White chocolate and Cherry Macarons

Macarons have always been "That adorable little dessert I will never have the guts to try"... well until the tea party!

There is something about that crunchy chewy combination that is so addictive!

Since this was my first time let me go on and tell you about the funny, frustrating and finally worthwhile experience I had making these little rascals. Obviously I'm no expert at making these so I'm not entirely sure if what I did was right or wrong, and if it goes completely against what an orthodox French macaron should be ... errrr I'm terribly sorry!

So I tried very hard to be as precise as possible with my measuring. It wasn't very easy because I generally am an estimate/look and assume kind of girl. I was super determined to make it work!

The thing is after a lot of reading I wasn't so sure if I should go with egg whites aged for a day at room temperature or egg whites aged in the refrigerator for three days. Since I was short on time I went with the 1 day recipe. Have you made macarons? Which method do you use?

I followed the simple steps:
For approximately 30 macarons

• 100g ground almonds
• 200g icing sugar
• 3 egg whites (covered with cling film and aged at room temperature for a day)
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar

Sift the almond

Mix the icing sugar with the almonds

Whip the egg whites with an electric beater. When peaks start forming add the granulated sugar a tablespoon at a time till stiff peaks form. At this point you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without the eggs slipping out

Fold the beated eggs with the almond mixture

Fill a pastry bag and pipe 1" circles on parchment paper

Allow to sit for about an hour for the skin to form

Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for 10-15 mins

Once the macarons are cooled fill them with your filling of choice

Check this guide out. It has very simple and well explained steps to guide you along the way if this is your first time. Or you could check out Tartlette's amazingly very very detailed how to here.

I bought store ground almonds because I wasn't very sure how fine my grinder at home would grind whole almonds. I would say they worked fine.I should however mention that you would probably want to get your hands on some really good quality parchment paper. I used wax paper which I normally use for cookies etc and I had a horrible time because the macaroons got stuck to the paper. Fortunately I was able to save some of them.

I was so ecstatic that I was able to produce something decent at the end of the day. Extremely exhausted by the time I was done I really didn't feel up to making icing for the filling, so I just melted some white chocolate and use a bit of cherry pie filling I had made earlier. What a stroke of luck because it actually tasted great!