The Perfect Macarons

Macarons, a popular french petit-four, are elegant, beautiful, and can even be tasty- a difficult combination to come by. The dessert is made with whipped egg whites, ground almonds, powdered sugar, and a flavorful filling, and though divine, they are the most frustrating, temper-rising, eye-watering and nastiest dessert to make.

The almonds have to be skinless and ground up to the finest of crumbs that may resemble ground coffee, the eggs have to be beaten to the perfect peak, and the batter must be stirred no more than 50 times. Once piped, the batter must dry for a good half hour before baking, otherwise that pretty, frilly foot at the bottom of the cookie won’t appear. They have to be baked for just the right amount of time – over-baking makes the cookie too crunchy, and under-baking causes the top of the cookie to sink, creating a dense Macaron. If the batter is too thin, the cookie will spread and well, it’s ruined.

So it’s safe to say that most macaron recipes are difficult and time-consuming! But I refused to accept that, I wanted to find an easy macaron recipe that anyone could do.

I have made these cookies roughly 20 times, three of which, I was satisfied. Over these tries, I learned that in order for the macaron to dry, you can only make these if your house is dry- meaning wintertime, when central heating is turned on, or summertime when air-conditioning cools your house. It is also far easier if you’ve bought the almond meal instead of making it yourself. Why go through all that trouble?

Here is a fool-proof recipe for macarons with incredible results, I’ve adapted it from allrecipes.com. Make sure you are weighing your ingredients, even the egg whites. It might take a few tries, but you’ll manage to nail this easy macarons recipe for a dinner party or event!