french macaron recipe

French Macarons are delicate and delicious almond cookies with filling. They are known to be a bit tricky to make. My friend, Renee, and I have tried and failed multiple times to bake the perfect batch of macarons and we have finally found the method and recipe that works best! - Jenny

Ingredients :
(for cookies)
-2 egg whites
-3/4 cup of almond flour
-2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
-1 cup powdered sugar
-food dye
- 1 tea bag of your choosing (optional)
* you will also need a stand mixer or handmixer, a flexible plastic spatula, parchment paper, and 2 large bowls.

Stage One:

Sift the almond flour and the powdered sugar into a large bowl and mix (it is very important to sift the almond flour and powdered sugar). Put the egg whites into a separate large bowl. Whisk the egg whites on a low speed for 3 minutes (You will see the mixture start to look foamy). Increase the speed of the hand/stand mixer and slowly add the 2 1/2 tablespoons of granulated sugar into the foamy egg whites. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The mixture will begin to stiffen and should look white. Now it's time to add the food dye! (This is my favorite part! Watching the dye being whisked and spread through out the mixture is delightful!)  Add about 3 to 4 drops of your desired color of dye and mix on a high speed for another 3 minutes (That's 9 minutes of mixing IN ALL). You should see peaks in your mixture and the mixture should look puffy (not runny at all). When you scoop it with your spatula it should not fall off.

Stage Two: The Macaronage

*This is the tricky stage! *

Scoop half of you mixture into the bowl with the almond flour and powdered sugar. You can now take your tea bag, if you want to add a specific flavor to your macarons, cut it open and pour the contents into the bowl. (I have used apple, Earl Grey, green tea, and strawberry before). Mix everything by GENTLY folding the egg mixture with the almond flour and powdered sugar. You can deflate the eggs if you are too agressive but you can also ruin the mixture by not having it mixed enough. Once it looks well mixed, take the rest of your egg white mixture and mix it with everything. This should take about 50 - 55 folds in all. When you pick up your spatula with the mixture on it and hold it sideways, the mixture should take about 20 - 30 seconds to fall off.

Stage Three:

Scoop your mixture into a pastry bag. Take out a baking tray and line it with parchment paper. Squeeze the mixture from the pastry bag onto the parchment paper and form the shapes of the cookies. This recipe will yield about 15-20 cookies so 7-10 macarons in all. Let the uncooked cookies rest for 10-15 minutes and pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. After the cookies have rested, put in the oven for 10-15 minutes (constantly check on them to be sure they do not burn!). Once your cookies are finished let them cool and they are ready to be made into macarons by adding the cream filling!

You can really do anything you want for the filling. You can use jams or jellies or you can make it yourself! Here is the BEST cream filling I have tried that go with any flavor macaron (this is a recipe from yoo-eatz.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 3-1/2 tbsp. milk
• 7 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
• 3 tbsp. honey

Directions:
In a small heat-proof bowl, beat the egg yolks. Add sugar, and whisk until light in color, creamy, and sugar granules no longer show. Add the milk, and whisk until well incorporated.
Pour mixture into a small saucepan, and heat over low heat until the mixture becomes thick and custard-like. Remove from heat, pour back into original bowl, and whisk until it cools to room temperature.

In a separate bowl, mash up the butter until it resembles mayonnaise. Add half of the butter to the egg mixture and stir well to incorporate. Repeat with the other half of the butter, and then stir in the honey. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes until firm (but not hard) before piping between two macaron halves.

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