Sweet - Macarons

Macarons are amazing. Pure and simple. They're sweet, chewy, crispy, moist, flavorful and all the other words that express awesome in terms of desserts. If you don't agree with the previous statement, then it's quite likely you haven't eaten enough of them yet. I swear these tiny delicacies are the most intricately woven successful evil plan for world domination. It's ingenious, really, how they lure in poor unsuspecting victims with their bright, glossy colors and promises of grandeur - gold flecked exterior! passion fruit filling! - and then entrench in them a desperate need to bake these deceptively-difficult little buggers until they finally do it right. It could take ages. (It often does.)

Better get to baking then.

My absolute favorite blog for the basics of macarons - and the best for troubleshooting - is Not So Humble Pie, the author of which has spent countless hours (well, at least 80, apparently) perfecting the technique (and including awesome pics). The resulting recipe is fantastic as a basis for your macaron adventures. The great (and most evil) thing about macarons, however, is that there's so many countless variations - from the basic vanilla and buttercream or chocolate and ganache, to the crazy early grey, green tea, rosewater - that they're continuously fun (necessary) to make (and eat, of course).

Ingredients:

Macaron:

120 g almond meal

200 g icing sugar

3 egg whites (100 g, preferably aged, room temperature)

35-40 g granulated sugar

optional: ~40g (3 or so tsp, to taste) chocolate powder (preferably dark) if want chocolate flavoring
optional: few drops of food coloring of choice - only if NOT using chocolate powder (otherwise it won't come out well...trust me)

optional: pinch of cream of tartar - it helps the meringue stick together when beating the egg whites

To Make:

Macarons - 30 mins mix, 30 mins rest:

-weigh out all ingredients, and try to be as precise as possible

    - sift ingredients both before and after weighing to insure maximum precision, and get rid of lumps
    - mix all dry ingredients together in separate clean bowl (whisking works best for this)

-in a ridiculously clean bowl (I hear metal is best) add cream of tartar and egg whites, and begin to mix

    - once egg whites are frothy and white, gradually add granulated sugar

    - increase speed after sugar is incorporated, and mix until meringue forms with stiff peaks (this is the hardest part of the recipe. Probably.)

-once meringue is finished, put the mixer away and get a clean spatula. Little by little, add the dry ingredients to the meringue, and mix to incorporate as much air as possible (that means gently moving the spatula around the edge of the bowl instead of through; basically 'folding' the dry ingredients into the meringue)

-the mixing is done when all dry ingredients have been incorporated. The meringue should flow slowly back into the bowl if dropped, and mix in with the rest. It's often described as having the consistency of lava.

To Bake:

-preheat oven. Temperatures vary from 270-320F; I found that 280F works fairly well, but you can experiment to see what works best in your kitchen.

-line 2 baking trays

-add meringue mix to a piping bag with a round tip (or a ziploc bag and cut the edge off)

    -this is easiest to do if you fold the edges of the bag backwards and rest the bag in a large mug. Then you can use both hands to pour the meringue into the bag from the bowl

-pipe out small uniform circles of meringue (I usually aim  for about 1-1.5" diameter or so, though it's ultimately up to you), spacing them evenly so they don't collide when they spread
        -Many people like to make templates ahead of time to make sure they get uniform circles; you can do this easily by drawing circles of your chosen size on parchment paper in pencil and then flipping it over and piping within the circles
        -I'm lazy, and can never find my compass (do I even own one?), so I just pipe by making small circles of meringue and counting (ie, 4 seconds per circle) to make sure they're about even :D yay for home cooking!

-once done, YOU MUST take the tray and gently bang it against the tabletop a few times (or a lot of times) to get the air bubbles out. You can (should) also use a toothpick or a sharp knife afterwards to pop any remaining bubbles.

-let stand for about 30 mins, until they aren't sticky to the touch

-place in oven and bake 16-20 mins, making sure to flip the tray 180 degrees around halfway through (This is IMPORTANT). If in doubt, bake longer. A few extra minutes results in a dryer macaron initially, but it regains moisture from the filling afterwards.

-once done, let cool for 10-20 mins and then sandwich macarons with filling of choice! Then place in mouth. Enjoy.

Side Note:
-Macarons develop flavor through aging, unlike other cookies (which, as you probably already know, are at their peak fresh out of the oven in all their gooey goodness). That's why a slightly overdone (dry) macaron is preferable to underdone, because it will regain its moisture simply through sitting in the fridge for a day or 2 (up to 2 weeks or so), versus an underdone macaron which will already contain too much moisture and likely fall apart or stick to the tray (or any number of other ghastly misfortunes). This is also why - supposedly - macarons that are left to rest for a bit are more delicious than those ready made; I unfortunately cannot attest to this, however, since mine rarely last more than a few hours (self-constraint definitely is not my strong suit).