Strawberry Macarons

Ingredients:

Macaron shells:

Filling:

Method:

Whisk the egg whites until they are foamy, then add the vinegar.
Whisk to soft peaks, then add the sugar 1 tsp at a time and whisk until it forms stiff peaks.
Add the food colouring and and vanilla whisk until fully mixed in.
Add the ground almonds and icing sugar in 3 lots, folding in each time until it’s all incorporated.
Keep folding until it reaches a lava like consistency, and can draw a figure of 8 in the batter without the trail breaking.
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle about 1 cm wide.
Pipe disks of batter about 3cm wide, leaving space between each one. Once piped, bash the tray against the counter a few times to know out any air bubbles.
Leave the macaron mixture to form a skin for about 45 minutes, you should be able to run your finger across the top without it sticking.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 150°C and when ready, bake for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minute. You should be able to peel the macarons away from the paper cleanly.
For the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar, then add the vanilla and food colouring. Add a little milk if needed. Pipe onto one side of the macaron, leaving a gap in the middle for the jam.
Spoon or pipe a dollop of jam into the middle of the buttercream and sandwich with another round.
Decorate and enjoy!

Important Tips

It is really important to sift the ground almonds. Unfortunately not all brands ground the almonds to a fine enough size, so you may need to blitz in a food processor to make it extra fine. This helps to get smooth rather than grainy macarons.
Add the food colouring at the meringue stage. If you add it after you’ve added the ground almonds and icing sugar, you may end up having to over mix the batter to get an even colour, which will ruin your macarons.
Use gel food colouring, not water or oil based colours, as these will deflate the meringue and ruin the batter.
When folding the batter, keep an eye on it, and keep testing if you can form a ‘figure of 8’ without the batter trail breaking. As soon as it reaches this point, stop folding. If you mix it too much it will be too runny to pipe.
Pipe smaller rounds than you think, the batter will spread. If in doubt do a test one before piping a whole tray!
Don’t skip the skin forming stage. This is what creates the macaron ‘feet’ you are looking for. The top of the macarons shell will stay smooth allowing the soft batter under the skin to rise in the oven.
If you want to decorate them like mine, mix gel food colouring with a little bit of vodka not water. The vodka evaporates much more quickly!

You can find the video for how to make these on my Instagram @alice.fevronia, let me know if you give them a go!