Macaroons

I do not know why but everywhere I look at the moment every one seem to be selling making or talking about Macaroons. So not to be left out I will do the same. The thing is that they are not that hard to make and you can make them almost any colour you want, pink, green, red and yellow all depending on what food colouring you use.

For you macaroon you will need
175g/6oz icing sugar
125g/4oz ground almonds
3 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
75g/2¾oz caster sugar
Few drops food colouring

To fill them you will need to make a butter icing
150g/5oz butter
75g/2¾oz icing sugar
Few drops food colouring

Now I have not said what colure to use as that is up to you , the more you use the deeper the colure, if you want pink just a drop , red a little more yellow for yellow green for green and so it goes on .

Get your oven on and preheat to 160c/325f and line a baking tray or two with greaseproof paper. Now you want your almonds to be a really fine texture so what I do is get them in to a food processor and blend them till they are in a very fine powder. Then take them put them on a bowl with half of the icing sugar and mix together .

In a separate bowl, start to whisk your egg whites. Whisk until you start to get soft peaks then add a pinch of salt and keep whisking slowly adding the rest of the sugar. Keep whisking till your egg whites are stiff and all the sugar has been dissolved..

Now fold the egg whites and the almond mix together. As you do this add the food colouring of your choice, or do it when whisking the egg white. Once this is combined and you have a good mix spoon this in to a piping bag.

Now get your baking tray and get ready to pipe them out . You want to pipe out about a 3cm or 1¼in round blob for each macaroon leaving a gap between each one as you do not want them all sticking together. Wet the end of your finger and smooth down any peaks left from piping then set aside for about 15 to 20 minutes. What you want is a skin to from over the surface of the macaroon so when you touch it so very gently it will not stick to your finger.

Then bake them for 12-15 minutes until they have risen and dry to the touch. Take out of the oven and set to one side. I remove the paper from the tray so you get a better cooling on the base. Then after a little while go back and see it you can take them of the paper, you only have to wait about 5 or so minutes then carefully remove them from the paper and let them fully cool on a rack.

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy add the food colouring of your preferred shade. Then spread the butter icing on the flat side of one of the macaroons making a sandwich with another.

That is it how I make macaroons. The only thing I will say is add your colouring a little at a time you can always add but you can never take away.