Simply Vanilla French macaroons

Simple and elegant, these french macaroons deliver a delight pleasure to your mouth! Easy ingredients but baking isn’t as easy as it looks for these babies need a lot of delicate handling during the preparation (before it can finally hit the oven). Don’t worry! With this recipe and the helpful tips (thanks my experiences), you might just get lucky and will be able to make your own perfect looking macaroons. ( And thankfully, French macaroons require less ingredients and steps).
Bonne chance!  

Amy’s Ingredients
(for about dozen of paired macaroons, 24 singles)

• Sugar 35g
• Sugar powder 80g
• Fine almond flour(powder) 80g
• Egg whites 65g (about 2 large egg whites, Canadian standard) 
• Vanilla extract 10 droplets

**Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius (320 degree Fahrenheit) once the surface of the macaroons are dry enough 

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with sugar (no sugar powder) with a whisk very fast until the mixture is whipped well. The texture should be thick and glossy. The mixture at this stage  is called meringue.
   Note: Use the electric beater at its maximum cycle to help yourself from having a sore arm. Also helps if you add the sugar 1/2 at a time while continuing to beat the egg whites.
2. Add 10 drops of vanilla extract and the sugar powder + fine almond flour to the meringue above and mix carefully with a spatula until it becomes smooth and shiny. Your mixture should produce a nice ribbon that slowly runs down smoothly from the spatula when it is placed above the mixing bowl. (refer to the camera picture) Don’t mix too much for your macaroons will end up being flat and hard.
   Note: One way to make sure you don’t mix too much is to split the meringue in half before adding the dry powders and mix only half of meringue with all the dry ingredients. Add the rest of meringue in until the mixture can reach the right texture and produce a nice smooth ribbon pattern that sinks back into the batter after a few seconds

3. Place the mixture into the piping bag. Using the bag, squeeze the content on a baking sheet (placed on a baking tray) or a greased baking tray
   Note: For the consistent round shape, count  5~6 seconds in your head for the each squeeze with the same force (grip)
   

4. Once the piping is done, dry the macaroons until you can feel the slight skin when you touch it with your fingertips
   Note: Drying can take from 30 mins up to 2 hours of your time since the drying quality depends heavily on the condition of the weather and the temperature of the room. This is the time where you can clean up the mess that’s been created and preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius (320 degree Fahrenheit)

5. Place the dried macaroons in the oven and set the temperature to 130 degree Celsius (266 degree Fahrenheit) . Leave it in for 25~30 mins.
   Note:Do not open the oven during when the macaroons are being baked! Only open it when it is done and ready to be cooled down. Bake 1 sheet at a time. After each batch, set the oven temperature up to 160 degree Celsius (320 degree Fahrenheit) again for about 5 mins then reduce it to 130 degree Celsius (320 degree Fahrenheit)

6. Take the macaroons out from the oven and let it cool for 1~2 mins before sandwiching the each side together with a filling of your own choice.
   Note: For this particular recipe, whipped cream fillers were used to sandwich the macaroons together. You can sand it with any type of fillings that you think it’s appropriate. For a longer storage time, it might be better if you sand it with butter cream instead of whipped cream

7. Enjoy!