Dreaming of Macarons

July 4th is here.

I have a LOT of orders for this weekend

which doesn't give me time to try what I had planned. French Macarons! I will admit, yet once again I have bought another cookbook but this one is special. It's all about macarons. I have never attempted them & this post will give a recipe for a future attempt. I have to admit. I'm a bit nervous. These little cookies have always intrigued me. I need to do this.

Macarons by Annie Rigg with photography by Kate Whitaker looks delicious! There are recipes for just about every flavor and color macaron out there. So here is one recipe I plan to use. I need to do a trial run as these will be at my daughter's baby shower. Hopefully she is not reading this! I like the pink and green shells with rasberry jam & whipped cream, rasberry & passion fruit, coconut & mango and hazelnut & chocolate and so many more.
So many to choose from so here is the recipe for Basic Macarons. I'd better master this first! Anyone with a great recipe? Would love to hear from you. I'll let you know how they turn out! With pictures!

Basic Macarons
1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
2/3 cup of ground almonds
1/2 cup of egg whites (abou3 eggs)
pinch of salt
3 tbs of superfine sugar
piping bag fitted with 1/2" nozzle
2 baking sheets lined with parchment

1. Put the almonds and conf. sugar in a bowl and blend for 30 sec.
2. Put the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl& dry bowl. Add the salt & beat until they hold a stiff peak. (use a whisk)
3. Contine to whisk at medium speed while adding the superfine sugar a tsp at a time. Mix well inbetween each addition. The mixture should be thick, white and glossy.
4. Add food coloring if needed at this point
5. Using a large spoon, fold the sugar and almond mixture into the egg whites.
This can take up to one minute. The mixture should be smooth. It will be ready when you can drop the mixture from a spoon into a molten mass.
6. Fill the piping bag and pipe eavenly sized rounds about 2" across onto prepared baking sheets
7. Tap the bottom of the baking sheets sharply 1x to expel any large bubbles.
8. Leave the macarons for at least 15 minutes and up to one hour until they have set and formed a dry shell. They should not be sticky when tested with your fingertip.
9. Preheat oven to 325
10. Bake the macarons on the middle shelf for 10 minutes. The tops should be crisp and the bottoms dry. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.