:
Cookie:
- 140 g (4.94 oz) egg whites (about 4 large eggs)
- 70 g (2.47 oz) regular sugar or caster sugar (*1/3 c & 1 tsp)
- 230 g (8.11 oz) icing/powdered sugar ( 1 1/2 c &4 tsp)
- 120 g (4.23 oz) almond meal/flour (1 c & 3 tsp)
- 2 g (0.07 oz) salt (pinch)
- 2 g (0.07 oz) ground cloves (1/4 tsp)
- 2 g (0.07 oz) cinnamon (1/4 tsp)
- 2 g (0.07 oz) ground cardamom (1/4 tsp)
- 2 g (0.07 oz) ground ginger (1/4 tsp)
- Food coloring of your choice (I used yellow liquid food coloring, just not that much of it, but if you want them to be extremely vibrant you should probably use gel or powder food coloring.
Filling:
I really didn't spend that much time working on, and perfecting the macaron filling, and some of them came out pretty gross, but the one filling that I thought was delicious - although I would like to mess around with it some more and try and change it up, which I'll post a recipe of when I get around to that - was this recipe for sour cream honey buttercream filling. Because I didn't change anything on the recipe (yet) I'm just going to give you the link to the website I got it from below.
The filling:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/11/the-secret-to-perfect-honey-buttercream.htm
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 150 degrees C (about 300 degrees F)
- Mix caster/granulated sugar and egg whites until stiff peaks form (you should be able to turn the bowl upside down and they stay put). If you don't have an electric mixer (like yours truly) then it's going to take a lot longer than you expect, and your arm is going to get pretty sore, but stick with it and whisk them until they're done!
- Mix in food coloring.
- Sift in almond meal/flour and icing sugar until smooth and fully incorporated.
- Mix in salt and spices.
- Put the macaron batter in an icing tube and make circular drops onto a wax paper covered baking sheet, trying to make them the same size and making sure there's an even number total!
- Pick up the baking sheet, and drop it from about 10 cm (to get the air bubbles out and prevent cracks).
- Bake for 20 minutes and let cool completely.
- Fill with whatever filling you choose (I recommend honey buttercream) and lightly press two cookies together.