Hi all! First, I just wanted to thank everyone on eGullet for all the excellent advice and tips about making macarons over the various posts. I've read just about all of them! I just completed my ninth batch of plain macarons with chocolate ganace and I'm extremely happy with how they've come out. Here's the recipe (from SeriousEats.com - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/10/how-to-make-macarons-recipe.html): Cookies: 225 grams confectioners sugar, 125 grams ground almonds, 110 grams egg whites, 30 grams granulated sugar (yields about 45 cookies 1.5" diameter, 22ish macarons) Ganache: 230 grams bittersweet chocolate, 250 grams heavy cream, 60 grams unsalted butter A few things I've learned: - Egg whites are aged for 2 days. This seems to give me the best cookie - crisp shell, slightly moist interior. - I prefer to grind my almonds myself... I tried a few almond flours on the market and I just didn't like the way they came out and the almond taste was lacking. I also think I prefer whole almonds - skin an all. It gives the cookie a few specs of color. I basically take 150grams of almonds and put it in the food processor and pulverize it... you should get about 125grams of "flour" from that which then gets added to the icing sugar and sifted again. - Silpats work better than parchment. The parchment just isn't flat enough and it gives the cookies a weird shape. - First batch in the oven always takes about a minute longer than the following batches. I think this is because I have to reuse my baking sheet and the first time it has to warm up. (I just slide the silpat on to it.) - The above Ganache recipe is 2x what is needed.... so either double the macaron recipe or halve the ganache one. Here's the finished product: Now I'm ready to move on to different flavors.
