Macarons

My Boyfriend have been complaining about my excessive time of knitting and the lack of baking, so I've decided to bake him some treats. After watching a french cooking show on TV, I've decided to try macarons, something that everyone thinks its difficult to make. I thought that will earn me some points on trying an impossible task and still impress my boyfriend even if I fail.  After reading a few recipes, I've made a few adjustment myself and here's what I did.
Please note that while making the cookies, I broke my piping bag, and a spoon was used to spread my cookies out, hence the cookies are not in perfect circle shape.

Cookies (makes about 40)
1/2 cup almond meal
0.8 cup icing sugar
3 egg whites
4 spoon sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1. preheat oven to 140 degree., fan bake
2. line baking sheets on 2 baking trays. 
3. sift almond meal, coco powder and icing sugar to remove any clumps. 
4. beat egg whites on low speed, when it gets a little foamy, add sugar slowly. Increase speed to medium and beat until it becomes stiff and glossy. 
5. add about 1/2 of the almond meal mixture and fold in gently, continue to add mixture slowly until its properly mix. 
6. pour your batter into your piping bad and space your batter on the tray, giving them space to spread. (form circles about 3cm). 
7. tap the pan to bring up any air bubbles and until macaons flatten. 
8. put the tray in the oven's middle rack and bake for 35 mins. 
9. remove cookies from baking sheets once it is cooled. 

Now prepare the Ganaches.
1.25 cup bittersweet chocolate
1 cup cream
2 tablespoons butter

1. finely chop chocolate.
2. heat cream over medium heat. 
3. pour over the chocolate and stir gently until all chocolate melts, then put butter in.
4. allow to stand at room temperature. 
5. once cookies and ganaches is cooled, spread ganaches on to cookie and sandwich another cookie on top. 

and start nom nom nom. Enjoy!!!

Killerbees