Look out world! Elizabeth made macarons!

After macaron failure 1.0, I spent my last day of freedom (before school starts) laying on the couch, watching Gossip Girl re-runs on Netflix and taking practice quizzes. (I'm in nursing school and will be taking the NCLEX soon).

I snacked on blood oranges and was inspired by their beautiful appearance. So, I looked up recipes that use blood oranges and I found one that was for macarons. I couldn't shake the feeling of wanting to start over, so I followed the recipe that I, yet again, found on Pinterest.

The recipe is right here.

The original recipe included walnuts but I replaced the walnuts with almond flour. I used the same walnut flour that I had difficulty with on my macarons version 1.0. Instead of processing it I just used my chefs knife to break up the larger pieces. There were still about two tablespoons of almond meal left over that I was unable to sift. I also blended the almond flour with powdered sugar and blood orange zest.

When whipping the wet ingredients, I used the mixer attachment on a medium-high speed for 7 minutes. I was able to turn the bowl over when I was done without the meringue spilling out which is ideal.

My macarons-- I am extremely proud of these babies! 

The tool that helped me the most with forming the shape of my macarons is a round tipped icing bag. I just squeezed the batter out and continued to push and it made a perfect circle. I then rapped the batter on the counter top to help release the air bubbles. (They will cause your macarons to have dimples or cracks). I then left the batter out for 30 minutes and then placed them into a 375 degree oven that I then immediately changed to 325 degrees. I set the timer for 6 minutes, then opened the oven and rotated my macarons. Once the baking sheet was rotated, I set the timer for another 6 minutes. Then I removed the macarons and then cooled them on a rack. Afterwards, I filled with blood orange butter cream frosting and refrigerated.

I can't wait to enjoy the tomorrow! They turned out really well and I am so excited! I can't wait to try additional colors and flavors. I am hooked, its official!