HOMEMADE MACARONS

Macarons. The "cookies" Blair and Serena from "Gossip Girl" eat while sitting in the bathtub with a glass of champagne. 

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT RIGHT?

Whenever I found them for the first time in a german shop, which indeed is still one of my favorites (toertchen toertchen, Cologne)I wanted to make them myself. Not just because they are pretty expensive but also because I like trying new stuff and especially baking cookies or cakes or all kinds of deserts. 

My very very very first attempt to try them turned into a dissapointing time investment because of multiple things. The recipe I used was not very detailed which made me make several mistakes like (most important) not mixing the sugar and the almonds to a very thin powder which is the number ONE rule of making macarons.

So after reading several recipes and even watching videos on youtube my mom and I (she's also a macaron-lover btw) found a very very cute book with a recipe for the top and the bottom layer and also much much more for the filling. Depending on the type of macaron you're making, you can either make a chocolate cream or mojito filling, or even wasabi. (YES, WASABI. The asian, green, spicy thingy) 

MACARON BOOK AMAZON

With this book, I started following her recipe. I followed every step very exactly and after maybe an hour and a half and another 20 minutes baking they turned out: CATASTROPHIC. HAHA

See, it really takes a lot of patience and a lot of dough to get the perfect perfect macaron. 

Mine were not bad, they just didn't look like macarons at all. Flat, not smooth and very very soft. 

When I told my mom about giving up on making macarons (I know, very weak to give up so soon) she said NO. She bought a silicon sheet so that the macarons would come off easier and so they would all be the same size. She was looking on the internet for 5 minutes and came back with this youtube video:

We placed my ipad in the kitchen. Played the video and stopped after every step the girl explained. It was very very detailed, which is very good because macarons are very sensitive.

So step 1: 

Mix 70g of almond powder and 45g of powdered sugar together in a mixer so that it becomes a very very thin powder. I used my moms "Thermomix" on level 10. 

Step 2:

Sift the sugar-almond-powder to become even thinner. (so that the macarons are very smooth on the top and bottom)

Step 3:

seperate 52,5g egg whites and put them in a bowl with 55g normal sugar. Place this bowl in an other bowl with hot water and heat it up to 60 degrees celsius. (She said so that the egg whites become very hard. I heat it up to maybe 45 degrees.. not that important though) More important is that the sugar melts perfectly into the egg white.

Step 4:

Begin to mix the egg white and sugar with an electric whisk until it becomes a creamy and very shiny hard cream. 

NOW, you can add any kind of color you want your macarons to be. 

(In my last try before finally finally giving up we put some red color to make it a light pink)

Step 5:

Split you sugar-almond-powder into two parts and blend the first into your cream with a silicon dough craper or maybe a spoon. after its perfectly blended in, put the rest into this dough. 

Be very carefully while doing this. The video explains it very good at this point. Also, she's showing what will happen with the macarons if blended too much or not enough. 

SO THIS PART IS VERY TRICKY. and requires a lot of patience and experience.

Step 6:

After a smooth dough, thats supposed to come off the spoon very slow but creamy you can put it in a piping bag to evenly spread the dough in the silicon sheet or greaseproof paper. Watch out to place them a little apart, just in case they melt together after a while. (Yup this still happens to me now.)

LAST STEP:

Knock on the baking tray from the bottom so that the air bubbles will come out and the surface of the macarons stays soft.

Put the baking tray in the oven: 120 degrees celsius, fan-assisted for 25-30 minutes.

After 5-10 minutes you will start to see the feet of your macarons. (I know, feet? Do they have arms too?)After this very last try I finally realized what was meant by feet and here i proudly present the first feet of my and my moms first succeeded macarons:

FEET: The bottom part which is kind of bubbly

For the cream I came back to the book I first used and made the easiest easiest, yes very easy filling possible. Chocolate. haha (dark chocolate with regular cream from the supermarket mixed together, and kept cold in the fridge.)

I recommend keeping the macarons in the fridge for a few hours or even over night. The top and bottom part will mix its flavor with the filling and make the macarons MACARONISTIC. <333

Macarons filled with "Dulce de leche"

My result: Try many times, and don't ever give up. Maybe try another recipe or a different amount of egg white, maybe less maybe more. Maybe try a different temperature or just anything else. Because making perfect macarons depends on sooooooo many things and can go wrong sooooo many times, BUT: They can turn out sooo yummy too.