There are days when something little in your life makes you happy. 

I had a oh-so-horrible-no-one-knows-how-to-do physics paper this morning, and coming to see these sprouting feet macarons in the oven was just overwhelmingly happy. Like when you've had 101 failed macaron tries and this is your first perrrfect batch of macarons with tall mighty feet and no cracked shells. 

I can't describe how happy I was. I can remember my first try of macarons a year ago- flat, oval shaped ones in ugly lumps with no feet and a super wet batter that couldn't be piped. It was probably because I didn't know the correct stage to whip the whites to, and because I didn't have an gel food colouring. 

These chocolate macarons are not too difficult, and it uses only 1 egg white- so it's great for recipes when you use yolks and you've got all those extra whites you don't really know what to do with. And it's also great because you can make just a small batch of macarons each try and you won't end up with a huge failed mess when you make a big batch. And also because a small batch is always easier to work with. :) 

Compared to my last try, the Pine Nut Macaron, this batch of macarons have nice tall feet, smooth surfaces with no cracks, and are perfectly cooked. Here's the trick:

- You preheat the oven to 120 degrees celsius, off the oven, and place the tray of piped macarons on the open door of your oven. Not inside, but open the door and put the tray on the door. Rotate the tray 5 minutes later. After letting it sit on the oven door for 10-15 minutes, you get a skin on your macarons.

And all it took was 15 minutes of your time! Remember my pine nut macarons? That took 2 hours of sitting at room temperature and there were cracks all over with uneven feet. But this time, it's only 15 minutes with perfectly smooth tops and beautiful feet!