Recipe Station

Remember that practice makes everything perfect! Enjoy making this high-quality dessert!

Ingredients To Gather: 

• 4 ounces (115g) almond flour
• 8 ounces (230g) powdered sugar*
• 5 ounces egg whites (144g), temperature and age not important!
• 2 1/2 ounce (72g) sugar
• the scrapings of 1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp (2g) kosher salt
• approximately 10 ounces (290g) French or Swiss buttercream

The Step-By-Step Directions To Follow: 

1. Preheat the oven to 300° and have ready a large (18”) pastry bag, fitted with a plain tip.
2. To prevent my macarons from growing ever larger as I pipe, I use a 1 1/2” cookie cutter to trace out guide-circles (about an inch apart) and then I flip the parchment paper over, ink side down.
3. Sift almond flour with the powdered sugar and set aside
4. Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean (not the extract), and turn the mixer to medium. Whip for 3 minutes.
5. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip another 3 minutes, then crank the speed to 8 for go another 3 minutes.
6. Add in any extracts/flavor/color and whip for a final minute on the highest speed
7. At the end of this minute, you should have a very stiff, dry meringue
8. Now dump in the dry ingredients and fold them in with a rubber spatula. Deflate the meringue against the side of the bowl. Keep in mind that macaronage is about deflating the whites, so don’t feel like you have to treat them oh-so-carefully. You want to knock the air out of them.
9. Transfer about half the batter to a piping bag
10. Pipe the batter into the pre-traced circles on the baking sheet
11. Take hold of the sheet pan and hit it hard against your counter. Rotate the pan ninety degrees and rap two more times. This will dislodge any large air bubbles that might cause your macarons to crack
12. Bake for about 18 minutes
13. Cool thoroughly on the pans, before peeling the cooled macarons from the parchment
14. Fill a pastry bag fitted with the buttercream of your choice and pipe a quarter sized mound of buttercream into half of the shells, then sandwich them with their naked halves.

Mastery over this dessert might take some time, but it is a fun challenge! Once you feel comfortable making them, you can try out different flavored macaroons and eat them leisurely while sipping on jasmine tea or cappuccino. I hope you enjoy this delicious European dessert! Bon Appetite!

Article Source: Brave Tart