60 g egg white (2.1 oz; 0.22 cup; 3 tablespoons and 2 teaspoon)
30 g caster sugar (1 oz; 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon)
50 g ground almonds (1.7 oz; ½ cup)*
90 g confectioners’ sugar (3.2 oz; 0.72 cup)
Pinch salt
40 g Strawberry jam (1.4 oz; ⅛ cup)
1 or 2 drops of red food coloring
Instructions
1. In a mixing bowl, add in the egg whites. And beat it rigorously until foamy. You can opt for electric mixer. Then slowly add in caster sugar while whipping. Continue to incorporate the air into the egg whites until soft peaks form. This is called, French meringue.
2. Add a drop of red coloring in the meringue. Don’t add too much unless you want really vivid red. Whisk until combined.
3. In another bowl, sift ground almonds, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. And whisk together.
4. Pour the confectioners’ sugar mixture into the meringue and fold with a spatula (and/or a scraper). Stop folding when the surface of the batter starts to be shiny.
5. Fill a pastry bag fitted with 1 cm (3/5 inch) pastry tip with the batter. Then line the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Then pipe 2.5 cm (1 inch) disks on a parchment paper. Macarons should be 5 cm (2 inches) apart from each other. After finishing piping, bang the trays hard a few times to remove air bubbles out of macarons.
6. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. or 300 F.
7. Let stand macarons at room-temperture until the surface is dried. It takes somewhere between 30 minutes to one hour. Touch with a finger on a macaron to see if it’s dried enough.
8. Bake for 13 minutes. Out of oven, let cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, remove macarons carefully off the parchment paper. Well-cooked macarons should not have problems sticking too much to the parchment paper.
9. On the bottom side of a macaron, put a teaspoonful of strawberry jam and make a sandwich with another macaron.
Notes
– Characteristics of macaron – The surface looks and feels like egg-shell. And it has two foot, I mean the frilled ruffles on the edges. And inside it has soft and chewy texture.
– You can have it on the day you bake but the taste is the best the next day. Bon appetit!
– If you can’t find ground almonds, make your own. Pulse blenched and chopped almonds in a food processor until finely grounded.
Recipe by Eugenie Kitchen at https://eugeniekitchen.com/easy-macaron-without-mixer/
