Macarons - First Attempt

I've always wanted to try making Macarons and even have a couple of books at home on the subject, but have put off making it because it seemed so complex, with ageing egg whites, and the mysterious risings of the "feets" .

I stumbled across this website: http://bravetart.com/recipes/Macarons which made it seemseasy enough to make Macarons. No need to age the eggs, no need to let the shells air dry. So since today I had some free time, I gave it a go.

Well unfortunately they didn't turn out the way they should, and after doing up more reading I realise I made a mistake here and there. Firstly I think I overmixed the batter because it was oozing out of the tip, so it was definitely too runny. Secondly I didn't realise I should've used a stainless steel mixing bowl to mix the egg the whites, not sure if this makes much difference, but other sites say don't use plastic bowl which is what I used. Thirdly, I used silicone mats instead of Parchment Paper. I really had no idea that it would make a difference, but they say the silicone mats make it too sticky and will leave you with an empty shell...true enough this is what happened to mine. I had two different mats, one worked well and the other did not....so what does that mean??

Before mixing in the dry ingredients

After piping them and after they were out of the oven, they looked amazing....but they were empty shells.....

This one was baked on a different mat and had little feet on them and was cooked beautifully inside.

these were various shapes, like flowers, mickey head and hello kitty head

These are the empty half shells....

Oh well they tasted really good, DH and DD both said they were really yummy and ate a handful. I couldn't even believe my DD ate so many considering she's not that into sweet stuff! So once this batch has all been eaten (some will be eaten in ice cream/gelato/sorbet), I'll try making it again.

The texture is just like a store bought Macaron

These were the hello kitty ones....doesn't look like it eh?

Empty shells, still pretty good after filled.