French Macaroons: Rose

Hello, internet! I suppose I should just start posting right away, yes? Okay so this recipe didn't turn out quite as well as I would've liked BUT mostly because I got distracted towards the end and yeah. Honestly they were fine, but I left them out and they hardened and ick. The picture above is kinda how it was supposed to turn out, but that didn't happen. (hence the pic creds in the corner) okay, so I suppose my troubles started in the beginning when I realized I do not own a food processor. ATTENTION: if you plan on making macarons, GET A FOOD PROCESSOR. If it's a one-time thing, just borrow one but do not substitute anything. I used a spice grinder... not one of my finer moments... It took an extra 45 minutes to blend the almond flour and that stuff gets hard when heated up too much. 

Anyways, instead of going step by step, I am including this great video from the website where I got my recipe from. It's pretty general, so just follow everything and add a couple (2-3) drops of red food colouring to the cookie mixture (maybe even a bit of rose flavouring if you want) and I'll put an ingredient/equipment list and a recipe for the rose filling underneath. 

Here's a great website for any recipes or tools, also templates (in equipment) 

Equipment: 

Kitchen scale (measure everything in grams!)

Food processor (GET ONE)

Hand or stand mixer with whisk accessory

Sifter or fine sieve

Big stainless steel bowl

Another mixing bowl

Spatula

Pastry bag and round tip (1/2 to 3/4 inch opening) (you can usea pastry bag and snip off the end, but be careful how much you cut off) 

2-4 large baking sheets

A macaron template (small, medium, large, whatever. There are templates on the link above the video)

Ingredients: (the recipe is in grams, so be sure to weigh your ingredients to make sure they're exact)

Cookies

3 egg whites (large eggs), separated 24 hours in advance and refrigerated) 

210 g powdered sugar

125 g almond meal

30 g regular granulated sugar

Red or pink food colouring/gel/paste (I used a few drops of red) you can switch out colours for different recipes, but don't forget to look up the recipe for the filling you want!

Rosewater/essence (you only a splash for the cookies unless you actually want to really taste the rose)

Okay so for the filling, I kind of created my own recipe and it actually seemed to work, even if the end product didn't end up so great. Here we go:

Filling 

100 g sugar
2 extra large egg white
150 g butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon rosewater essence

1. Place sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl.
2. Put the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves. It should be thick and sticky.
3. Place the mixture in an electric mixing bowl.
4. Using a whisk attachment, whisk the mixture on medium-high speed until it has stiff peaks and is glossy. The meringue should be cool at this point.
5. Change to a paddle attachment and contiune beating meringue at medium-high speed.
6. While the mixer is running, add small chunks of softened butter at a time.
7. Continue adding all of the butter and keep mixing until the butter is fully incorporated and the buttercream is very smooth and thick enough to stand on its own.
8. Add however much rosewater/essence into the buttercream and mix well to combine.

I'm pretty sure the filling of the macaron cookies is covered in the video, but in case you needed a reminder. 

Simply fill a pastry bag or even a ziploc bag with your buttercream, snip off the smallest hole you can while still letting out the buttercream with a bit of pressure. Put a small layer on the inside of one macaron cookie and immediately cover with another cookie, making sure not to smush the filling out of the edge of the cookies. Let the buttercream settle and harden and your macarons will be ready to show off in a few minutes! 

Okay! So if you've reached this, you have survived the ordeal of making macarons! Don't worry, every pastry chef (no matter how amateur *coughmecough*) has to go through this messy, time-consuming project. The fact that you didn't throw up your apron/spatula/whisk in defeat means you ARE STRONG AT HEART. Congratulations! Even if the macarons didn't turn out pretty or even edible, at least you know what went wrong (or if you don't, you can always ask me) and you can try again! Next year, when your baking supply resources are replenished (macarons are pretty expensive for a college student to make). Now I'm going to go buy macarons from Chantal Guillon up in SF and cry at the beauty that is a french macaron well made. 

Good night, internet!