The first time I saw macarons, I thought they were adorable
Easter Oreos. Don’t judge! I was
completely disappointed though, they tasted like cardboard. Cardboard with
dusty Oreo filling. The experience was not a good one. Fancy restaurant, anniversary
supper and there I was with beautifully colored dust in my mouth. It was not
pretty.
When I told my grandma about them, she first laughed at my “Easter Oreos” reference and second, was just as unhappy as I was because they are some of her favorite ‘fancy cookies’. When made well. I asked her if she had ever made them. She hadn’t, however, my great aunt had and made them often. A few phone calls later, lots of laughter at my expense and I had the recipe.
When I was setting this post up, I sent it to “the girls” (best friends) for review and we had to have a discussion on the difference between macaron [mack a ron] versus macaroon [mack a rune]. Thanks to autocorrect and spellcheck, it was a confusing conversation. Macaron = delicious Easter Oreo 😉 Macaroon = delicious puff ball made of coconut
Have fun with the flavors! My great aunt’s instructions used
frozen fruits instead of heavy oils or extracts for flavor and color. If you
want to skip that part, use gel food colors instead of drops. The drops will
offset your wet to dry ingredient ratio.
I made a simple icing paste with confectioner’s sugar (1/3 cup) and milk (1Tbsp) to apply the edible candy pearls.
You always gain by giving love.
Reese Witherspoon
GOOD FOOD. GOOD FRIENDS. GOOD TIMES.
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Easy French Macarons
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Ingredients
Macaron:
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¾ cups Confectioner’s Sugar
- ¼ cup frozen strawberries, finely ground to powder
- 1 cup Almond flour
- 3 egg whites (room temperature)
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Filling:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons pink champagne
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Macaron:
- Preheat oven to 275F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Sift confectioners’ sugar, almond flour and finely ground strawberries together. Discarding any bits of almond flour that are too large to pass through the sifter.
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar on high (8 on mixer) until eggs look foamy. Slowly add granulated sugar and keep mixing until your mixture has thickened and started forming soft peaks.
- Add vanilla and continue mixing until mixture forms stiff peaks.
- Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in flour mixture to egg mixture. Making sure that all the flour mixture is incorporated, your mixture should be thick but still pliable.
- Prepare a 16-inch decorating bag with tip 1A. Spoon mixture into bag and pipe out 1-inch rounds onto parchment paper. Space at least 1-inch apart.
- Tap your cookie sheets on the countertop, hard, to release bubbles and then let sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. This wait will allow a skin to form, which should not stick to your finger when touched lightly.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes on the center rack of the oven.
- Cool the shells completely before filling.
Filling:
- Cream the softened butter until smooth and lightened in color. Blend in salt and vanilla.
- Add the powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time. Add champagne ½ teaspoon at a time, until reaching the consistency you want. 1 teaspoon gives a thick center frosting. 2 teaspoons give a very soft center frosting.
- Spoon filling into 12-inch decorating bag with star tip and pipe onto macaron. Place second macaron on top to complete the sandwich.
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