Easy French Macarons - Flourless Macarons
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: French
Serves: Makes 20
Ingredients
  • Ground almonds- ⅔ cup
  • Confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar or icing sugar- 1 cup
  • Egg whites, at room temperature- from 2 large eggs
  • Cream of tartar- ¼ tsp (optional)
  • Powdered sugar- ¼ cup
  • Food color of your choice- ½ tsp
  • Vanilla extract- ½ tsp
For filling
  • Buttercream frosting, ganache, whipped cream or jam
For making chocolate whipped cream
  • Heavy cream- 1 cup
  • Confectioner's sugar- 4 tbsp
  • Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
  • Cocoa powder- 2 tbsp
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325 F or 160 C, place the rack on the lower third in the oven.
  2. You could either use blanched almonds and ground it in a food processor to a fine powder or if you have already ground almonds use that.
  3. The ground almonds must be very fine, grind in the food processor for a few minutes.
  4. Add the ground almonds and confectioner's sugar to a food processor, process until combined for 3 minutes.
  5. Sift the almond and sugar mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. If there are any lumps in the sieve, grind that and sift it again. Keep aside the mixture.
  6. Whip the egg whites using an electric hand mixer or in a stand mixer.
  7. Very important, egg whites must be at room temperature.
  8. Separate the egg whites from 2 large eggs, add to the stand mixer bowl, add cream of tartar if using, beat for a minute at high speed.
  9. Add ¼ cup powdered sugar to the egg whites.
  10. Beat at medium speed (4 on Kitchen Aid) for 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high (6 on Kitchen Aid) for 2 minutes. Then beat at high speed (8 on Kitchen Aid) for another 2 minutes.
  11. The egg whites will form a stiff peak. As soon as stiff peaks have formed stop whipping.
  12. Do not overbeat the egg whites.
  13. Add the food coloring and vanilla extract to the whipped egg whites, beat at the highest speed for 30 seconds.
  14. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
  15. Immediately add the prepared almond-sugar mixture to the whipped egg whites.
  16. Fold using a spatula from the bottom of the bowl to upwards, then press the flat side of the spatula firmly through the middle of the mixture. Repeat this till the batter resembles lava consistency.
  17. The batter shouldn't be watery, avoid over mixing the batter.
  18. For piping the batter: Use a ⅜ inch round tip. Fit a piping bag with the round tip.
  19. Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
  20. Have two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper ready.
  21. Carefully, pipe the batter into ¾ inch round, then swirl tip off to one side.
  22. To have precise round shapes, you can mark round shapes on the parchment paper.
  23. Repeat this, make sure to leave 1 inch spacing between the macarons as it will rise while baking.
  24. Tap the baking sheets firmly against the countertop 3 times to release the air bubbles.
  25. Bake one sheet at a time, for total 13 minutes. After 6 minutes of baking, rotate the sheet, this is for even baking. Again bake for the remaining 7 minutes.
  26. After total 13 minutes of baking, take the baking sheet out of the oven.
  27. Let the macarons cool down on wire racks.
  28. Spread one macaron with your choice of filling and sandwich with another macaron. Repeat this with other macarons.
  29. You could munch on it right away. Leftovers can be stored in an air tight container and kept in the freezer, stays fresh for 6 months.
  30. When these are kept in the freezer, it turns crispier and tastes delicious.
  31. I used chocolate whipped cream for the filling: Combine all the above mentioned ingredients "for making chocolate whipped cream" into a stand mixer bowl. Use the whisk beater and whip at high speed till soft peaks are formed.
Notes
How to blanch Almonds: Soak almonds in boiling water for a few minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Pat dry with paper towel and peel off the skin using your fingers.

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Recipe by Cooking with Thas - Wholesome Homemade Recipes at https://thasneen.com/cooking/easy-french-macarons-flourless-macarons-gluten-free/