There's something romantic about Macarons, so delicate and tiny, one sweet bite and it's gone.
Of course, i made them for the same reason that I bake a lot of other things, to sneak nuts into my diet that i absolutely hate eating. I was terribly impressed with myself for figuring out to use almond flour instead of actual almonds. Like every single other Asian out there, i don't like my desserts too sweet, not to mention that too much sugar feeds cancer. So the chewy shell combined with a mild creamy honey buttercream instead of ganache, is absolute heaven.
MACARON INGREDIENTS
1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup almond flour
2 eggs (separate the yolks and whites)
food colouring of choice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3.5 tbsp milk
7 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp honey
INSTRUCTIONS
Sift icing sugar and almond flour together.
Whisk egg whites gradually from low to high speed. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar gradually. Beat at high speed for 2-3 minutes until there are soft peaks (ie. you can turn the bowl over without spilling, but not till they are so hard that the peaks don't move at all).
Add food colouring (I use food gel). Make batter darker colour then how you want them to turn out because the colour will fade as they bake. Whisk again till stiff peaks.
Fold half the dry ingredients into the egg whites. Once combined, fold in remaining dry ingredients. Don't need to fold too gently. The consistency is perfect when you can hold up your spatula and the batter can slowly slide a figure 8 into the bowl without breaking. If it breaks, you can mix the batter more till there is less air.
Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the macarons into circles. I used a silicon baking mat that has circles. If you don't have one, pipe them onto baking paper with pre-drawn circles on the opposite side. Bang the baking tray hard on the countertop to pop excess air out. Sit the tray on the counter for 30 mins to 1 hour until the surface of the macarons are dried out.
Bake at 150C for 15-18 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Whisk egg yolks with 1/4 granulated sugar till fully combined. Add milk.
In a separate bowl, mash up butter.
Still the yolk mixture over medium heat till custard consistency. Cool COMPLETELY, then add in the butter. Add 3 tbsp honey. Put this in a piping bag and refrigerate for a few minutes if it is very soft. Pipe into the completely cooled macarons.
TIPS
Everything must be cooled completely before you add butter, or pipe buttercream. Otherwise everything will melt.
Don't pipe the buttercream all the way to the edges or they will overflow when you sandwich the macarons together.
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