Macaroon or Macaron is a sweet confectionary made with icing sugar, egg white, ground almond and food coloring. In France patisserie Laduree is famous for its tasty and quality Macarons.
The basic batter and fillings for these little desserts can be varied by simply adding different flavouring and coloring.
Try making them yourself, here is a basic recipe of Macaroon / Macaron.
Try making them yourself, here is a basic recipe of Macaroon / Macaron.
Ingredients
175 g icing sugar
125 ground almonds
3 large egg whites
75 g caster sugar
For filling
150 g butter, softened
75 g icing sugar
Method
1 Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl.
2 In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy ( you can stir in flavour extract and coloring depending on what kind of macaroons you want)
3 Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining half, make sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixture until it is shiny. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.
4 Pipe small rounds of the macaroon mixture, about 3 cm across, onto baking
pan line with baking paper. Give the baking sheets a sharp tap. Leave to stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to form a slight skin. ( you should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger.)
5 Bake for 15 minutes on a preheated oven at 160°C. Remove from oven and cool.
6 For the filling – Beat butter until light and fluffy then beat in the icing sugar (You can add flavouring or nuts and color.) Sandwich macaroons together.
Colorings and flavour extracts are available in supermarket and cake shops.
To add flavour and color to your macaroons, in step 2 add ½ tsp flavour extract and add the appropriate coloring a drop at a time.
Flavour and color the buttercream in the same way.
Tips
Chocolate – replace ¼ of icing sugar with cocoa powder and use Nutella as filling.
Pistacio macaroons – green coloring and finely ground pistachio.
