Macarons
Ingredients
175 gm Icing sugar
125 gm Ground almonds
3 Egg white(s)
75 gm Caster sugar
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160�C.
Sift the ground almonds and icing sugar into a bowl.
Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy.
Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue together with any flavouring or colouring and mix well. Then fold in the rest until it is shiny.
Line the baking sheet(s) with baking parchment. Pipe small rounds of the mxture onto the baking sheets. Give the baking tray a sharp tap on your work surface to give the macarons a good foot. Leave to stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin. Bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
To sandwich the macarons together, use whipped cream or buttercream icing of the required flavour.
Notes
If you want different flavours, separate the mixture into different bowls before adding the flavouring and colouring.
This mixture can also be made into a pavlova base instead of many small macarons - much easier.
Variation
To make pistachio or walnut macarons, replace the ground almonds with
75gm ground almonds 50gm ground pistachios or walnuts
Add some chopped nuts to the whipped cream for the filling.
For coffee macarons, use strong coffee as the flavouring both in the macaron and filling. In the filling, you could also use some melted chocolate in the buttercream.
For salted caramel macarons, add caramel (see Caramel recipe in Sauces) or Almond Praline (see Praline recipe in Sweets) to the meringue mixture with some sea salt. If using Caramel, take 2-3 tablespoons of the caramel thinned with about 1 tablespoon of warm water but it must be quite cold. If using Praline, substitute 50gm of the ground almonds with finely crushed Praline. For the filling add cooled caramelised condensed milk and sea salt to taste to the whipped cream.
24 Sep 2023
Shirl Seath