Vanilla Bean Macarons

• Vegetarian
• Gluten free

• Refrigerated

  • 3 Egg whites

• Baking & Spices

  • 4 oz Almond meal
  • 1/2 cup Granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup Powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 Vanilla bean

Found on kokocooks.com

Description

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites
• 4 oz blanched almond meal (you can also use whole almonds)
• 1 ½ c powdered sugar
• ½ c granulated sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, and seed scraped out of pod

Directions

• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. If you want to make sure your macs are all the same size, trace 2-inch circles onto the parchment paper with a pencil, keeping a good amount of space between the circles. Place the paper pencil-side down on the baking sheet.
• Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment set. Let the egg whites come to room temperature while you carry out the next step.
• Place almond meal and ½ c of the powdered sugar in a food processor. Place the remaining 1 c of powdered sugar in a medium bowl and set aside. Pulse the food processor so that the almond meal and powdered sugar combine, and form very fine grains. (If you are grinding whole almonds, this will take a good 5-10 minutes of pulsing.) Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl with the powdered sugar. There may be a few tablespoons of almonds that don’t make it through the strainer, and that’s okay. You can toss them or save them for another use. Stir the contents of the bowl together.
• Beat the egg whites on medium until foamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar and salt and continue beating until soft peaks form. Add the vanilla bean seeds and continue beating until almost-stiff peaks form. They should be somewhere between soft and stiff peaks - when you lift the whisk out of the bowl, the egg whites should stand up and maybe just start to curl over. (See photo in blog post) Knock the whisk on the edge of the bowl to remove the egg whites from the whisk.
• Using a rubber spatula, fold in half the almond/powdered sugar mixture into the egg whites. Fold in the remaining almond mixture until evenly combined. The batter should have the consistency of lava, although I’ve never seen lava first-hand, but I can imagine. When you lift the spatula out of the bowl, the batter should drop in a thick ribbon, and should melt back into the main batter after a few seconds. This is the trickiest part of the process, and you get the feel for it the more times you make them.
• Fill a pastry bag (I like disposable ones) with half the batter. Twist the top of the pastry bag closed. Cut a hole in the tip of the pastry bag, and pipe circles onto the prepared baking sheets. If you drew circles onto the parchment, fill until the batter just reaches the edges. Make a little swirly movement when you’re done piping each circle to keep a peak from forming on top of the cookie. Don’t pipe too close to the edge because they spread a tad.
• Tap the baking sheet on the counter a few times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. If drying, use a hairdryer set on low and gently wave it over the macs until the surface of the circles starts to dull.
• Bake macs one tray at a time at 300°F for 7 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake another 7-8 minutes longer. Let the macarons cool on the pan, then gently peel from the parchment. They should come off easily. Sandwich two cookies together, feet side facing in, with jam, buttercream, or whatever filling floats your fancy!