French macarons, what can I say? I haven't really jumped on the bandwagon for these little circles ofenchantment. After failing once before trying to make them I'm a little embarrassed to say I kind of gave up which is not like me. They came out allwrinkly on top and just looked more like a meringue than a macaron.
![french macarons filled with a creamy white chocolate peppermint ganache](https://assets-global.website-files.com/650da880c415cb1e80784a45/6522e5505af87f0a7c987680_peppermint-macarons-01.jpeg)
I like to try and post as frequently as I can to my blog and now I'm understanding I feel like that because I actually really enjoy it, so this morning I was racking my brain to come up with a post for today. The macaron came into my thoughts and after doing some reading about them I found a recipe and got started. I must admit to rushing the recipe and again they came out of the oven peaked and as they cooled cracks appeared. Failed again....
![french macarons filled with a creamy white chocolate peppermint ganache](https://assets-global.website-files.com/650da880c415cb1e80784a45/651e5508799bcbc14089c7c1_031-500x375.jpeg)
It was still fairly early and this time I felt like trying again! I looked for another recipe and found a great tutorial about making macarons from AmberLee. Her blog, Giverslog is packed with great recipes and her own macarons looked awesome. After reading her list of tips and troubleshooting I set out once again to try to conquer my macaron misgiving. I'm happy to say that third time lucky worked for me. The biggest change I made was to leave the macarons out to dry far longer than I had been doing previously. This is the stage where after piping them onto your cookie sheet they will become dull looking and develop a skin on top. This skin prevents the insides pushing up when baking and helps keep the bubbly part called the foot around the bottom of the macaron. Previously I had been leaving them out to dry for about 15 minutes but this time I waited almost a full hour before putting them into the oven. I feel now that I can go on and experiment with some more flavors and unique fillings without the cracked meringue cloud following me. I used a white chocolate ganache flavored with peppermint as a filling for these and they were pretty darn good!