Macarons!

Ahhh yes.... macarons!

I have gotten into the macaron fever as well.

They are just simply too pretty, so delicious and the endless possibilities of tasty combinations.

And they are so expensive to buy!!

Plus hard to come by in Tampa Bay.

A few weeks ago I bought a macaron cook book, and made sure I had all the ingredients.

Tonight was the night to try out my very first batch of macarons.

My first step was last night, when I separated 4 egg whites to age them in the fridge for 24 hours.

Then started following the directions.

Which in hindsight I have to say it was a little chaotic, but only because I didn't lay out everything I had prior to make sure it was right there, as the book suggests.

No, since I don't like to plan and rather be spontaenous, I just decided I'll do this, only had the foresight to age the eggs and that was it.

So I was running around like crazy trying to find my almond meal, my powdered egg whites and could not find the piping tips I just recently bought!!!!

I did have bags, just wasn't able to use a piping tip... I just cut a hole in the pastry bag and did without.

Which is probably one of the reasons why my macarons were so oddly formed :)

I have never used a pastry bag before!

And remembering some old tips I read years ago, I just used plastic food storage bags, the ones without the ziplock, so I wouldn't have to spend so much money on pastry bags.

I am sure this will work much nicer with actual piping tips :)

So here is my second tray of piped batter... not too shabby I must admit!

The color scared me a little bit! I did want pink, and used the beautiful Wilton pink gel color but I didn't not expect this very very bright pink! Note to self - use less next time!

I already had a feeling that my batter was too stiff. Whether it was because I overbeat my eggs and they were too stiff, or because I didn't incorporate the dry ingredients enough or my almonds weren't grounded finely enough.

I realized it when I was piping, it did not really look like the pictures and videos I saw on youtube.

It still worked though and the shells looked beautiful, nice dome, no cracking, all even and round...

until I increased the oven temperature as indicated by the book.

Suddenly I had some bubbles rise up in the center, and of course those and a few more cracked.

But some came out really beautifully, completely even and round, glossy and pretty.

Except for my feet. They didn't really want to form!

The picture above shows the true pink color.

Below you see that some shells didn't crack at all.

And some show a little bit of feet.

By the time I was done, it was so late already, and I didn't have the foresight to premake my ganache filling so that the filled sandwiches could rest in the fridge and come together.

From everything I read, the sandwiches will taste better after sitting in the fridge and FILLED after one night.

So we will see :)

Working on white chocolate gananche now...