Macarons
My mediocre, semi-failed attempt at making macarons. I more or less copied the instructions from Tasty's video on how to make macarons (https://tasty.co/recipe/macarons), with some notable exceptions. I suppose this will essentially be more of a review of Tasty's recipe and a personal note to myself for how to improve. Macarons are something I've always wanted to master but never really had the time to - they're kind of heralded as a major milestone in baking. This was a bit of an impulsive decision to bake these, so I did very little prior research or preparation and kind of just jumped in. It went decently well considering that and that it was my first time making these, but there's certainly plenty of room for improvement on my end.
Active Time: 1 hr 30 min
Total Time: 2 hr 30 min
Ingredients
Macarons
> 1.75 cups powdered sugar (would recommend much less)
> 1 cup almond flour
> 1/2 tsp salt
> 3 egg whites (room temperature)
> 1/4 cup granulated sugar
> 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (would recommend a bit more)
> 2 drops pink food coloring
Vanilla Buttercream
> 2 sticks butter
> 3 cups powdered sugar (would recommend much, much less)
> 1 tsp vanilla extract (would recommend a bit more)
> 3 tbsp heavy cream (adjust depending on your preferred texture)
Notes/Tips:
> I found that as a whole, Tasty's default recipe is wayyyyy too sweet. Particularly the vanilla buttercream, but also the macaron batter itself. The recipe calls for 3 cups of powdered sugar in the vanilla buttercream - I'd say maybe 40-50% of that is sufficient. The recipe calls for 1.75 cups of powdered sugar in the batter itself - I'd go no more than 1.25 or 1.5.
> The proportions are a bit off - I ended up with way more buttercream than I needed, in relation to the amount of macarons.
> Use 17 minutes at 300 degrees as a general guideline. It's around right, but if the macarons are sticking to the pan, then it likely means it needs a few more minutes. Mine did and I overlooked it until it was too late.