Strawberry Macarons

Macarons! I am totally hooked onto them. Be it any colour or flavor; I will try them all. 🙂 These adorable little babies have fascinated me ever since they achieved acclaim in France by Laduree pastry and salon. They are so petit and each one of them looks like a fine piece of art in itself. And trust me it is!

The whole process of making this has been daunting. That might be an understatement but there are so many things you have keep in mind to do it right. It took me 4 attempts and different sources of recipes to get mine right to achieve the right texture and outcome.

Once I got it right, it never went wrong again. 🙂 Don’t fret – try it. You will love the excitement and achievement when you succeed. I have tried to list the steps in as much detail as possible. I love ‘em and so will you.

Yield: 24 disks

INGREDIENTS

60 g egg white

30 g caster sugar

50 g ground almonds

90 g confectioners’ sugar

Pinch salt

40g butter, at room temperature

40 g confectioners’ sugar

40 g Strawberry jam

1 or 2 drops of red food coloring

METHOD

1. In a mixing bowl, add in the room temperature egg whites. And beat it rigorously until foamy. Then slowly add in caster sugar while whipping. Continue to incorporate the air into the egg whites until soft peaks form. This is basically the procedure for making a basic French meringue.
2. Most recipes call for cream of tartar for a more stable meringue. However I could not find this in my local stores – so had to skip it. It works fine without it too.
3. Add two drops of red coloring in the meringue. Add another drop if you are not happy with the pink colour. Whisk until combined. Make sure you don’t want to add too much else it might liquefy the texture.
4. Weigh using an electronic scale – the ground almonds, sugar. I find that the electronic scale gives you the most accurate measurement. Do not skip this step.
5. In a bowl, sift ground almonds, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. And whisk together.
6. Pour the confectioners’ sugar mixture into the meringue and fold with a spatula. Stop folding when the surface of the batter starts to be shiny. This usually takes about 35 folds.
7. Fill a pastry bag fitted with 1 cm (3/5 inch) pastry tip with the batter.
8. Line the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Then pipe 2.5 cm (1 inch) disks on a parchment paper. Macarons should be 5 cm (2 inches) apart from each other.
9. After finishing piping, bang the trays hard a few times to remove air bubbles out of macarons.
10. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.
11. Let stand macarons at room-temperature for 30 mins or until the surface is dried. This step ensures that you get the frilled ruffled feet characteristic to a macaron.
12. Bake for 13 minutes. Remove and let cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, remove macarons carefully off the parchment paper. Well-cooked macarons will easily slide off the parchment paper.

For the filling:

1. Whisk the butter and remaining icing sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Push the strawberry jam through a fine sieve then whisk into the butter cream.
3. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe small circles onto one macaron half and sandwich together with another.

Macarons taste better the next day or so they say. Frankly I never wait. Who can?? Bon appetit! 🙂

Do try this and do not forget to like, comment and share if you like what you see here. 🙂

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Thanks for stopping by!

Love & Hugs,

Trupti