Week 29: Macarons/Meringue - After Dinner Mint Macarons [Baking]

Intro from Baking Challenge: Alright bakers! Time to step it up! Macarons are one of the more challenging things to bake but don't be afraid! A little bit of practice and patience and soon you will be a macaron master! To start, here is a basic step by step recipe and trouble shooting guide. Moving on from there, you can make pretty much any flavor combination you can imagine. S'more, neopolitan, lemon and more! If you've already perfected macarons try to up your game by turning them into adorable characters or shapes! If macarons seem too advanced right now you can try their simpler cousins, meringues. They can be simple little dollops, pretty rose sandwiches, fun looking swirls, or little nests that you can fill with fruit, custard or ganache! Good luck!

I got the original idea for these macarons from here, but ended up following the main recipe from the step-by-step guide originally posted in this week's intro. Although I still used the Taste of Koko recipe for the mint chocolate ganache.

If I had to sum up this entire experience in one sentence, it would be the step-by-step guide's pronouncement that: "If they were so easy to do, wouldn’t everyone make them?" Holy hell these things take effort and time! I probably spent about a half hour just sifting the almond meal and sugar to make sure it was super fine. That said, the patience definitely paid off and I was incredibly happy with my first attempt at macarons!
My major flaws (and what I'll be working on the next time):

• Heat - I put my oven on too high. I started at 275F, but they quickly started browning on the bottom (this may have also been due to my using wax paper instead of parchment paper - I know, I'm an idiot) and most of my tops were cracked.
• Piping - Getting uniform caps is HARD! I used a Wilton 230 tip, which seemed to work really well, but I just need practice in sizing and spacing (had a few too close together and they ended up merging).

Overall though, I'm super pleased with these, and I'll definitely be trying again!