how hard is it to make macaroons?

[TremoloGreen]

We are having a 'wear pink and bake pink things' day at work in a couple of weeks to raise money for breast cancer research. I have coeliacs and don't want to make a cake... I was thinking of macaroons as they would be easy to make pink. I'm only an intermediate level baker; I can turn out a good cake pretty easily and I have made meringues before (some perfect, some just OK).

Do you think I would be able to handle it? Also if anyone has a good recipe, or any tips, they would be much appreciated!

As in the french-style macarons or traditional ones ? the french ones are extremely difficult to get right. I do have the proper Pierre Herme recipe which I have used sucessfully several times - although with the caveat that I am a professional ;D

Easy pesasy lemon squeezy. I make them half french macaroon, half meringue mixed (macarangs as we call them here). Very very simple and not so expensive to make (ground almonds are £££).

Easy to make, hard to make well I think...

I found them tricky. The melted sugar method completely failed.

Make sure you give them enough time to rest before putting them in the oven!

Easy to make well enough, hard to make The Approved French Way - this 'how to' guide in the Guardian has some interesting tips and some frankly scary reader comments...

I'll see if I can dig out my recipe. I have my own concoction that works pretty well amd I've developed it through tweaking and experimenting. I haven't made them for a while but must have it written down somewhere.

Do you mean coconut macaroons? They are easy. Meringue with desicated coconut added. Google Nigella's recipe.

I do Hugh Fearnly-thingy's recipe. It's very very easy. But not sure how you make it pink...

I've tried lots of different recipes, lots of different times, and only once managed to make decent ones!

The first time I tried, I made chocolate ones, they looked like little dog poos and from that moment on, macaroons have been known as shitskits in this house.

Those macarons in the guardian are dreadful. The David Leibovitz ones look closest to what they should look like, the rest look like crap !

OK, I have just made the Dan Lepard ones, from Short and Sweet.
They were very easy, but I have the same problem Viking had.... the "tail" from the piping bag made them look a little dog poo-y. Fortunately not chocolate flavour! And only for me to scoff, so I don't care that much

But... how do I stop this next time? (for there will be a next time, they taste lovely) Can I smooth them over after piping?

Thanks

Can you gently press tail down with moist finger?

I think the ground almond and whipped egg white ones are v easy. And also delicious.

I don't much care about shape, though, happy with fairly random splodges (I use a piping bag if I want them neater), but you can get macaroon trays to make perfect little rounds for sandwiching together in the laduree style if you want to go the whole hog.

On GBBO, they smoothed with a wet finger after piping.

I make coconut macaroons that are super easy. I like them to look fluffy so don't worry about smoothing them over.

It's easier to sandwich them if they are all the same size - google "free macaroon template" - you can print it and put it under your greaseproof paper so all macaroons are evenly spaced on the tray and the same size.

Salted caramel macaroons are my favorite but I find it difficult not to eat too much of the filling before it goes in!

The pink whisk does a good recipe here. Use a piping bag, put your ground almonds in food processor to grind them superfine, then dry them a little in the oven. Take your time, they always take longer than I think they will

Thanks all
I will definitely grind the already-ground almonds next time. Dan Lepard didn't suggest it, but I see other recipes do, and it would improve the texture, they are quite gritty....

Butterflies - any chance of that salted caramel macaroon recipe? Sounds divine :)

It took a few goes before I got them right, so here are my novices words of wisdom

By the Bake o Glide, they come off the sheets really easily

Buy the Wilton gel based colours, I bought some gel ones out of Tesco, I think they were Dr Oetker brand and it was shite. It was making my meringue mixture too runny and once piped they would spread all over the baking sheet.

Grind your almond and sugar mixture in a food processor till it's like a powder

Watch your oven, when I pipe them onto a baking sheet, I just use the middle as they burn on the outer edges. Good luck!

make Scottish ones:

250g of really, really mashed potato plus a 1lb of icing sugar - mix like a bastard in a mixer till really creamy.

Form into balls/bars/whitever - roll in melted chocolate and toasted dessicated coconut

magazine.co.uk/recipes/multicoloured-macaroons this is the recipe I used last. They came out perfectly. Made lemon, chocolate and strawberry. Make sure you use a decent food colouring to get pink without having to throw half the bottle in and make the mixture too runny. I find silver spoon gives a far deeper colour with less of it.

I used the Pink Whisk recipe and they weren't shop perfect but they were really yummy.

Honestly if you're not baking them for Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry I'd go for it, I bet your audience won't care if they are not the perfect size or don't have a good 'foot' or aren't shiny enough, I bet they'll just say 'pretty' and 'yum'.

here is the salted caramel recipe, they are amazing, full of calories!

Note that macaron is French, made with almonds and macaroon is Scottish, made with coconut..... [macaron geek icon]

Pronunciation duly noted, wrist slapped
Pink whisk site very helpful, thanks :)