HOW TO: make delicious macaroons at home

Oh you are going to like this alright. 

Not only is it fun to make but heck, it's even funner to EAT. Plus you kind of feel that you're in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Minus Versailles and the crazy hairstyles. And makeup (or so I hope). 

You'll need:

1.5 cups of almonds // 1 cup of powdered sugar // 5 tbsps of regular sugar // 3 eggs // food coloring (optional, but I would suggest it if you wanna feel like Marie Antoinette for five seconds) // parchment paper

First start by boiling your almonds for about 30 seconds to soften their skin because you're going to want to peel them. Once you boil them, let them cool just a little bit so you don't burn yourself and start peeling them.

Next, spread your almonds on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven for 20 minutes on low heat just to dry them.

Once your almonds are dry, throw them into a food processor and pulse several times until they look like tiny bread crums. Add one cup of powdered sugar to your almonds, and again, pulse the life out of them. 

{*note: if you don't feel like going through all this almond peeling/mixing etc etc, you can just buy almond flour.)

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and add five tablespoons of sugar. Beat until your soft peaks become stiff and shiny. 

Now carefully mix your almond mix with the meringe. DO NOT BEAT. It will ruin everything. Just sloowlyyyyy fold your almonds into the meringue. 

Depending on the number of colors you have for your macaroons, have separate bowls for each. In my case I had four bowls. Divide your mixture into your bowls and add the food coloring. A little goes a long way! A few drops will do. 

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Grab a small Ziploc bag and fill it with one of your mixtures and cut the tip off the bag to use it as a pastry bag. (Nifty huh?)

Now get your batter into little circles! Just like you would do for cookies. Don't make them too big and make sure to have some space in between all of them so that you don't end up with one big macaroon. 

Pop them in the oven 20 minutes at approximately 350 degrees

Bake one sheet at a time, rotating it halfway through until your macaroons are crisp!

Once you get the macaroons out of the oven, let them cool on sheets for five minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack. 

Sandwich macaroons together with your favourite jam/peanut butter, basically anything you like. I went straight for the dulce de leche because it's one of my favourite things in the world. If you're not sure what dulce de leche is, I highly suggest you try making some. I know it sounds fancy but you'll really be surprised at how easy it is to make. Check it out here!

And there you have it; homemade macaroons. 

This is probably not the most sophisticated macaroon recipe in the world but it's fun and easy to make and as long as you don't have French people around, you're good.