1 1/4 cups powder sugar
1 cup almond flour (finely ground blanched almonds)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4 cup sugar
ok, so not the easiest dessert to make... i've been trying to get these right for over six months at least 5 or 6 different occasions. and once again they didn't quite work out. but i think i finally made a breakthrough. next week i'll be making them again... and this time they should be perfect. i hope. oh and we'll get into the filling next week too. it's usually a butter cream or ganache or jam... pretty much anything yummy between two cookies.
i decided to try making different flavors...
finely ground pistachios
finely ground macadamia nuts
put the egg whites in a bowl and let sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours... i let mine sit out 24 hours. i got busy, so i couldn't get to them till the next day.
combine powder sugar and almonds. i've heard some people say to sift together. but you need to have the right size sieve and i'm lazy. so i combine mine throughly and be sure there aren't any lumps.
nice and mixed. set aside.
beat the egg whites till foamy. i like to beat till soft peaks form... but it's really up to you, it works both ways. i've done it both ways. just till foamy means it'll take longer to beat.
add sugar and beat some more...
till it's pretty and shiny with stiff peaks.
then combine the powder sugar/almond mixture... i added a little pink food coloring so i could differentiate between the different nuts. plus it makes it pretty.
combine until the mixture flows and peaks disappear. this is where i thought i went wrong... but what i really think it is, is i didn't have quite enough egg whites and i mixed too much.
i use a piping bag with a size 12 tip.
fill the bag with the beautiful mixture.
and start piping onto parchment paper. i've used wax paper, and it does work, but not quite as well. don't make them any larger than about an inch... yet again another thing i keep doing wrong. if you make them too big, they stay kinda flat.
these are the macadamia nut ones.
and these are the pistachio ones... yes i added food coloring to these too. otherwise they look like bird poo.
now let them dry for a couple hours. just until a skin forms and the batter is matte instead of shiny. btw the batter should have a smooth surface not the spiral that mine does.
heat the oven to 325 F. then cook the macarons for about 11 min. be sure to put a spoon or something in the door, keeping it slightly open during the cooking. some people like to rotate half way through too... not me, i'm lazy.
and the disaster is revealed. as i said, i think i know all the steps i went wrong. and i'm going to try again next week.
these ones were a little better, but still not great.
and these were the closest i could get... they all still tasted great. just not so pretty and not quite the right texture. wish me luck next week and if you have any advise, please help!... i've got to get these right someday.
