Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway!

Just like the cupcake craze I feel I have now resisted the Macaroon fad for as long as possible. Often I have drooled over the macaroon's on offer over at Tartelette but always managed to tell myself that it required more dedication to the cause than I have to make these little morsels. Then Josie over at Daydreamer Desserts got in on the act and I found the pressure mounting! The final nail in the coffin came when the April edition of Delicious magazine landed in my letter box. The front cover piled high with pretty pastel coloured macaroon's ... what was I to do? Especially when I found myself with three spare egg whites that were just begging to be used rather than put int he freezer to save for a rainy day. It was a conspiracy, I'm sure!

Research was required. I'd read enough through various blogs and magazine articles to know that these sweet treats were more easy to scoff than they were to make. There is a great article over on Tartelette which helped ease the pain, apparently it can even go wrong for the professionals! I needed to know more so I headed over to David Lebovitz's blog but I'm afraid to say that his post did little to install confidence in me.

At this point I decided it was best to just dive right on in and make a batch ... so that is what I did. And I'm really pleased I did because the thought of making Macaroon's is actually much more daunting than the actual making of them. And when you manage to produce a tray or two of them for yourself then the sense of satisfaction far outweighs any 'stress' that making them may have induced in the first place ... or as one of my favourite quotes says 'feel the fear and do it anyway'! (Susan Jeffers)

Peppermint Macaroons with Nutella Filling

175g icing sugar

125g ground almonds

3 large free range egg whites

75g caster sugar

Peppermint flavouring

Green food colouring (I used liquid because that's what I have to hand but I think I'll treat myself to a stash of powdered ones from now on as they produce more vibrant colours)

Nutella

Preheat the oven to 160C/fan 140C. Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy. At this point you can stir in the flavouring and food colouring.

Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining half, making sure you use a spatula to cut and fold the mixture until it is shiny and has a thick, ribbon like consistency as it falls from the spatula. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle.

Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Pipe small rounds of the macaroon mixture, about 3cm across, onto the baking sheets. Give the baking sheets a sharp tap on the work surface to ensure a good 'foot'. Leave to stand at room temp for 10-15 mins to form a slight skin. This is important - you should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger. Bake for 15 mins. Remove from the oven and cool.

When the Macaroon's have cooled use 1 tsp of Nutella to sandwich pairs of them together.

Makes 20 (I got 16!)

Adapted from Delicious - April 2010

OK, so they aren't perfect. But I'm chuffed to bits with them for a first effort. Having never actually eaten a Macaroon before either I'm not sure if the texture is spot on or not but they have a nice thin crunchy crust (note the 'foot' - how pleased am I!?!?!?!) and what we think is a lovely chewy middle. Hubby doesn't like meringues or pavs normally so i didn't think he would be that keen on Macaroon's but to my surprise he asked me not to take any of them into work to share, he wanted them all to himself!