Raspberry Macarons

Just as a little note the recipe that I did this week is not from my book, I was inspired to make it after seeing it being made on television. This is my first time making them so it may not be the perfect way to make them, but I tried my hardest and followed the recipe and this is how they turned out. Also, the process of each step went by so fast it was hard to take a lot of pictures, and some of my pictures got deleted by accident, sorry about that.
Ingredients:

For outside:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup almond flour

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 or 3 drops red food coloring 

For Filling:

• 2/3 cups fresh raspberries
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions:

Gather Ingredients.

Preheat oven to 400F, and position racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large, wide bowl, using a large rubber spatula, or hand held electric mixer, mix the confectioners' sugar and the almond flour with one of the egg whites until evenly moistened. My mixture didn't come out as it should have, but I did everything right so I don't know what happened.

In a small sauce pan, combine the granulated sugar with the water and bring to a boil; using a moistened pastry brush, wash down any crystals on the side of the pan. Cook over high heat until the syrup reaches 240F on a candy thermometer. I messed up really bad the first time on this part, the syrup heats up really fast, and I my candy thermometer recently broke so I couldn't use that and I ended up using a meat thermometer, so my hand got a little burnt after holding it so close to the pan. Be careful! 

In another large bowl, using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 2 egg whites at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With the mixer at high speed, carefully drizzle the hot syrup over the whites until firm and glossy. Beat in food coloring until the meringue is bright pink. I suggest starting this step while the syrup is starting to cook.

Stir 1/4 of the meringue into the almond mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the rest of the meringue. Transfer the meringue into a pastry bag with a small tip. Pipe onto the prepared baking sheets into 1 1/2- inch mounds, one inch apart, tap the sheets and let dry for 15 minutes. If you don't have a pastry bag, you can use a big Ziploc bag and have the mixture go to one corner and cut the tip of the corner off. What it means by tap is hit the baking sheet with the mounds on it on the counter for a few seconds, this helps get any remaining air bubbles out. 

Transfer the meringues to the oven immediately turn off the heat, bake for 5 minutes. Turn the oven on to 400F, and bake the meringues for 8 minutes, until they are puffed and the tops look firm and glossy. Transfer the baking sheets to racks and let cool completely. Peel the meringues off the parchment paper. Be careful when peeling them off the baking sheets because they have a tendency to break, or even crumble. 

Filling: Mix all the ingredients together in a mixer on medium until blended. 

Pipe mixture onto the flat side of a meringue then put another one on top.

I didn't have enough time to pipe the filling so I just spread it with a knife instead.

My Experience:

This recipe was pretty challenging for me. There were a lot of parts where I needed some assistance. If you don't read through the recipe first it makes it hard to make absolute sure that you have everything. I had to redo some parts of this recipe because of how fast everything was going. I had fun making it though, it's nice to challenge yourself once in a wile. I would definitely make this recipe again! 

Enjoy!xx