Hi there, have any of you tried making macaroons? I have a recipe that says that we have to use powdered food coloring to color them. I was wondering if I could use gel paste coloring, because I don't have access to powdered colors.
Thanks in advance.

You mean macarons?

I make them all the time and I use powdered coloring.

I would just think you would color the coconut before you make them. Just a thought. I've done this with gel or liquid food coloring in a zip lock bag and just shake it around.

Thanks for the reply, but the macaroons I'm talking about don't contain coconut, they're the ones with almond.

Just made macarons yesterday. We added americolor gel color when we mixed the almond flour, sugar and egg whites into a paste before adding the meringue. I guess it depends on which recipe you're using but I know you can use gel colors.

Thanks again for the replies and sorry about the typo mistake, I didn't notice it.
This is the recipe that I have:

90 gr egg whites (roughly 3 egg whites)
25 gr to 50gr (2 Tb to 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
200 gr ( 1.5 cups + 2Tb) powdered sugar
110 gr almonds ( 3/4 cup) (slivered, blanched, sliced, whatever you like)

It also calls for leaving the egg whites at room temperature for 48 hrs, do you all do the same?
I'm frankly afraid to do it because it's hot where I live. I was thinking of leaving them at room temp for around 5 hrs, do you think that's enough?

Thanks again.

Thanks for this posting! I have been wanting to make french macarons for some time and had not yet addressed the idea of coloring them. Thanks for the info!

Hmmm I'll have to try these macarons They are new to me

I just tried making these for Easter. I used petal dust to color mine. I left my egg whites on my counter for 24 hours - I was very scared to do this. I had about 2 to 3 cookies turn out properly. There are tons of sites out there with different ways of preparing and cooking them. I've never had one of these cookies but mine were really sweet. Is this normal? If so it might not be worth the effort. I'm just glad mine made the foot on the bottom!

The recipe is not mine, I took it from Bakerella's blog:

http://www.bakerella.com/tartelette-these-are-for-you/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Bakerella+%28Bakerella%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail


But I still need to know if leaving the eggs at room temp for 10 hours would be enough. Anyway, what's the point of leaving them at room temp?

Leaving eggwhite at room temp does something to the albumen - making it easier to work with, it will whip up to a larger volume. 10 hours is fine. 5 hours is fine too. As long as they are room temperature.
I always leave mine out for 24 hours.

(I mix the Americolor gel with the meringue)