French Macaron

FRENCH MACARON

It took me sometime to finally try baking French Macarons. Knowing its 75percent failure rate, this took a back seat. I was honestly scared to make it but what the heck if I fail?
I read through the net on how to make a perfect French Macarons and one of the many things they have in common is having correct and exact amount of ingredients. And since most of the recipes I've tried calls for measurements that requires only cups and teaspoons/tablespoons, I have to get a digital scale to measure the ingredients for this particular recipe since it is all in grams and ounces.

Fast forward...as I am determine to make this today, I asked Abdul to buy me a digital scale and food thermometer. As usual, I ended up buying more than that hehehe. I got parchment paper (it's quite hard to find it nowadays) and I also got a cooling rack.

As for the recipe I used the Multicoloured French Macaron Recipe from Delicious Magazine.
but for the procedure, I used the Italian Meringue technique from Dessert First Girl.
I've read that the Italian Meringue technique has a lower percentage of cracking.

Ingredients

1. 175g icing sugar
2. 125g ground almonds ( I used blanched Almonds)
3. 3 large free-range egg whites
4. 75g caster sugar

For the filling

1. 150g butter, softened
2. 75g icing sugar

Procedure/Method:

(I stacked 2 parchment paper to avoid browning/ burning)

Process almond meal with confectioners’ sugar in a food processor. Sieve out any large bits of almond.

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat on medium until all the sugar is dissolved.

Meanwhile, place 75g of egg whites in a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment.

Continue cooking until the sugar syrup reaches 118 C/245 F. While the sugar is cooking, begin whisking the egg whites. They should reach stiff peaks by the time the syrup is at 245 F. If it whips too fast, turn down or turn off the mixer.

Turn the mixer speed to low. Carefully pour the sugar syrup in a slow stream into the mixer.

Turn the mixer speed to high and let the meringue for several minutes until it has cooled and appears glossy and firm.

In a large bowl, combine the almond meal mixture with the remaining 75g of egg whites until partially combined.

Scoop the meringue on top of the almond meal mixture. Using a spatula or dough scraper, carefully fold the meringue in, trying not to deflate it.

The final batter should be thick and flow slowly like magma. Do not overmix.

Scoop the batter into a piping bag fitted with a ½” diameter plain tip.

Pipe 1 ½” rounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. Let the sheets sit for about 20 minutes to let the shells harden.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160 C/320 F.

Bake one set of macarons for 15 minutes, rotating once. ( I baked mine around 10-12 minutes)

Let tray cool for a few minutes before removing from the parchment paper. Let finish cooling on wire racks.

This is how my French Macaron Mixture turned out. 

I added food coloring to make it bright pink as per Rania's request

 Bang the baking pan a little bit to remove excess air. Let it rest for 20 minutes

After baking for 12 minutes. I am so happy that they didn't collapse. 

They also have feet :-) yipeeee!!!

I used the bavarian filling. Hopefully next time I will be able to make a vanilla filling.

Ready to serve!

**Happy Eating**