French Macarons

Makes 50 small macarons

French macarons are little dooms of cream filled meringues. Paris’s famous patisserie Ladurees is world renowned because of these delightful little round cakes, Ladurees is the height of sophistication and luxury. Macarons line the windows of patisseries all over Paris, they are stacked in neat rows and the colours are beautiful, pinks, greens, yellows and blues fill the window. They look so pretty and cute almost too pretty to eat, but they taste even better.

Macarons are perfect for afternoon tea and are a wonderful treat.

Ingredients

For Meringue

• 200g ground almond
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 egg whites
• 200g caster sugar
• Food colouring

For Filling

• Butter cream, cream, chocolate ganache or whatever you fancy

Method

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together.
2. Choose some food colouring and add a liberal amount to the egg whites. Add the caster sugar, and beat until mixture stiffens.
3. Add the almond and icing sugar mix and stir until you get a smooth texture.
4. Pour the dough into a piping bag.
5. Squeeze out evenly sized blobs of mixture onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper.
6. Preheat the oven to 150C.
7. Bake the macarons, should take between 10- 12 minutes, but keep an eye on them as times may vary.
8. When ready, take them out and leave them to cool.
9. Pour the filling into a piping bag and squeeze out onto one biscuit and then place another biscuit on top. Set in the fridge before eating.