Bastille Day Festive Macarons
Bastille Day is a French national holiday that marks the seizing of the Bastille prison on July 14th 1789, which became the turning point for the French Revolution. Every July 14th, French communities all over the world remember Bastille Day to honour the French culture, patriotism, as well as the values of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.
In Australia, we celebrate this holiday with our very own French food markets featuring crepes, cheeses, and pastries.
If you prefer to stay indoors on Bastille Day and have your own little celebration at home, you can start by making French macarons. These all-time favourite confections may be a bit tricky to make. However, you can follow our easy recipe to help you create the perfect sweet treats, with an added festive French flag colour theme.
Ingredients
Red and blue gel food colouring
3 egg whites
1⅔ cups icing sugar
1 cup almond meal
¼ cup caster sugar
Meringue buttercream
2 egg whites
125 grams chopped unsalted butter (at room temperature)
½ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
Making the meringue buttercream
Add the caster sugar and egg whites into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure that the base of the bowl does touch the water. Mix the ingredients for 4-5 minutes or at least until the sugar dissolves. Remove the bowl from the heat, and beat the mixture with an electric mixer until it is cool and light to touch. While mixing, add the butter, also beating for 4-5 minutes or at least until the buttercream is smooth. Lastly, add the vanilla extract and beat until thoroughly combined with the buttercream.
Making the biscuits
Line 4 baking trays with baking sheets.
Add the egg whites into a mixing bowl and beat until foamy. Slowly add sugar while beating until it has completely dissolved. Continue mixing until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Using a sifter, sift almond meal and icing sugar into another bowl. Mix the dry ingredients before adding the egg white mixture. Fold to combine all ingredients. Separate half of the mixture into a new bowl. Add red food colouring into one bowl, blue in the other. Spoon each coloured mixture into two piping bags with a regular 1 cm nozzle. Pipe about 18 cm x 4 cm rounds of each colour onto the trays—make sure that you don’t place them too close to each other to avoid them sticking together while baking. Allow the unbaked macarons to stand uncovered at room temperature for an hour.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 140°C.
Bake the macarons for about 12-15 minutes or at least until they are set—don’t allow the biscuits to brown. Remove the tray of macarons from the oven and allow them to cool.
In another piping bag fitted with the same nozzle, add the buttercream mixture.
Finally, sandwich the cooled red and blue macarons with buttercream in the middle. Best served fresh.
Enjoy your festive Bastille Day macarons!
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