French Macaroons, yes please..

Since last summer, where Jeremy and I traveled around in Europe, I've been craving these french delicacies. They are quite time consuming but so worth it when you get to enjoy the treats after your hard work. I made 5 flavors of macaroons; vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, strawberry and blueberry using the real deal for flavor and a little food color for appearance.

I started out by making the basic recipe and divided it up into five bowls where I added the different flavors and colors.

Basic Macaroon Recipe

300 g of almond flour
480 g powdered sugar
200 g egg whites (about 6)

Mix the almond flour and the sugar. Beat the egg white until they form stiff peaks. Add the egg whites to the almond mixture and beat all air out the mixture.

After dividing the portion into 5...

Macaroon Variations

Vanilla macaroon - add 1-2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar. No food coloring.
Chocolate macaroon - add 1 tablespoon dutch process cocoa. No food coloring.
Pistachio macaroon - add 1 dl of ground pistachio nuts. Add a little green food coloring.
Strawberry macaroon - add 2-3 strawberries (pureed in a blender) also add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little red food coloring.
Blueberry macaroon - add 2-3 tablespoon of pureed blueberry. Also, add a little more almond flour and powdered sugar to keep the texture of the mixture. Add a little blue food coloring.

Set the oven to 140 C or 275 F.

Add the mixtures to different decorating bags with a decent size tip. Make very small macaroons on the parchment paper with good spacing- they will get larger. Then let the macaroons "dry" for about 20 minutes before you put them in the oven. This is very important ( I messed up on this on the first round), they crack, they don't raise and they just don't look very good. Then place the macaroons in the oven for 10-12 minutes depending on how large they are.

Macaroon filling

2 egg whites
1 dl sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1 dl of soft butter (unsalted)

Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and whisk on high speed until mixture is cool and stiff peaks form, about 6 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Beat the butter and add to the meringue mixture. 

Filling variations

Vanilla - as is. ( I added a little more vanilla though  :-)
Chocolate - add 1 Tablespoon Dutch Process cocoa
Pistachio - add 2-3 Tablespoon fine chopped pistachio nuts
Strawberry - add 2 Tablespoon strawberry puree
Blueberry - add 2 Tablespoon blueberry puree

Mix and match the macaroons and fillings for fun variations. Happy macaroonie day!