February 3, 2018
Valentines Macarons!
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Easy, delicious and beautiful Valentines macarons that are perfect for the day!
Valentines macarons
So it’s been a good while since I posted a macaron recipe… Like, it was June 2016 when I posted my triple chocolate macarons recipe and I can’t quite understand why I have left tit so long before posting another! I actually adore macarons, and so many other people do.
However, they’re seen as being daunting. To be honest, it can take a few practise to get it right, but its so much simpler than you think it is. I decided to make it a little more complicated by piping some heart shapes to go with the Valentines theme, but these are optional!
Shapes
To make the shapes a lot simpler, I used this macaron mat. It’s a really good one because its basically a non slip mat so it sticks to the tray that you put it on, and it also has the shapes drawn out for you to use as a guide. They’re perfectly spaces apart and sized, but they are only guides so you can use it just as a sheet if you wanted.
This recipe does make quite a few macarons, but it is harder to lessen the amount. It probably makes about 60 shells, so it would make about 30 complete macarons. Depending on size though, you could get less or more… I use the mat as a guide, so I got about 30 in total.
Almonds and icing sugar
When making the mix up for the macarons, you really need to make sure that you try and blitz down the icing sugar and almonds together for a couple of minutes, and then sieve it into the bowl. If you don’t do this, you will have a lumpy mess.
When sieving in, about 95% of what you sieved will go into the bowl, but the lumps of almonds for example that stay in the sieve you can just throw away. When mixing together you have to be gentle but firm (the irony) and make sure that its all incorporated together well. Don’t beat it with a mixer, and don’t beat like crazy, but you really need to fold it and be gentle with it.
Colour
I used Sugarflair red extra for the colouring and you can see just how damn red they came out… seriously, it looks like I’ve overly edited the colouring, but it genuinely came out like that! You can easily use a different colouring, or something like ProGel, but a good quality one is best. I personally don’t like any type that you can buy from a supermarket, but you can buy good colours from places like Hobbycraft, or online! I hope you love this recipe, and have a lovely Valentines Day with your loved ones, or your friends and family! x
Valentines Macarons!
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
- 200 g icing sugar
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g egg whites (3 medium eggs)
- 75 g caster sugar
- Red food colouring
- Sprinkles
Filling
- 50 g unsalted butter (Room temp)
- 100 g icing sugar
- Red food colouring
Instructions
- Whizz together the icing sugar and almonds in a food processor for 2 minutes on a high speed. Sieve the icing sugar and ground almonds into a large bowl and leave to one side – its VERY important to sieve them! Discard any lumps.
- Using an electric whisk, whisk up the egg whites until they’re thick and foamy and starting to form soft peaks – gradually add the caster sugar 1tsp at a time like you would a meringue, whisking in-between each addition fully, until all of the caster sugar is incorporated.
- Once incorporated continue to whisk for 1-2 minutes, and start adding your food colouring! I used red! Keep on whisking for 3-4 minutes until its smooth and light!
- Once finished, fold the mixture into the sugar/almond mix – try to be gentle but make sure its all incorporated well.
- Using a piping bag and a small round nozzle, pipe the macarons either onto a macaron mat, or a lined baking tray with parchment paper underneath! Make circles, hearts, or whatever!
- Leave them at least an inch apart from each other.
- Tap the trays onto the work surface several times so that you knock out the air bubbles and sprinkle on a sprinkles that you're using. Leave the macarons on the side for ONE HOUR so that a skin is formed – this stage is important.
- Preheat the oven to 130C and bake the macarons for 16-20 minutes until they have risen to have their “feet” and are starting to peel away from the tray – leave them to cool fully before trying to remove them!
- Once the shells have cooled – remove carefully from your trays and line them up – make your filling. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until smooth and supple, and add in a touch of red food colouring to get a pink colour!
- Once dry, pipe or spread on some of the buttercream of your choice onto half of the shells and sandwich the macaron shells together!
Notes
- I used an amazing macaron mat to make these which I highly recommend! - They have shapes already on them for the hearts, or circles, and they stick to a baking tray well.
- I used Sugarflair red extra to get such an amazing colour, and you need so little. If you use something as thick as sugar flair, take a spoonful of the meringue and mix it together to loosen the colouring, and then mix into the meringue as stated in the recipe.
- You could easily use a flavoured icing sugar in this recipe, or even a nice flavouring!
- The macarons last for up to 7 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator!
- If they are lumpy, you haven't blitzed the sugar and almonds enough, or haven't mixed it well enough. If the mixture is incredibly runny, you've over mixed.
- I recommend this piping tip and these piping bags!
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J x
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I bought pink and red food colouring in the hopes of doing half of them pink and the other half red, but after baking the pink ones came out a light orange and the red ones came out a dark brown/purple. do you have any idea why? It was just normal food colouring from the supermarket!
Annoyingly, supermarket colours are awful quality and this will be why. check out my food colouring blog post x
What do you suggest as an alternative if you don’t have a food processor please?
You could sieve the mixture about 3 times instead so you get the large grains out!
These taste absolutely lovely. And I haven’t even put the buttercream in mine yet! First time making macarons and these were very successful! Felt like I made hundreds too! Definitely want to make them again ASAP!
if i was to add a flavouring of strawberry jam to this recipe how much would you suggest using?
Do you mean an actual flavouring, or actual strawberry jam?
My son used this recipe today and made purple macarons with a salted caramel filling. Recipe was very easy to follow and tasted lovely 😋
For the macaroons Is 130c the temperature for a fan oven?
Yes, it is!
How long does it take for them to cool? Excited to make these 🙂 xx
Honestly not long at all – about 20 minutes probably! x
Did you have to grease the macaron mat? I’ve tried making this and they have stuck to the mat and they haven’t cooked properly.
I’ve never greased for macarons as you don’t need to. What mat are you using? If they haven’t cooked properly then they weren’t done cooking.