French Macarons

Hi there..How r u doing...? Now a days I think I'm a little bit inclined to French baking. French Macarons were in my to do list for a long time.  Thank Lord that my dream came true. This is my next post on the category of cookies after stained glass almond cookies. But these Macarons are softer and smoother than cookies.

Ingredients:

One cup (100 g) of almond flour

1 1/2 cup (175 g) of icing sugar

3 large (1/3 cup) egg whites (aged for 3 days on)

2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar

Food color (one drop) (if desired)

Method:

Take a sheet pan and arrange parchment paper over it. Prepare a pastry bag with a plain tip or a zip lock bag.

Sift the dry ingredients- almond flour and icing sugar.

Beat the egg whites on high speed and when it starts to froth up, add granulated white sugar and beat till stiff peaks are formed. At this stage you can add your food color (if desired).

Now fold in the dry ingredients to the egg white mixture and mix it well. Do not over mix or under mix  the batter. The batter should be smooth and no dry specks.

Fill the pastry bag or zip lock bag with the batter and cut the end.

Pipe over the parchment paper in small circles . Allow them to sit for one hour so that the top becomes dry. (If your climate is humid, it might take longer) When you gently touch the top of the piped batter, it should not stick on your finger. Now it is ready to bake.

Preheat your oven to 2800 F and bake for 18 minutes.

Note :

For the filling, you can use either ganache or butter cream or any other filling of your choice. I used my left over coffee butter cream from Opera cake. I would suggest simple vanilla butter cream or chocolate ganache (use one fourth of the recipe ) for the filling. These are melt in mouth type one's so it is good even if you didn't make the filling.

The lovely recipe has been adapted from Pastry pal. It had a smooth head and frilly foot. I have made this at least four times after taking these photographs....So once u prepare this, you would have a tendency to make it more frequently.....But don't worry......go ahead and eat these French Macarons with your loved ones.....and crave for more :-)