Everyone discussing macarons made me curious. I'd never tasted a macaron and wasn't sure what the big deal was. Sure they're cute and all, but that's all I knew.

For a while I followed a few conversations about macarons and decided it was time to give them a try since they use ingredients I have on hand at all times.

Armed with a recipe from here, and all sorts of information from pinterest, I gave it a shot. I must say they came together much easier than I figured they would. My one regret was not looking into how to pipe them out onto the tray properly. Other than strange shape and slightly underbaked, I'm pretty happy with them. Thank you all for giving me the push to try.

Your macrons have nice feet.

Thanks! I think living in a very dry climate is helpful with these. Apparently high altitude doesn't cause problems either.

Did you swirl like you were piping a cupcake? If that makes sense lol you want to keep the bag straight up and down, release pressure before it fills the circle all the way. Tap the pan as hard as you can on the counter, and pop air bubbles when they come to the surface. Other than that, beautiful color, and the feet look perfect. Great job!

That's exactly what I did. When they came out I had a good laugh at my expense. Next ones will be piped properly and mixed a tiny bit more. They were one or two turns undermixed. I tapped the pan good and hard and they didn't even move a tiny bit. It was a learning experience. I did learn that a couple drops of Wilton's neon blue made for a nice blue here.

You did a great job even still. My first ones were, well, edible at least lol

Thanks!

2nd try was better. Now to fill them before they all get eaten

See. You've got it down now!

Thanks! They are surprisingly simple. Not nearly as scary/impossible as I was reading.

You're welcome. No, they aren't hard at all. It is the not over mixing part that gets a lot of people I think.

They look perfect.  I've only made them once and they turned out perfectly.  What a surprise!  Mike and I preferred them unfilled.

They are quite tasty unfilled. I added a tiny bit of cinnamon to the batter and then used a pumpkin spice flavored buttercream to fill them. My husband is a huge fan of these now. Neither of us had tasted macarons before. My sister in law is allergic to wheat and I wanted to learn to make these for her.

That is so sweet of you, WYBee, and you sister in law will be thrilled.  It was our first time tasting them too.  Mike liked them more than me.  I would rather have a good, ole oatmeal raisin, lol.  I tried six different fillings and we still liked them unfilled best.  My favorite filling was peanutbutter.

Peanut butter would be a great filling. My kids like these more than I do. I'm absolutely with you on preferring oatmeal raisin. That's one of my favorites. Of course I much prefer eating cookies to cake, but I enjoy both. Part of loving to bake, for me, is to try special things for people who don't always get special treats due to allergies or whatever other reason.