Macarons Part 1 - Martha Stewart

A little while back I mentioned that I was going to try my hand at Macaron's, a known finicky confection to make. I love them but hate to shell out $2.50 for one at the pastry shop. Frozen ones just don't do it for me either.

So I set out to try my hand at them. How hard could it be? I normally have great success at almost everything I try to bake.

I chose three recipes and the first one is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook page 137.

My success wasn't the best but here goes:

For this recipe I used:

1 1/4 Cups Icing Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Almond Flour
3 Large Egg Whites
Pinch of Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Macaron - The Book

More after the jump.....
I did not end up filling the macarons so I have not listed a filling.

I started by lining 2 baking sheets with silicon liners and marking out circles (to late be filled) with flour and a cookie cutter.

Macaron  - The marked pans

I then mixed the almond flour and icing sugar together in a small bowl.  Next I heated the oven to 350˚.

Macaron - Icing Sugar and Almonds

Using the whisk attachment on my mixer I beat the egg whites slowly and added the salt. I then added the sugar a little at a time until the reached the soft peak stage.

Macaron  - Whisking the Egg Whites

I sprinkled some of the almond mixture over the egg whites and carefully folded it in. I repeated with the rest of the almond mixture and the vanilla.

Macaron  - Adding the Almond Mixture and Vanilla

I loaded a pastry bag and filled the circles on the baking pans and baked them for 20 minutes rotating once.

Macaron  - In the Oven

Well.... these did not work out for me. Only a few had the "Pied" and fewer yet had a full "Pied".

Macaron  - Finished and Cooled

A couple of things occurred....
    - I was working with an oven I was unfamiliar with. My new oven is a full size conventional floor oven while my previous one was a 24" convection wall oven.  It's going to take me a bit to get used to this one one.
   -  I used 2 pans in the oven rather than 1. As it is a conventional oven 1 pan is probably best.
   -  I did not have a big enough pastry bag tip. I had to struggle a bit to get the mixture in the circles
   -  I baked the macaron's too long and did not remove them from the baking sheet to cool.

A bunch of problems.....

Well time to try again!

The spoils were tasty......

Macaron  - The Ingredients

Macaron  - Just the Egg Whites

Macaron  - Cooling

Bakers Notes:

• Since making this recipe for the first time I have learned it is virtually impossible to over whip egg whites with sugar in them