Ok, so I don’t really have a recipe for this one. However, I like to think of Macarons as sort of a personal specialty… I’ve made them quite a lot and feel comfortable adding flavors and whatnot, and I have the amounts memorized. I’ll bake something else tomorrow to stay on track with my once a week challenge… stay tuned for caramel cake! I anticipate having to spend several hours cleaning up my sticky kitchen after that adventure, so you might have to stay tuned for a long while.
On Wednesday of this week, we had a bit of a temperature apocalypse here in Indianapolis… I admit, I wasn’t devastated to have a day off of school. It is show choir competition season, and I’m somewhat stressed. I dream about sequins eating me on a fairly regular basis, if that is any indication of my current emotional state. Taking advantage of the unexpected day off, I turned to an item that I always have the ingredients for on hand: macarons. MMMMMmmmmm.
Many people don’t seem to know that macarons are usually gluten free. They do not use regular flour at all, but rather almond flour. Hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself. First order of business: merengue.
Merengue is something that seemed super intimidating to me until I had made it the first time, but it is actually very fun and satisfying to experiment with. You basically just whip up a couple egg whites to stiff peaks, and then add sugar a spoonful at a time until you get a shiny, fluffy, marshmallowy gloop. I like to use the “baker’s sugar” which I am pretty sure just means that the grains are smaller… it seems to incorporate better.
You then sift in the almond flour, powdered sugar, and any flavorings you want to add. I have made lots of different kinds of macarons, and have found that cocoa powder, various extracts, espresso powder, and even graham cracker crumbs can all be added successfully at this stage. One time I discovered too late that I was out of almond flour, so I just ground up some almonds in my food processor and sifted them a couple times. It worked fine. There’s lots of right ways to make the batter. On this snowy day, however, I turned to that old stand-by method of “what’s about to go bad in the fridge” to decide on a flavor. Lemon was the winner! I grated in the rind and reserved the juice to add to the filling later. I also threw in some yellow food coloring to make them pretty. Blog pictures are important, after all.
Next step with macarons: pipe and allow to rest.
Recipes on the internet insist that you need to use a shot glass or something to draw perfect circles on parchment paper so that your cookies are all the same shape. I don’t do that. I just eye-ball the little disks of batter, and I’ve never found it to be a problem. I also strongly dislike cleaning piping bags, so I just use a ziplock back and cut a hole in one corner. You then let them sit out on the counter for a while. They will form a skin and become a little dull-looking. Don’t skip this step. You’ll regret it if you do.
You bake them at a low temp for about twenty minutes, and they will develop a smooth shiny top, and cute little wrinkled bottoms.
You can fill macarons with lots of different things. You can do ganache, jam, chocolate, or, like these, a basic buttercream. People also get fancy dipping them in chocolate and stuff, but that’s a lot of work. I filled mine with a lemony buttercream that I threw together with a hunk of butter, some powdered sugar, and some milk.
(Looking at these pictures, I realize I didn’t get the food coloring mixed in evenly. Oops. Oh well!)
For some reason, macarons are intimidating to people, but be brave! Be creative! Be pretentiously gluten-free! They make beautiful gifts, have an intriguing chewy texture, and give you the opportunity to use the little food coloring jars that live in all of our cabinets for years without ever being touched. You know you have some.
Stay warm out there!
Yes! Want NOW!