Making of Macaron

Hello! Work has been crazy the past 3 weeks or so. Today (Saturday) I was in the office 'til 11pm. I know I know for some of you & my hubby, this long work hours is nothing as compared to theirs hehe.

I have always been fond of macarons ever since they exist - their cute, elegant and colorful look, and have always wanted to make them. On a flip side, I always hear people say on how hard it is to make them, in which luck also play a role & how expensive is the almond flour, an ingredient in macaron. Anyway, last week, I was in the mood of making macarons - for the first time I finally did it. I asked my friends & colleague around on how to make them as well as reading blogs and watching youtube tutorials. My first thought - hmm it looks easy. For the shell, you only need 4 main ingredients which is almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites and caster sugar. Thats all! Well of course I was wrong! Making macarons is all about technique (they call it macaronage?) and set them at the right temperature and humidity. I tried it once, and it FAILED!! sobs sobs.... Somehow the shell could not dry! Ok, basically after whipping the egg and mixing the dry ingredients and piping out the batter in a baking sheet, I am supposed to let the macarons sit for about 1 hour so their top shell will dry (so it can have feet). But dunno why, they won't dry up after 3 hours, even I placed it inside my A/C room. For sure humidity plays a factor, so in humid weather like Singapore, placing the macarons-to-be in A/C room is a must.

I didn't give up! The next few days, I tried in again, halved the recipe, mixing it well with care. I also placed the baking sheet directly to the A/C cooling fan to ensure it will dry hopefully.  And... here it is:

After piping out, it looks like this. I know it ain't perfect. Got some peaks.. need to practice more with piping

Finally after waiting 1 hour, the shell is dry to touch.. ready for oven

I smiled as I see those feet forming

Ta da... 

So my second time of making macaron - is a success, but need a lot of perfecting to do. I didn't bother making the filing because I wanted to ensure that macaron shells are good to go. But before knowing, the shell itself is soo good, sweet, crunchy on outside and chewy on inside. yum yum... I am waiting for time to do some macaron saga.. in search of a perfect macaron! Cheers!