Oh, those French macaroons...

Probably most of you already know what it is – a nice almond meringue cookie with sweet filling. I heard that in other countries people are going crazy for these little tasty bites. Of course, not mentioning France, there are many Europe countries that have rows of people craving to buy a nice box of colourful macaroons, but unfortunately in Lithuania this is still “What?” Oh well, we are always in the end of the row, still not knowing what exactly it is. Luckily, I found many recipes in English food blogs, even Marta Stewart video recipe, and some information in other pages and decided that these macaroon thingies would perfectly fit my sweet gift boxes that I usually give away during some events. Also, I must mention, these nice sweet meringue thingies was a challenge in Lithuanian “Daring Bakers” blog, that literally is not “daring bakers”, but “no stop bakers” or something like that, but the project is still the same. Few other Lithuanian food bloggers, including me had all month of this challenge. Ok, being honest I screwed up. My meringue cookies looked like a non pleasant gift from Mars, of course, probably the fact that I used too much of green fool colouring also was the reason, but despite all of that, they were terrible. The taste, however, was great, but the look, oh that’s very sad topic for me…
So, after few days of feeling a bad bad baker and having no joy in baking or cooking, I said to myself – “NO WAY, I’m gonna make those French almonds one day and they will look great” And yes, basically, I did what I said. I realised that strong desire and a little bit of unlucky experiences sometimes may lead you to amazing results. So guys, don’t be upset if you were also unlucky making French almond macaroons, everything is possible. This recipe is from Lithuanian bakers project page, I only change filling according to my taste.


For cookies:
3 (100g) egg whites
5 tbspns of sugar
a cup of confectionary sugar
½ cup of almond flour (or grinded almonds)
½ teaspoon of vanilla aroma
food colouring

For filling:
200g of soft/room temperature butter (one cup)
½ cup of confectionary sugar
½ cup black currents jam

Whisk egg whites until foamy, by using electric mixer. Add sugar, just one tablespoon at a time, and whisk until dissolved. Add vanilla aroma. Add a bit desired of food colouring.
Prepare almond mixture – mix almond flour (or nicely grounded almonds) with confectionary sugar, don’t leave any “sugar bubbles” (I’ve got no idea how to call them). Whisk almond mixture with egg whites, not more than 45-50 times, this time don’t use electric mixer, use hand-mixer tool.
Put this pastry into paper bag (I personally used teaspoon, because my bag was damaged) and make nice rounds on a floured baking paper sheet, on a tin. Let dry for about one hour.
Preheat oven to 300F, put macaroons inside and bake about 10-12 minutes at the same temperature. Take them out, let cool. Using knife, remove from baking paper.
Prepare filling: beat soft butter, just add sugar and jam, mix into nice looking cream. Take some cream and make macaroons burgers. That’s it.
I’m sorry for such a fast explaining, I hope you will make great macaroons. You can always find more information on other pages. Personally, my notices were that best macaroons should be made of really really finely grinded almonds, nicely whisked egg whites (remember – one spoon at time), really important – to let them dry, you can even wait a bit longer for example not 60, but 80 minutes, drying macaroons makes those nice looking tops and adorable bottoms. Oh guys, I hope you manage to do it, and after that you are gonna be able to prepare macaroons and give away as a nice and tasty gift for your very special persons… Have a great time in the kitchen and stay updated for new recipes.