French Raspberry Macarons {Très Beau}

Today will go down in my cooking history as the MOST challenging, but yet MOST fun I have EVER had!!!!

Thank you to Martha Stewart, I made French Macarons for the first time ever.  Also I have to fess up, I actually have never even tried a French macaron.  Yes I know…I know, I was missing out all these years.  Seriously, I was missing out, they are so wonderful.   These pretty little cookies are so delicate, sweet, chewy, and just all around DE-licious!

You need a mixer, and food processor to make the cooking process less stressful.

I wasn’t for sure where to get the almond flour, which is very important in this recipe.  I did end up finding Bob’s Red Mill almond flour at Earth Fare.

To start off, I had to blend the confectioner sugar, and almond flour together, and then sift the flour twice.

When I was sifting the flour the first time, I had a lot of big pieces of almonds that would not go through the sifter.  I used a spatula to press as much as I could through the sifter, I didn’t want to lose too much almond flour in the process.  I did have to discard some of the pieces of almonds that decided to be cranky, and refuse to go through the sifter.

I had to use my beautiful new Kitchen Aid Mixer I won in a recipe challenge hosted by Chef2Chef.net.  I seriously LOVE my Kitchen Aid Mixer!!!!

It is important to make sure the eggs are at room temperature, then separate the yolk from the egg whites.  I had to whip the eggs till there was a peak.

This is where it got scary for me….folding in the flour mixture, into the whipped eggs.  You are always told on cooking shows to gently fold in the ingredient into the whipped eggs or they will break form.  My heart was pounding, but I succeeded in mixing them perfectly, SCORE!!!

I have not invested in a pastry bag yet, I guess that may be something to add to my wish list.  So I used a ziploc bag, and cut the corner off.  It actually worked perfectly, and was not too much of a crazy mess.

Now I have discovered I am not good at making perfect little circles, but the effort was there I promise.

I never left my oven’s side…okay maybe I did to look at Twitter for a moment…but just a moment, I was soooo nervous about over-cooking them.  This whole process of cooking these pretty little things was giving me heart palpitation’s….I just wanted them to turn out!

SUCCESS!!!!!

I put raspberry jam in between two of the cookies.

The prettiest cookie I have ever seen!

Now I can’t wait to make chocolate macarons for my husband!

Have you ever made French Macarons?

Until next time, Come on in, Have a seat,

Hugs, Terra

Tagged as: Baking, Bob's Red Mill, Chef2Chef.net, Cooking, Earth Fare, French Macaroons, homemade, Kitchen Aid Mixer, Martha Stewart, Recipe