Once you have mastered the basic recipe you can experiment with flavours and colours and combinations to your hearts content!
Ingredients:
3 egg white
4oz of ground almonds
7oz icing sugar
2 tbs caster sugar
1/2tsp cream of tarter
food colouring - gel or powder work best! you need more than you would to colour icing or a cake so experiment to get the tone you are after.
Place greaseproof paper on two large baking sheets
In a large bowl mix together the icing sugar and ground almonds and mix together until well blended
In another larg bowl whisk the egg whites until at stiff peak stage - whisk in the sugar and cream of tarter and food colouring (if gel if powder add with the dry ingredients)
Gently fold in the icing sugar and almond mix - the mix will look a fair bit like shaving foam at this point (hopefully coloured shaving foam)
Put mix into a piping bag with a large nozzle fitted. On the baking sheets pipe even circles - you can download and print off templates here or just do them by eye - just make sure to make an even number. Space out the circles a little as they spread slightly
Once you have piped all your macaroons pick up your baking tray and bang it down on a hard surface several times - you want to knock out all the air bubbles otherwise the top will crack. If you have any peaks on your macaroons then smooth them down with a wet finger.
Now patience is a virtue - let your macaroons sit and rest quietly on the side for an hour - this is to allow a skin to form and is the key to a successful bake.
Preheat the oven to 125C place one tray at a time into the over for 12 minutes. Check your macaroons after 12 minutes the tops should be shiney and not brown and they should have risen creating a little frilly skirt at the bottom with a domed top.
Remove from the oven and rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carefully peeling them off the greaseproof and placing on a rack to cool.
Now the choice is what you want to sandwich them together with and the choices are endless from cream to butter cream to lemon curd.
This christmas I have made 3 types
Chocolate Pudding - replace 1oz of the icing sugar with 1oz of coco powder and filled with butter cream made with ginger syrup, mixed spice and clementine zest and iced to look like little christmas puddings
Cranberry cream - basic mix coloured with red and sandwiched with butter cream made with cranberry jelly
Pistacio - replace the ground almonds with ground pistacios and coloured with green food colouring - sandwiched with plain vanilla buttercream because I want the nuts to be the stars.
Merry Christmas, happy cooking and see you in 2013 x
