Macarons!

               A Week Of Sweetness

This week was full of sweetness! I celebrated two birthdays and made ton of sweets! I was busy with school, presents and making sweets the whole week and I just feel so EXHAUSTED! I'm probably just going to sit through the weekend on the computer. Too tired to even move.

This week was my Grandma and sister's birthday. My Grandma's was on the 14th and my sister's was on the 16th but we celebrated it on the 15th. Some of my aunts came to visit so I decided to make sweets for the two birthdays and for my aunts to bring home. I made macaroons. I don't know how you guys call these but I call it macaron. This is french sweet created by Pierre Herme. 

Mine's weren't as beautiful as the ones above but it was still delicious! If you want to know how to make them continue to read!

Ingredients:
-2 room temputured eggs
-5 tbs. of granulated sugar
-1/2 cup of ground almonds or almond powder
-1 cup of icing sugar
-food colouring(optional)

Utensils:
-an electric mixer
-2 large bowl
-parchment paper or wax paper
-2 sheet pans(the size depends of how big your oven is)
-oil(if using was paper)
-plastic or rubber spatula
-piping bags

First, separate the eggs into one of the large bowl. All you need are the egg whites. Once separated, start beating the egg whites with an electric mixer a maximum speed. After it starts to become like foam, add 5 tbs. of granulated sugar. Continue to beat the eggs for a minute or two. It should end up like this.

You know it's done when you can flip the bowl over without the egg whites falling down.

In the other bowl pour the ground almond and icing sugar. With the spatula, mix until it's blended. Then pour the mix into the egg whites. FOLD the egg whites with the mix using the spatula. There are tons of video on how to fold egg whites on YouTube so go check it out if you don't know how to. This is how it's suppose to be like. It can't be too stiff nor too liquid-like.

When you finished leave it aside and start putting parchment paper on the sheet pan. If using wax paper, make sure to put some oil. Then pour the macaron batter or mix into a piping bag or a zip-lock bag and start piping it onto the sheet pan. You can pipe it in any shape you like. Usually they are small and round but I played with the shapes. You can buy some mold sheets that shows you how big the shapes are suppose to be. It will also be easier than doing it by eye.

Leave it aside for 10 to 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. When it's heated put the the pans into the oven and bake it for 12 to 15 minutes. After it's done, let it cool on a cooling rack and peel the macarons of the parchment or wax paper. Add any kind of filling you like and it should end up like this!

 Mine's ended up like this. Wasn't the prettiest but it was fun to make! :D
I'm not a pastry chef or anything amazing so it's normal mine isn't pretty so don't be sad if yours wasn't as pretty as the pictures. I failed many times before it ended up like this! XD