Recipe Box - Macarons

Over the past year or so, macarons seem to have become unbelievably popular in North America. At first, I was like, "what is a macarON? I've only heard of a macarOON." Yea, it bugs me when people pronounce this treat as macaroon. I never knew what it was made of so I did a little research. It is somewhat like a meringue-based treat mixed with almond flour, baked to look like delicate cookies.

I've heard a lot of say that macarons are extremely difficult to make so the hunt for a foolproof recipe was on. You can't go wrong with Martha Stewart! A baker made a video on how to make the macarons based on Martha's recipe which made it a lot easier to make. With the help of my church fellowship gals, the macarons turned out awesome! It was our first time making these and I believe they tasted and looked just like store bought ones. Maybe they were a little better than store-bought ones? Nah, now I'm just flattering ourselves.

Link to recipe: Cristina @ Jordan Winery

Some changes we made to our macarons:

1. To fill the macarons, we just used buttercream frosting or blueberry jam. Almost anything sweet can be put in the middle!
2. We did not use cream of tartar. I'm not exactly sure what it does but it turned out fine.
3. The macarons were baked for about 12-13 minutes in total.

I know some recipes call for you to pound your baking pan on the floor to get the air bubbles out of the macarons before you bake them. The recipe I used instead told you to just let the unbaked macarons sit on the baking pan for a half hour to allow an air film to form over the top. This way, the air will seep out from the sides when baking and the top won't crack. However, it is a little more time consuming. In the end, I pounded and waited just to be safe.

Enjoy!