My Macaron Obsession

I have been totally obsessed with making macarons lately. Now, being from the south I am having a really hard time not calling them macarooooon rather than macaron (ma-ka-ron). It's that accent- it gets me every time!  Anyway,, I have been trying out recipe after recipe and I am still undecided how I feel about today's recipe. They taste great but they are not as pretty as I would like.

Making macarons requires few ingredients; egg whites, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, almond flour, flavoring, and perhaps some food coloring.  It's the technique that is the booger! Y'all - that technique is about to make me crazy. I was a professional baker for almost 20 years. I am more than proficient in a kitchen and can whip up pretty much anything. But I have been wearing myself out over these little tiny cookies! 

The basics are sift together the powdered sugar and the almond flour. The more you sift the smoother your macarons will be. Beat your egg whites until fluffy, then gradually add the sugar.  When you have stiff peaks add your flavoring and food color if desired. Now comes the hard part- add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg whites and fold in. Add the rest of the flour mixture and fold and smoosh the mixture until it flows like lava. Seriously- that is how the recipe goes. Very specific huh?

Put the mixture into a piping bag with a round tip- I use a #12. Pipe circles of batter that are about 1 1/2" in diameter. There are templates that you can use under your parchment paper if you want, but I skip them. I sprinkled some food safe glitter (which are essentially gelatin) on top while they were wet. They need to sit on the counter for 30-60 minutes until they form a skin on the top before going in the oven.

After they are baked and cooled it's time to fill them. I prefer a smooth, creamy filling - it's almost like a whipped pudding. Match the macarons together so that you have two of the same size, add a small amount of filling on one of the cookies and top with the second cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are filled.  Now comes the hardest part- put them in the fridge for 24 hours. Seriously - they will taste so much better if allowed to rest up for 24 hours!

After 24 hours grab your macarons and a cup of tea and enjoy. This recipe was not the best I have tried. The batter was too think and hard to pipe, plus it didn't level out like it should. The tops were kinda bumpy after baking. But, they still taste amazing!

One of my favorite tools is this Small Three-Drawer Organizer from Deflecto®. I use it for some many things. Keeping all my food colors, icing tips, and tools in one spot where I can see them AND keep them organized is a must. This little beauty has three removable drawers so I can easily pull one out and take it to my work space. They are available from Amazon and you are going to want one!


This is a sponsored post.  As a member of the Deflecto Design Team I have been provided product and compensation in exchange for my creative ideas, views and opinions.