Second Macaron Encounter

Macarons. French or Italians? I'm not sure because it wasn't stated on the recipes that I used but I think they were French because the ratio of sugar was lower than the almonds. Macarons are usually baked goods that I much avoided because my partially frugal self that didn't want to pay the price for ground almonds. It's a dessert. Something that I deemed I can live without? Every time I walk down the confectionery aisle and see that packet of ground almonds, I'll just end up telling myself that it's not necessary and walk away. I have a vague memory of how my first try at macarons was but I think they were pretty pink successful macaron shells. I didn't manage to reach the part of making the filling because I didn't know or understand the admiration that people have for its beauty yet. At that time which was probably five years ago, I think I was just looking for something that I can bake with the least amount of ingredients and macarons popped out as the first few options from Google search.

Recently, I wanted to spend some time with one of my close friends and she suggested making macarons because she hasn't succeeded in making them yet. Since I haven't made them in such a long time, I was up for it too. We were pumped for the macarons to be successful this time. Partly was because I have been binge-watching too much dessert vlogs on Youtube (not guilty though ;) ). We were talking excitedly about how it would be if they were successful and at that moment I realized that I have sieved all the dry ingredients together when I should have separated the caster sugar from the others. What a great start :') At last, we decided to weigh and add one more portion of sugar to beat our egg whites. I guess we're more determined to make this work than care about its sugar content :D

Just in case you're thinking of taking some tips from this amateur that only have two macarons baking experience :

1. Your egg whites should be beaten to the extent that when you hold your mixing bowl upside down, they could stand firm and not fall for approximately 10 seconds
2. Your batter is ready to be piped when you could lift your spatula and draw a figure '8' without the batter breaking
3. A firm surface should have formed on the macarons before you put them in the oven (You'll be able to touch the macarons without any batter sticking to your hand)

In the end, we were kind of running out of time so we put the macarons in the oven after letting them sit under the fan for one hour even though the firm surface was not formed yet. (always allocate more time than you need so that you don't rush because I think your batter knows it :) )

There were holes and lump on the macaron shells which I think were formed because we didn't wait for the firm surface to form. Besides that, the macarons' feet were very thin which could only be seen from a near distance and the filling we've made could be have been better if it's smoother. However, we would consider this a semi-successful macaron because we've managed to have at least the form of a basic macaron although it's far from perfect.

P.S. The macarons were really sweet with the double sugar portion :P