Ingredients
- 175g icing sugar
- 125g ground almonds
- 3 large free-range egg whites
- 80g caster sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 175g icing sugar
- 125g ground almonds
- 3 large free-range egg whites
- 80g caster sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Preheat oven to 160°C/300°F/gas 3.
Line 2-3 large baking trays with non-stick greaseproof paper. Using a small cookie cutter or a £2 coin, mark out 60 circles roughly an inch apart (this will help you later).
Blitz your almonds and icing sugar in a food processor before sieving into a bowl and setting aside.
Ensuring your eggs are at room temperature, separate the whites from the yolks. Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt into a clean mixing bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar and whisk until the mixture resembles a thick, glossy meringue that holds stiff peaks. If you wish to add colour, now is the time to do so. Add more than you need as the colour will lighten after the dry ingredients are added. Gently fold in the colour using a spatula: slide your spatula on the side of the bowl under the egg whites and bring the bottom up to the top.
Add the almond mix to the meringue and using a spatula rather than a wooden spoon (as this can beat the air out of your mixture) carefully blend everything together until smooth. Consistency matters! You are looking for a smooth mixture that drops off the spoon and slowly melts back into the mixture. Over-stirred and your Macarons will be flat. Under-stirred and your macarons won’t have a smooth, shiny shell. Don’t let this give you the heeby-jeebies though, even if they don’t come out looking right they’ll still taste amazing and are perfect for snacking on while you try again!
Using a piping bag and plain 1cm nozzle, pipe 60 discs onto your baking sheets. Firmly bang each baking sheet on the countertop a few times to even out the ‘caps’ (little nipples on the top of your macarons) and to take the air bubbles out of them. You must leave your macarons to ‘dry’ at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, but ideally an hour.
After drying, they should now have formed non-sticky skin. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, until just set and crisp. Remove the macarons from the oven and leave to cool fully before pulling off the greaseproof.
Make a simple vanilla buttercream (perhaps with a dash of Amarula).
When your macarons have completely cooled, transfer the buttercream to a piping bag and pipe out a grape-sized blob of ganache onto the flat side of a macaron shell. Sandwich with a macaron shell of equal size and tah dah!