macarons

Or macaroons, I think both are ok, anyway I'm home alone today with no work ( I'm a casual relief teacher). I'll keep myself busy and clean and tidy the house, attack 'washing mountain', plan a yummy meal ( roast chicken) and make a treat ( macarons) for the family. Hubby works hard, he very rarely gets time to himself so I feel like this is another way I can contribute ( but don't get me wrong, I also make the most of it, there's the new Your Home and Garden that will get read cover to cover over lunch! ). I've been wanting to make these for a while now, mainly because they're pretty expensive to buy from fancy macaroon shops $30 for 12 when I last checked! They were easier to make than I thought they'd be. I used butter cream for inside them as I didn't have any cream or dark chocolate. I also used 4 egg whites as our eggs are smaller than size 7. The recipe is from here:

http://www.foodlovers.co.nz

Macarons/ Macaroons!

• 210g icing sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 3 size 7 egg whites
• ½ cup caster sugar
• Few drops pink food colouring
• Few drops strawberry essence
• 90g dark chocolate
• 3 tbsp cream
• Cocoa to dust

Place icing sugar and almonds in a food processor and process for a minute or so.  This makes the mixture as fine as possible.
Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy and then gradually add the caster sugar while continuing to beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Add a few drops of essence and tiny drops of colouring until you get a definite pink colour but do add gradually as it will easily become too bright.
Sift the icing sugar and almonds into the egg white and fold together.  The mixture should be soft enough that if you make a peak it will collapse down onto itself.
Spoon mixture into a piping bag and pipe small circles onto a baking paper lined cold tray.
Preheat oven to 150 C and leave the macarons to rest while the oven is heating.
Bake for 15 minutes until firm.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Melt chocolate and cream over a gentle heat and stir until smooth.  Allow to cool until it thickens enough to spread and sandwich macarons with chocolate.
Dust tops with cocoa ( or icing sugar).
Store in an airtight container.

cute aren't they?