Earl Grey Macarons

Im getting much better at baking these fickle little bastards. This would be my 5th batch by now. So far ive had 2 successful batches, and 3 failed. 

Batch 1: No piping bag. Macarons were all over the place! Also, the inside of the shell was wet and hollow. There was no smooth base on the bottom. 

Batch 2: Made over two nights. Big mistake. I let them sit for over 24 hours, and the "skin" that had formed was far too thick. As a result the "feet" were deformed :(

Batch 3: Vanilla chai and Baileys macarons. Success! Made for the lovely Jellis Craig folk. Never actually tasted one myself. I think the Baileys may have been too strong. 

Batch 4: Over beaten eggs, mixture not runny enough. Wrong consistency resulted in lumpy shaped macarons. 

Batch 5: Early Grey macarons. Success! Made for Matts family :) They all love Earl Grey. Yet to make buttercream .

The perfect macaron should be fragile, delicate, with a smooth dome, and "feet" at the bottom.  

 4 hours of baking and preparation resulted in this. Quite a small amount for such a great deal of work. 

Here is my two cents worth of advice, for all macaron bakers out there: 

1. Old egg whites. Everyone knows this rule when it comes to macarons!

2. You dont need soft peaks. Somewhere between no peaks, and soft peaks works best for me. 

3. When adding in the dry ingredients to the egg whites, add gradually and mix in. This way, you can determine the consistency, and stop adding if the consistency becomes too stiff. 

4. When in the oven, the "feet" will raise about 1cm, or more. Dont be alarmed and whip them out! As soon as you take them out, they will sink before your very eyes.
5. Dont squash the shells together when the buttercream/ganache has been piped or the inside of the macaron shells will break (trust me, youll hear it crack). Wiggle it gently, and it wont break. 

My own recipe which i know by heart: (Mostly in proportions)

125g caster sugar

125 icing sugar

125 almond meal

90g egg whites. 

Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 10 minutes. No longer. Otherwise the macarons will be tough and chewy. 

If you want to flavour or colour your macarons, you can use food dye. And you can use powdered flavouring. Eg: match (green tea), cocoa powder, nesquik strawberry milk flavour.... etc. Substitute powdered flavouring for some of the almond meal and icing sugar. 

Important note: 

What i find is that, the measurements do not need to be exact. More so, the balance between dry ingredients and the eggwhites has to be perfect. 

Too wet mixture = runny, thin, flat macarons. Too stiff mixture = lumpy macarons, no smooth shell. 

How to determine perfect consistency: The mixture should "ribbon" from your spatula. The "ribbons" should then dissolve within 30 seconds. 

Good luck everyone!