Baking Day - Macaroons

Home Made Macaroons

The other day I was devastated to find out that my local bakery had stopped making by beloved Macaroons. I love these little flavoursome jewels. Crunchy on the outside and spongy and sticky on the inside. The flavour possibilities are endless and they are my favourite treat. 
So I went in search of some macaroons. I tried the other local bakery, cafes and even the two supermarkets. One supermarket sold a pack of 12 for around $8, I seriously considered buying. But then I saw this in the packet cake aisle... 

I just had to try them. It took me a few weeks to pluck up the courage because in my mind macaroons were complicated and fiddly to make. Today I faced my fear and took some time out in the day and made them.

This box contained everything I needed: raspberry base, almond mix, a stencil to pipe the mixture onto, two piping bags and chocolate.

First I had to mix the raspberry, water and almond mix together and then pipe them into baking sheets with the stencilled circles on them.

Once baked they needed cooling.  I matched the two sides that fit together the best and prepared the chocolate filling. I melted the chocolate and two tablespoons of thickened cream in the microwave and put that into the second piping bag. Once I had piped chocolate onto the macaroon I sandwiched them together and they looked like this...

image is a bit shadowed but you get the idea

I have to say that now that I have actual made them, macaroons are not so scary to make. Yes, they are fiddly. And they will make a mess if your not practised at using a piping bag ( well I did ). But its fun and so rewarding and a lot cheaper than buying them for $ 3.00 a pop. This mixture made more than 20 macaroons. I am very impressed with this Adriano Zumbo packet mix. They taste amazing and I am looking forward to trying the other flavours he has. I think there is salted caramel and a lemon flavour. Yummo!

Make a comment below if you like the look of these.

Have Fun

Renee x