Golden Adolescence : In The Kitchen: Making Macarons

Hello, Lovelies!
Today was my first day of Spring Break and I decided I'd do a bit of baking. I decided to make Macarons! Now, I've never had a "real" macaron from a shop or bakery or anything, but, I thought why not? I'll give it a go! And, they actually turned out pretty well! I found my inspiration from a few pins on Pinterest (mine is http://www.pinterest.com/hnicole40/) and also from Zoella's YouTube Video "Baking Macarons with Tanya." I followed mainly their recipe with the help of this other video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L1zbAOQ3EI. Both were extremely helpful and I sort of used tips/directions from both. So, without further adeui, this is how I made Macarons! Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 Egg Whites (2 refrigerated the night before)

230 Grams of Powdered Sugar

130 Grams of Ground Almonds

60 Grams of Granulated Sugar

Steps:

1. The night before, put two egg whites in the fridge.

2. Put 230 grams of powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.

3. Add 130 grams of ground almonds (almond meal) in with the powdered sugar.

4. Whisk slowly and then use a sieve to sift the two ingredients. (This takes a LOT of patience and was probably the most grueling part.)

5. When finished sifting, add the two refrigerated egg whites on top of the mixture but DON'T mix it yet.

6. In a new bowl, put two more egg whites and add 60 grams of granulated sugar.

7. Use an electric mixer to make a meringue. (This will take time, just be patient. It should be the consistency of shaving cream - light and foamy.)

8. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue until they are thoroughly mixed. (Don't Stir)

9. This is when I separated my mixture and added a few blue and green food coloring drops to one and blue and red to the other to make a pretty mint green and a light purple color.

10. Next, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. (Hint: I used this template under my parchment to guide the size of my macarons and then removed it before I put them in the oven.)

11. Next, you can use either a piping bag with a large end or a ziplock bag with a hole cut in the corner to pipe your mixture onto your baking sheet. (Hint: the ziplock bag actually worked better for me.)