Tala Macarons

These light little treats make a wonderful gift for any time of year. They colour up beautifully, so feel free to experiment with different colours – pastel or vivid. You can fill them with buttercream icing or ganache and combine with different jams, compotes or preserves if you wish. We've chosen some edible gold leaf to top mine with, but let your imagination run wild and consider rose petals, lavender or even good old fashioned sprinkles. If you are a dab hand with a paint brush, you could even paint your creations with food colouring powder mixed with a little food grade alcohol.

Equipment

Food mixer with balloon whisk attachment

Sieve

Medium size mixing bowl

Silicon-headed spatula

Baking tray

Non-stick baking paper

Tala food piping set

Ingredients

40g icing sugar

40g ground almonds

1 egg white

40g caster sugar

food colouring

Ingredients for decoration

Buttercream

Jam

Edible gold leaf (optional)

Yield: 15-20 small macarons

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius fan (284 Fahrenheit).

2. Whisk the egg white until soft peaks form and gradually add the caster sugar one spoonful at a time followed by the food colouring.

3. Sieve the icing sugar and ground almonds into a mixing bowl, discarding any larger bits of almonds caught by the sieve.

4. Remove the bowl from the food mixer and mix in half of the almonds and icing sugar. 

Then, add the almonds and icing sugar gradually, folding briefly until the mixture loosens and becomes more liquid, falling back on itself when stirred. You may not need to use all of the almonds and icing sugar. 

 5. Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper, then transfer the mixture to the food piping bag fitted with the round, open nozzle.Squeeze the piping bag and release to pipe evenly sized round blobs about 2.5cm in diameter.

• Bake for 11 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray before attempting to remove from the baking paper.
• Fill each macaron by piping the flat side of one macaron with softened buttercream and spreading the flat side of a second macaron with jam before sandwiching together. Decorate the tops with gold leaf, sprinkles or nothing at all if you prefer them au naturel.
• Serve with afternoon tea or package in cellophane or little boxes.