French Macarons : A First timer's Story

Macarons, I never knew this name until my eye caught this on foodgawker. I saw many food bloggers uploading pictures of colorful macarons and that grew a desire in me to try at least once. I was really scared, but then I researched a lot and then I understood the trick behind perfectly done macarons.. I saw many videos and then on a Sunday morning I just made them. To my surprise, they came out so awesome. I was so overwhelmed by the outcome. You know, funny thing is that I even googled to know how they taste and compared with mine. They taste so crunchy and chewy and melt in your mouth. I cant tell you in words. Macaron cookies were born in Italy, the term macaron means "Fine Dough". They contain finely ground almond flour, egg whites and super fine sugar. Let me give you the story of how I got mine perfect. Well I am not an expert, but I got near to perfect ones. So here goes my recipe:

French Macarons       

Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Makes about : 20-25 Macarons

Ingredients

For Macaron Batter

• 3/4 cup of almond flour
• 1 Cup of Confectioner's Super fine sugar
• 2 Large Egg whites (At room tempertature)
• 5 tbsp. of granulated sugar
• 1 tsp of cream of tartar (Optional)

For Filling

• Nutella 2-3 tbsp.(Store bought)

Method

• Since this is my first time , I read through all different blogs and videos and everyone were telling to use aged eggs. Aged eggs? What does that mean ? They are nothing but I separated the yolks from 2 large egg carefully and stored them in a small bowl covered with damp cloth in refrigerator for 24 hrs before I used them for baking. Make sure you partially close them to allow air pass through it . I did this on a safer side. I do not recommend it cos some of them said that doesn't matter until its on room temperature. Later Almond flour , I tried finding this flour at all stores here ; I dint get so I Blanched and ground them . (Simply put some almonds in hot boiling water for 1 min, and remove the skins and dry them for few hours and ground them into fine flour) . So I did these preparations 2 days before I made macarons. 
• The Day You decided to prepare macarons, Take the egg whites from refrigerator  a few hours before and keep them aside to come down to room temperature. I had a kitchen thermometer to measure. This is an important step, Please try to bring them to room temperature.
• Next , I took almond flour and confectioner's sugar in a food processor and processed for 1 min and took a sifter and sifted the flour in a parchment paper and set aside.
• Now My Egg whites have come to room temperature, I took them into bowl and added 1 tsp of cream of tartar and started beating them with an electric beater till its real foamy . You can start to see the tracks of whisk in the foam. Now add some granulated sugar to it slowly and keep beating the egg whites . Please do not over beat them . Please whisk them and keep adding sugar ( I processed the granulated sugar to a fine powder,its optional) .I checked my whip by shaking the wire whisk and lifting it slowly to check if it forms like a beak . We dont want that. What we want is , When you whisk and slowly remove the whisk it should hold firm and not drupe like a beak. Beat for another min and check if it holds firm.Now you are really gonna watch it, if you over beat it .. you do not want to start all over again. Now after its done, You will feel like some substance in it while stirring. Thats your meringue. 
• Now to the meringue, Add the sifted flour and sugar to it  and mix slowly. We do not want to mix it so quick . slowly using a silicon spatula , divide in between and mix thoroughly by adding little flour to it and finally add all and mix into a thick batter. If its watery, then you have over beaten it ( add some almond flour) . Then take 1 inch point tip and a piping bag and fill it with the batter. I took a baking sheet which is flat and covered with a parchment paper. Since this is my first time using a piping bag, I made myself a template and made 1 and inch circles and left some spaces cause they do spread while baking. 
• I piped straight down to the circles and left some cos they spread. I did around 15 on a baking sheet. Now comes the important part. You should let these dry for atleast 40-60 minutes. I dried mine for 45 minutes . Please do not skip this part.
• In the meanwhile, I preheated my oven to 325 F . Once its done, Use a finger and slowly check on those piped macarons that it it sticks. Mine was totally dried and it dint stick at all. It was smooth. 
• Now Bake them in oven for exactly 13 minutes. Please check on it . It will slowly starts browning. Take out of oven and cool them for 15 minutes and remove them slowly.
• I had some store bought nutella, I used a 1/2 inch tip and a piping bag for filing and piped the filling into the macarons and closed it . For assembling, Make sure you pair up all the cookie shells so they are close as possible in size .
• Let them stand atleast for overnight in refrigerator, Serve at room temperature. Store upto 5 days in an airtight container. 

Enjoy and happy eating. Please try this recipe. Its not that hard as it sounds. Try any recipe with full dedication and hope, Success automatically reaches to your mouth lol!!