I love making macarons.  No scratch that, I love eating macarons so I put up with making them.   I have had so many disasters, I couldn’t count them, and if I look at my first batch which I thought were pretty ahhhmazing, I’m a bit embarrassed now.

I have searched for the perfect recipe to make a pistachio flavoured macaron for a while now, and I haven’t been successful.  Most of the recipes call for a lot of pistachio – which is expensive – and they make about 8 macarons which would last all of 5 seconds in my household.  So after a lot of research, I tried to make my own recipe, which I am going to say is foolproof because it worked first time (no mean feat with macarons) and was a great success!

Macaron Ingredients

3 egg whites (it helps if these have been outside of the fridge overnight, or for a few days)
1 tablespoon castor sugar
1 small bag of pistachio nuts, unsalted or 1 cup of pistachio meal (I struggle to find pistachio meal in any store so if you can get it, that is wonderful!)
Almond meal (about 1/4 cup)
1 1/4 cups of icing sugar

Filling Ingredients

125g softened butter
1 vanilla bean
1 cup icing sugar

Method
– First of all, I whizzed up a small bad of pistachio nuts in my thermomix to make pistachio meal.  I bought a 250g bag which did just under 1 cup.  You can make pistachio meal in your blender instead, but it may not be as fine and will be a pain to sift, so this is where the pistachio meal if you can get it already made, is helpful.
My thermomix made the meal in a few seconds, on speed 9 to 10.
– Add almond meal to the pistachio meal, so you have one cup total of pistachio and almond meal.  I just did this because pistachio meal is so expensive, and the flavour is rich so almond meal is a quick and easy way to get the amount needed (And if you make the meal from almonds in your thermomix as well, it’s much cheaper!).
– Sift the combined meal mixture into a bowl.
– Sift the icing sugar mixture into the same bowl, and mix to combine.

– In a mixer, using a whipping attachment, whip the 3 egg whites for 30 seconds before gradually adding the castor sugar.
– Whip for 8 to 10 minutes.  Your mixture will be really white and not at all runny by this stage.
– Pour half of the icing sugar and meal mixture into the egg whites and mix quickly and well before adding the rest and doing the same.

– Pour the mixture into a piping bag and make small rounds onto a baking tray.  Make sure the macarons are spaced well apart so they have room to breathe in the oven.
I find using a circular nozzle works the easiest.

– Tap the baking tray lightly on the bench, and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

– Turn your oven to 150 degrees celsius.

– After 20 minutes, check the macarons have a light coating on the top.  The consistency should have changed so you can’t change the shape or top texture of the macaron when touching it lightly.  If your macarons don’t have this, put them under the heater in winter, or air conditioner in summer until they do.  I find it helps to put them in a sunny place too.

– Turn the oven down to 130 degrees celsius.

– Cook the macarons for 17 minutes.

– Meanwhile, add the softened butter and vanilla bean seeds into the mixer, and beat for 6 minutes or until light and creamy.
– Add the icing sugar directly to the bowl, and beat for another 8 minutes.

– Sandwich the filling in between two macarons and refrigerate.

When serving, it’s best to leave the macarons out of the fridge for about 10 minutes earlier.

Hopefully you will have the magical macaron feet, and a nice round consistency.  If you didn’t let me know!  There are a number of forums I have read on the web that have the solutions to any problems you encounter, and we will have you making perfect macarons in no time, that taste absolutely delish!

Happy baking