I’ve tried making macarons once before, and they came out okaaaaay, but not amazing. I didn’t get the hype. Certainly didn’t seem worth the effort! But I got inspired after Nessie’s post on baking = love a few days ago. I had also came across quite a beautiful book on macarons in the $10 clearance bin at my favourite bookshop. It’s such a random book that it doesn’t even list an author. But it has been a valuable acquisition. I decided to give macarons another go.

I’m glad I did. I tried one batch of rose, and one batch of lemon. And I’m still not entirely sure how, but they worked! They even had proper frilly bases. Yay!

I’m the first to admit that macarons are not a go-to if you need to whip up a  morning tea on short notice. These are fiddly, frustrating little things to make. They drove me a little bit crazy. But somehow all that melted away when I finished sandwich-ing them up. I realised these are Very Special Biscuits. Even homemade ones can look adorable, specially in pretty colours. And, not to keep blowing the trumpet, but they taste pretty special.

I’d encourage anyone to give these a go! Just allow yourself plenty of time, and be prepared to do a whole lot of dishes. There’s loads to read about how to make macarons. Here are my recipes, put as briefly as possible!

Ingredients – Rose Macarons
75g ground almonds
115g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp rosewater
pink food colouring

Ingredients – Lemon Macarons
75g ground almonds
115g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
50g caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1/2 a lemon
yellow food colouring

Mixing

1. Put the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor. Oh yeah, you thought those almonds were ground, but you’re going to take them to a whole new level. Whiz for 20-30 seconds, then pass the powder through a sieve. No, I’m not kidding. I had true dedication and kept transferring the mixture between the whiz and the sieve until I got nearly all of it through the sieve. Finally I got sick of it and just added the last Tbsp or so of almond grounds that refused to go through.

2. Place the egg whites in a mixer and beat until soft peaks. Add the caster sugar, about 1 Tbsp at a time, until you have a firm, glossy meringue (like how you mix a pav). Whisk in the rosewater (for rose macaroons) or lemon rind (for lemon macaroons) and the appropriate food colouring. They do fade a little bit during baking, so while you don’t want high-vis vest macaroons, it’s ok if you make them a little bright!

3. Now for the tricky bit. Add about 1/3 of the almond mixture to the meringe mix. Use a rubber spatula and fold it in. Make a figure 8 motion – run the spatula around one side of the bowl, and underneath the mixture, then cut it through the middle. Rotate the bowl a little bit and repeat until the dry ingredients have all mixed in. Then repeat with the second and last thirds of the almond mixture. See Nessie’s post for her tips on counting the strokes! Once all the almond is folded into the meringue, do a few more strokes. The mixture will go from being quite a thick paste to a shiny, slightly runnier batter. My book says a thick ribbon of batter should fall slowly from the spatula, leaving a trail in the mixture for about 30 seconds before disappearing. That’s a little obssessive, but hey, if it works, don’t knock it, right?

4. Line two baking sheets with paper, and pour your batter into a big piping bag with a 1cm-wide nozzle. I would recommend putting in half the mixture, piping the macaroons, and then re-filling with the remaining half. My first tray came out better than the second, and I think it’s because the second half of the mixture got a bit more ‘mixing’ by being squeezed in the piping bag.

5. Pipe the mixture into 3cm circles on your tray. Once you’ve got the tray finished, pick it up and drop it onto the bench from about a 10cm height, two or three times. Apparently this makes the bubbles go away! Plus, after 5-10 minutes, I ran my finger under the tap, and gently smoothed any little peaks down. Then leave the trays to stand for 30 minutes. This apparently makes the surface dry out a little so you get a good crust. Look, I said they were fiddly, annoying little things to make. You kept reading.

6. Preheat the oven to 160, and bake the macarons. Mine took about 10 minutes. They should be set, but not brown, on top. Plus when I pressed lightly on the top, and wiggled it just a litte, I could feel the base was firm. Leave them on the trays for at least 10 minutes, then peel them off very gently and cool on a rack.

Phew!

Filling

Ok, I promise it gets easier (and less wordy) from now on. Lots of people fill macaroons with ganache, or some kind of whipped cream mix, or mascarpone. I chose to make up a light cream cheese filling for the lemon macarons. Just mix a couple of dollops of cream cheese (and don’t believe what anyone tells you about light cream cheese, I used a light version and it was fine) with a wee squeeze of lemon juice, and enough icing sugar to make a thick and delicious filling. I spread a little lemon curd on one macaron, then a little cream cheese filling, and matched up with a similar sized partner.

Then, I went to fill the rose macarons. And I could NOT be bothered making a whole new filling. Plus there was lots of lemon filling leftover. So, I added 1 tsp rosewater and pink food colouring and just used that again for the pink macarons (without the lemon curd). And actually, the cream cheese totally worked with the rose flavour. It was yummy.

Then I stood back and felt tired. But pleased with my little project. And I may or may not have pretty much eaten the remaining filling. Plus, I love rosewater. My favourite compliment on these biscuits was my colleague who said “your biscuits taste like flowers.”

Anyway. Maybe after reading this post, you feel like having a cup of tea and a lie down. But if you find yourself with a free afternoon, and a hankering for making something a bit special, give these a go. They may drive you crazy, but they will be worth it. Promise.