Strawberry Macaron

As much as I like to bake Macarons, they aren't the friendliest of bakes. I've succeeded a couple of times and failed a couple of times. The hubby loves macarons and seeing that my beloved March holiday was coming to an end, I decided to give this bake another try. I took notes from a good number of websites and plunged into it with caution. 

This bake took me about 2 hours in all to complete and I'd rate it a difficulty 3 out of 5. This is a HIGHLY sensitive bake. I do not recommend that you reduce/replace any of the ingredients and steps in this recipe. 

Strawberry Macarons Recipe

This recipe yields about 30+ cookies depending on size, making about 15 - 20 macarons

110g fine ground almond

200g icing sugar

100g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

30g castor sugar

wilton gel food colouring in no-taste red

115g unsalted butter, room temperature

170 - 180g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tbsp strawberry jam

Method 

Sift icing sugar and almond. If it is too coarse, use a food processor to blitz it.. I did mine once as it was too coarse. 

In a clean and empty mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites till it's frothy. Add in castor sugar gradually and mix till soft peaks are formed. Add in some gel food colouring (I used no-taste red). Whisk whites till stiff peaks are formed. 

Add icing sugar and almond mixture into egg whites. Fold in (NEVER STIR) about 40 - 50 times or till the batter can fall off nicely in a V off the spatula. There should not be any lumps in the batter. Do not over mix the batter. 

Spoon batter into a piping bag. Snip off the tip of the bag. Alternatively, use piping tip #12 (round) to pipe the batter onto the baking sheet. I used silicon baking paper. You can print templates online if you prefer a guide.

On a towel/cloth, knock the baking tray to release air bubbles. Use a toothpick to poke the bubbles if need be. Allow the macarons to dry. You may speed up the process with the oven drying tips from this recipe. I left them in front of a fan for half an hour today while having the air-conditioning turned on (it's a super warm day!). 

When the macrons are dry to the touch, preheat oven to top&bottom heat, 150 degree Celsius. 

Bake for 15 minutes. Feet should form between to the 5 - 10th minute. Remove macarons from oven and allow it to cool completely before removing it. If the macarons are stuck to the silicon paper, return to oven and bake for another 1 - 2 minutes (depending on how sticky the macarons are) and repeat cooling process. Do not overcrowd your oven. I had 2 trays of macarons but I baked a tray at a time. 

While macarons are cooling, whisk the butter of room temperature till it is creamy. Add in icing sugar in 2 additions (you may sift it if you like). In the second addition, add in vanilla bean paste (taste will be compromised if you choose to use extracts/essence) and strawberry jam. Mix well for another 2 minutes on medium - high speed. Scoop buttercream into piping bag and chill till ready to use (buttercream will be firmer and easier to work with). 

Pipe buttercream onto macaron cookies and set aside in fridge overnight (preferably) for the flavours to come together. Enjoy!