The Em Life- Macaron Masacre!

I am in no way a baker. Sure I've made my fair share of my mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I would never tout myself as a baker. Cooking in general isn't really my thing. Like at all.

 

When Marquette messaged me that we should try to make Macarons together (even though we live in different states) I was like, "Sure! How hard could it be?" And then I did a YouTube search of French Macarons and was in complete horror. What the heck did I sign up for?!

"These are the hardest cookie to make, by far."

"I've been a baker for 9 years and it took me 5 to get this cookie right."

"Don't be scared if you just get moosh the first few...years. That's normal."

 

What have I done?!

I was also the murderer of this cake...need I remind you. The two on the right are my Pinstrosity. If you haven't read that story, you can do so here, it's one of our earlier escapades.

 

Anyways...as we can see...baking isn't usually my thing. I love the décor part of it, but complex recipes and I just don't mix.

 

So here I am about to make some French Macarons and I realize I've never even tasted one before! This will be interesting.

 

Here goes!

I decide if I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall hard and I go with Martha Stewarts French Macaron recipe. Who would do it better than her am I right?!

I gather all my materials (two Wal-Mart trips and a Hobby Lobby stop later) and I am ready to go.

I decided the only way I am going to make this work is if I do this to the letter! So I do!

 

I have the 1/2'' piping tip, gel food coloring as opposed to liquid, I have the right flour, the parchment paper etc. I am ready.

 

 

I set out my eggs (which is a big deal apparently) Chip helps me crack them perfectly just to get the whites, we whip (with a hand mixer,  don't have a Kitchen Aide or anything, but we follow the timing with a timer and everything).  We pipe them onto the pan with exactness (she suggests 3/4" rounds and go off to the side when removing the piping from the round so as not to create a funny edge), let them set out for 10 minutes hit the pan on the counter to get rid of the air bubbles and put them in the oven.

 



She suggests to set the oven to 375 when you start and then when you put them in lower the temp to 325, we did that. She said to turn half way and I wasn't sure what she meant (did I mention we did this at midnight lol) so I didn't turn them, but now I know she meant turn the pan, so do that, I didn't though.

Ten minutes later I pulled them out and received perfection! I was floored! I jumped up and down yelled and had myself a kitchen dance party. Sorry neighbors, this French Macaron loveliness is too good to no be celebrated!

 

So now I had pulled off the impossible, how about the "easy" part, the filling. I didn't like any of Martha's filling recipes, so I went to the Food Network and picked out their mint white chocolate chip filling and went with that. I made the filling following the instructions and then I needed to color it, I wanted a mint green and tried my best and here was the real Pinstrosity...

 

 

Creature from the Green Lagoon.

 So so bad.

But it tasted like mint white chocolate, so I tried again and got a chartreuse, not what I wanted, but not so awful. We'll make it work. We put them all together and they were so good! Cripsy on the outside, gooey on the inside and just the right size to snack on! I was amped. I had successfully made the hardest cookie. Go team!

 

 

 

Now...any tips on getting my mint green with generic food coloring?? *Yeah right* lol