For the Macaroons: 140g Icing Sugar 140g Ground Almonds 3 Large Eggs 2 ½ tbsp. Water 120g Caster Sugar Food Colouring (red photographed, but you could use any colour) 1 tsp Almond Extract For the Filling: Either: 140g Unsalted Butter 280g Icing Sugar Food Colouring/ Cocoa Powder Or: 175ml whipped double cream
Method: 1)
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Grease and line 3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2)
Mix the icing sugar and ground almonds together.
3)
In a pan, gently heat the caster sugar and water until the sugar melts. Bring to the boil and wait until the mixture thickens to a syrup, it should be the consistency of pouring cream. Leave to cool slightly but only for a few minutes.
4)
Separate the eggs and discard the yolks. Whisk the egg whites (with an electric whisk or by hand!) until they form stiff peaks.
5)
Gradually add the sugar syrup to the whisked egg whites, constantly stirring the mixture as you do so. Combine thoroughly, the meringue mixture should be glossy.
6)
Add the almond extract and food colouring to the almond mixture, combine until you have a thick paste.
7)
Using a metal spoon, carefully fold in one spoonful of the meringue mixture into the almond paste until fully combined. Then pour in the rest of the meringue and combine. Be careful not to overmix at this stage or the mixture will be too sloppy.
8)
Use a piping bag to make disks of the mixture on your baking trays, alternatively, if you don’t have a piping bag use two teaspoons. The macaroons can be any size you like, but try to get them uniform so you can easily match up halves.
9)
Leave the macaroons to dry out for an hour. In this time they should develop a skin.
10) Bake for 15-20 minutes. Be careful not to burn, they should not brown on the top.
11) Turn off the oven and leave them to cool inside for an hour. 12) Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. When completely cool fill with buttercream icing or whipped cream. You can also add extra flavours at this stage, like a touch of strawberry jam or Nutella, anything goes. 13) Store in the fridge.
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