Mix together and sieve more ground almonds and icing sugar than you need. Leave for at least one night, if not two to dehydrate. You will need to weigh the quantities for the recipe at the end of this time as the ingredients will lose some weight due to the dehydration and the coarser lumps that don't make it through the sieve.
The next day:
Weigh out 150g (5.3oz) of the almond/icing sugar mixture. Add 30g of unbeaten egg whites and mix together. Choose the coloured powder you want to use and add a knife point of it. Mix in and continue until you are satisfied with the colour. Set aside.
In a small pot, heat the water and caster sugar, stirring occasionally until it reaches 100°C (212°F). As soon as you reach this point, start beating the second 30g of egg whites with an electric mixer. They should become frothy at this point, but not stiff.
When the sugar/water mixture heats to 118°C (244°F), take it off the heat and pour it in a slow, steady stream into the egg whites without stopping the mixer. Continue to beat the egg whites and sugar syrup on a moderate speed until the mixture is completely cold. Congratulations! You've just made Italian meringue!
Now add the meringue mixture little by little to the almond flour mixture, stirring it in with a rubber spatula.
Continue to swirl and pat the mixture until it begins to glisten. this can take a while. It took me about 5 or 10 minutes in the course.
Put the mixture in an icing bag and pipe out blobs of it to fill the pre-drawn circles on your baking sheet (so that they are all abot the same size).
Cook the macarons at about 150°C (300°F) for approximately 10 -12 minutes. You need to watch them cooking. If they start to crack the oven may be too hot, so you need to lower the temperature slightly. Start to touch the tops of the macarons gently after about 8 minutes. When they are firm, but slightly yielding, then they can be taken out.
Leave them to cool before putting them together with the filling of your choice. You can used jam, marscapone with flavours like chocolate or lemon, caramel, nutella, ganache (that's for another recipe post!). Your imagination is the only limit!
