Making Macaroons : Attempt 1

After way too many sofa days watching The Great British Bake Off, I got a real itching to give macaroons a go.

"It'll be easy" I said.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

I decided to make rose macaroons with a white chocolate ganache and as is often the case with last minute bakes, I only had about half of the ingredients. I nipped round to my corner shop in hope of getting some white chocolate, but alas - none in stock. I figured I could shuffled the recipe around a bit and bought some galaxy instead.

I got to work with the macaroons, I used the BBC recipe, which you can find here: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/macaroons_04669

All was going smoothly, macaroons in the oven - now mint instead of rose, so I went to get started on the ganache. Only I had absent mindedly snaffled more than half of the chocolate! Oops! Back to the shop for another bar.

It was then that I realised I'd forgotten to leave the macaroons to sit - no smooth tops for me! The sitting is a vital part of making the perfect macaroon, it allows air bubbles to rise and a skin to form on top, this is what creates the smooth and shiny dome that macaroons are so famous for. 

I got impatient with the ganache and tried to sandwich the macaroons way before it had set. Its still very runny once cooled, so I assumed that this was as thick as it was going to get, but be patient, it thickens up considerably if you give it even give minutes more.

 For a first attempt, I don't think they look all too bad!