Macarons is a meringue-based sandwich cookie made with almond flour, egg whites, sugar, powdered sugar, and food coloring. Macarons originated in the Middle East like many other almond-based pastries. It is not easy to trace its history with certainty because at the time the word “macaron” also referred to a soup.

Macarons are not an easy treat to make. It is very easy to mess them up.  (the ingredients are listed below).

• 100 g egg whites at room temperature 4 large eggs
• 100 g sifted almond flour 1 1/2 cups 
• 100 g granulated sugar just under 1/2 cup
• 100 g sifted powdered sugar 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla 5ml

After all your ingredients are measured you can then start the process of making the cookie part of the macaron. Before starting set the oven degrees to 350. The temperature of the oven also depends on how the weather is that day. Then wipe distilled white vinegar on the whisk, mixer whisk attachment, and the bowl the egg white will be added to. After measuring out 100g of egg whites you are going to add 3 tbsp of sugar from the 100g that you already measured out. This is the point where you boil a pot of water and double boil the metal bowl of egg whites and sugar. In this process you need to whisk the eggs consistently and don’t stop until it is a white color and all the sugar is dissolved. (This is the part of the process that gets tricky) If you keep the eggs on too long then they will cook and that will force you to start over.

Once you have done that it is now time to start using the stand mixer and mixing the egg whites on high. Slowly add the granulated sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Once stiff peaks form add the sifted almond flower and powdered sugar 1/4 at a time and only let the mixer whisk attachment make one full rotation. DO NOT do more than one rotation every time you add the powdered sugar and almond flour mixture. This is the point in the recipe where you stop using the mixer and start to fold it with a rubber spatula by hand. Keep doing this until you can make a figure 8 with the batter.

Now you are ready to pipe the macarons, and let them sit out for 15 minutes before baking them. It is recommended that you flatten them out as best you can by dropping the pan from a low height on a table. Turn the preheated oven down to 320 and bake them for 6 minutes; then rotate the pan 180 degrees and cook that for 7 minutes. Finally your macarons are done.

Now that you know how to make them, you can now try them out for yourself. I recently made a batch of macarons and, not to brag, but they came out amazing. The cookie shell on the outside is the perfect almond flavor and the buttercream on the inside is just the right amount of sweetness. I would recommend trying macarons out for yourself to anyone. Macarons are worth the hype.