Macarons (the original French macaroons)

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 20 macarons, you will need:

• 1 2 egg whites
• 2 150 g icing sugar
• 3 80 g ground almonds
• 4 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 5 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• 6 10 drops food colouring (optional)
• 7 70 g jam sugar
• 8 100 g Fruit coulis (fruit purée)
• 9 1 pinch salt
• Total weight: 480 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 25 min.	55 min.	20 min.	2 hours 40 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Sieve 80 g ground almonds into a bowl, and discard any bits of almonds or skin which remain in the sieve.
  You can use "white" ground almonds (without skin) or "grey" (with skin), it's a question of taste and appearence of the finished macarons. In my opinion, "grey" almond macarons have more flavour, but less clear colour (natural, green, yellow, pink, etc...).
• 2: Sieve 150 g icing sugar into the same bowl.
  These siftings (and that which follows) are to obtain a fine mixture of ground almonds and icing sugar, without any small lumps.
• 3: Then mix almonds and icing sugar with a whisk, to avoid lumps reforming.
• 4: Put 2 egg whites, a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of salt in a mixer bowl.
  Note: If you have several egg-whites in a bowl, and don't know how many, remember that one white egg is about 35 g.
  It is also very important to respect the ratio sugar-almonds-egg white with 35 gr of egg white must imperatively 75 gr of icing sugar and 40 gr of almond powder, if you use a weight of egg whites different from those shown, you can use this little calculator:
  Egg white : grams
  Recalculate
  
  Beat on high speed until stiff adding the tablespoon of sugar halfway through.
• 5: Add 10 drops food colouring, and beat a few seconds more to mix thoroughly.
• 6: We do this, instead of adding colouring before beating, to keep the colour stronger.
• 7: Sieve the icing sugar and almonds mixture onto the egg-whites.
• 8: Tip the bowl slightly and, with a maryse or a spatula (a maryse is much better), mix gently, turning over from top to bottom rather than round.
• 9: This is the first tricky stage: you should work the mixture, the aim is not to obtain a light mixture (as for a mousse for example)...
• 10: ...but something slighly runny and shiny.
  This process is called "macaroner" in French(to macaron, perhaps?).
• 11: With a forcing bag (or a teaspoon, but it's much more difficult), form small heaps of mixture on cooking parchment or silicon paper on a baking sheet about the size of a 2 euro coin (1").
  Leave a reasonable space between heaps, because they will spread out a little.
• 12: Tap the baking sheet gently on the work surface to spread out the heaps, and to round them (to remove the small point left by raising the forcing bag).
• 13: See the photos for what happens after tapping the baking sheet.
• 14: Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to one hour, for the heaps to "form a crust".
  This is the 2^nd tricky stage: this time of "forming crust" is important for macarons which are well rounded, and do not split during cooking.
• 15: To test if your macarons are sufficiently "crusted", touch a top lightly with your finger: if the dough does not stick to your finger, the macarons are ready.
• 16: Then preheat the oven to 160°C or 320°F, and cook for 12 to 15 minutes.
  For some mysterious reason I have found that macarons rise best if they are on two baking sheets (one on top of the other) instead of a single one.
  Turn the baking sheets (front to back) after 6 minutes for even cooking.
• 17: Leave to cool completely before removing the macarons, and place on a wire rack to await filling.
  This is the 3^rd tricky stage: You should not overcook the macarons, which should stay moist in the middle. Watch the coloration: if you have used food colouring, they should stay that colour and not become brown.
• 18: Pair-up the macarons, i.e. by putting together a "top" and a "bottom" of about the same diameter.
  Then place "top" and "bottom" beside each other.
• 19:

  The filling

  Example: Raspberry macarons
  Mix 70 g jam sugar with 100 g Fruit coulis (fruit purée) in a small pan.
• 20: Bring to the boil on high heat, and boil for 3 minutes, stirring continuously.
• 21: Leave to cool, and begin the assembly when the filling starts to thicken.
• 22: Spread a teaspoonful of filling on "bottoms".
• 23: Then place a "top" on each one, and press together lightly so that filling is squeezed just a little beyond the edge.
• 24: The macarons are ready. Keep in the refrigerator.

Remarks

Recipe is for 20 macaroons, that's 40 half shells.
For more precise calculations, according to the number of egg-whites you have: please note that for 1 egg white (35 g) you should use 75 g icing sugar and 40 g ground almonds. Allow me to insist on using precise measures for the ingredients in this recipe. I suggest you really weigh everything rather than using volumes, even if you are unused to doing this.
Macarons are always better (smoother) after a night sealed in a box in the fridge.
This recipe can be varied ad infinitum with different fillings and/or colours. For fruit for example, following the basic principles of the recipe you can try: apricot, lime, blackcurrant (mmm!), strawberry, etc... On this page you will find some ideas. I have noticed that to get the full "macaron effect", you need to serve several colours and flavours at the same time. Your guests (and you) will be delighted.

I think nevertheless that macarons are improved when their filling is a little tangy, fruity, to contrast strongly with their very sweet taste.
If you encounter problems, here are some mistakes which all beginners make (and me most of all):

• Not sieving ground almonds and icing sugar => macarons with blisters, lumps of almonds or sugar.
• Poor mixing of egg-whites and dry ingredients => uneven macarons, almond cakes rather than macarons
• Not waiting the 30 minutes to "form crust" => macarons cracked, insufficiently risen or rounded
• Undercooking => macarons too soft, impossible to remove from baking sheet
• Overcooking => dry macarons
• Trying to remove macarons from baking sheet before completely cooled => macarons break up or split in two
• My macarons are brown despite my green (or other) food colouring => overcooking

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