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Macaroons

Yummy macaroons to go!

After having a lovely discussion with a work colleague about macaroons and where you can really find them in South Africa, I got home thinking its really something special to learn how to make. I turned the on the TV and to my surprise one of the baking programs on the food channel were showing how to make simple macaroons.  So I decided to give it a try.


Ingredients:

 1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup ground almond powder
2 egg whites room temperature (40g if you have a scale)
1/4 cup icing sugar
150ml of water
Gel food colouring

 Method:
  • Preheat the oven to 150 degrees
  • Prepare oven tray with baking paper
  • Sift the icing sugar to add air into it. Thereafter add the almond powder and mix.
  • Place water on stove and add 1/4 cup icing sugar to it. Bring to a boil so the sugar blends into the water.
  • Beat the egg whites until it becomes foamy and add sugar water mixture. This allows the egg whites to get a shiny glaze sooner.
  • Continue beating the egg whites until they become stiff.
  • Add the stiff egg whites into the icing sugar and almond mixure and stir.
  • Add the food colouring you want at this stage.
  • Mix this combination in until the batter is ribbon runny.
Tip: According to the lady on the program the mixture should be stirred in with no more than 50 stirs. It took me around 30 or so stirs.
  • Thereafter place mixture into a piping bag and pipe 1cm high and 3.5 cm round circles onto baking tray. Keep them well spaced. 
  • Pick up and drop the tray about three times to release the air bubbles from the piped circles.
  • Let the circles stand for around 15 to 30 minutes to dry and form a skin.
  • Place in the oven and keep the door slighly open. You can also drop the heat of the oven down to 120 degrees.
  • Bake for 10 minutes until the macaroon is puffed up with distinguishable feet.
Tip: Feet on a macaroon is the part between the baking tray and the puffed section of the macaroon.

  • Let the macaroons cool completely on the baking tray.
  • Carefully peel off once cooled.
  • Pair the same size macaroon and add 1 teaspoon filling to one piece and close with another.
Fillings
You can use any of the following as filling:
Chocolate Ganache
Whipped fresh cream
Frosting
Jam

 I used a combination of chocolate ganache and strawberry jam.


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