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French Macarons

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites aged*
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup granulated superfine sugar**
• 2 cups powdered sugar/icing sugar
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons almond flour
• *Separate egg whites from yolks and leave it overnight at room temperature.Or place it in the fridge for up to 5 days then bring it room temperature before baking.
• **You can make it superfine by pulsing regular sugar in a blender.
• Your choice of fillings:
• All time favorite nuttela filling
• -Nuttela
• Salted caramel or dulce de leche filling
• - 1/2 cup dulce de leche
• - pinch of salt
• - 8 tablespoons butter
• Butter cream filling
• - 1 stick butter
• -1 - 1 1/2 powdered sugar
• -1 teaspoon vanilla
• -1 tablespoon milk
• Raspberry butter cream filling-
• 1/4 cup salted butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• -adapted from entertaining with beth
• Mascarpone filling
• - 8 ozs mascarpone cheese
• -1/2 cup powdered sugar
• -1 tablespoon vanilla,or 2 tbsp. strong coffee,espresso,strong earl grey tea. or 1 teaspponn almond extract***
• ***You can add it to regular butter cream instead of milk.

Instructions

1. Make sure your egg whites are at room temperature and aged for at least 1-2 days.
2. On a piece of parchment, use a sharpie,pen or marker to draw 1-inch (2.5 cm) circles about 2 inches apart.It will be used as a template or you can just turn it over use to pipe out rounds.
3. Sift almond flour/meal and powdered sugar together to a bowl .Process big leftover pieces of almond flour in a blender and try to sift them again.Discard any leftover big pieces of almond flour.set it aside.Give sifted almond flour/meal and powdered sugar a stir so it's well incorporated.
4. Make sure your bowl and mixer whisk clean,dry and free of grease.
5. Beat egg whites with pinch of salt on medium speed.
6. When egg whites become foamy, add granulated superfine sugar.Continue to beat on high speed(speed 8-9 on stand mixer).
7. Beat until the meringue just holds stiff peaks (when you slowly raise the whisk the meringue is straight up, no drooping, called a 'beak') (but do not over mix the meringue or it will 'break').
8. Fold in almond flour/powdered sugar mixture carefully in three batches.When folding, cut through the meringue and then fold up and over, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
9. Be careful not to under mix and not to over mix here.The batter will fall back into the bowl in a thick ribbon.Should be shiny and flow like 'magma'.
10. Fill a pastry bag, fitted with 1/2 inch tip, with about half the batter.
11. Pipe about 1 - 1 1/2 inch rounds onto the parchment paper, using the template as a guide.
12. Then tap the baking sheet on the counter 4-5 times to break any air bubbles.
13. Let the Macarons sit at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes (depending on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen) or until the tops of the Macarons are no longer tacky.(when you run your finger through the top of a macaron, its not sticky and formed a dry skin/shelll; thats when they are ready to go in to the oven.)
14. Heat oven on 300 degrees.
15. Bake macarons 12-15 minutes ( depending on your oven)
16. Bake only one baking sheet at a time.
17. ( I tried baking two at a time,and it failed)
18. Let them cool. Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe your desired filling.
19. Sandwich macarons and place them in the fridge to mature at least overnight.(Thats when they will have a little crunch on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.)
20. Best served at room temperature.
21. Fillings-
22. Salted caramel:
23. Beat all the ingredients together until you have a smooth consistency.
24. Butter cream filling:
25. Beat butter and sugar together.
26. Add milk or any desired flavoring
27. Whip until well combined.
28. Raspberry butter cream-
29. Whip butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.Add sugar.
30. Then place sieve on top of a bowl the same size. Work raspberries through the sieve with a spatula, pushing them through, mashing them around until you extract their juice. You want 3 tablespoons of juice.Add juice to buttercream, and whip until combined.
31. Mascarpone filling-
32. Whip all the ingredients.