More Macarons

Today I made more macarons.  Purple ones to be exact.  I changed the oven temperature as per some suggestions that I found.  I shouldn't have!  The old adage, "If it works, don't fix it", certainly applies.  I tried turning up the heat in my oven as was suggested to get better "feet".  It didn't work so well.  My macarons got too much color and they didn't rise as well.  I'm going back to the first recipe.

Remember this?  It's the vanilla sugar I made with the scraped bean from my Dutch Apple tart?  This is the granulated sugar I used in this batch.  Another layer of flavor!  I may never make another macaron without vanilla sugar.  The shell tastes so much better!!!!!

I loved the first batch of orange marmalade macarons which had such great flavor.  So it's another flavor of jam for the filling.  I made my own syrup and jam last summer with cherries from this orchard, but I had a jar of their commercial jam already opened in my fridge so I used it.

I also made a big batch of Italian buttercream for another layer of flavor.  The recipe made a HUGE amount so I froze the leftover buttercream in smaller portions for later use.  I love this buttercream; it's fluffy and smooth and the perfect foil for the jam.

So here they are.....Macarons.  I love this flavor combination.  My shells have been better, but I learn something new each time I make them.  Most importantly, I'm getting comfortable with the macronage.

I think I'll package these up prettily and share.