Macarons not Macaroons

I have always loved a good French Macaron, you know those lovely meringue pillows filled with lots of yummy fillings, not to be mistaken with Macaroons the coconut biscuits. The confusion lies with the pronunciation as Macaron is usually pronounced as Macaroon.  

This year I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in Paris and got to visit the original Ladurée, home of the French Macaron.

I hope you enjoy trying my recipe, just don't take short cuts as that is where many before you have failed. Once you have mastered the basic recipe you can try all-sorts of fillings from fresh fruit, jams, buttercream and flavoured ganache.

 

Vanilla Bean Macarons

Preparation time 40 minutes       

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Vanilla Ganache Ingredients:

200g white chocolate broken into pieces

120ml cream

Seeds scrapped from 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

65g unsalted butter, chopped

Macaron shell ingredients:

95g aged egg whites   

40ml water

125g castor sugar

135g almond meal

135g pure icing sugar (not icing mixture)

Hot tip 1: This is about 4 large or 5 small eggs. To age egg whites separate eggs 1-2 days before use, they can be kept in the fridge or room temperature but they must be room temperature before mixing. This breaks down the egg proteins for a fluffier meringue.

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 135oC

Prepare baking trays by lining baking tray with baking paper.

Turn paper upside down and trace circles, use a 20 cent coin as a template, onto the paper.

Turn the paper over so right side is facing up and pencil marks are underneath.

I use a silicon mat as a template that is pre-marked but I have stopped cooking on it as I find the shells stick to it and the tops peel off from the “feet”.

Ganache:

Place chocolate into a stainless steel bowl (the metal will retain heat and melt the chocolate better), set the bowl aside.

In a saucepan, mix the cream and vanilla over medium heat, bring to the boil.

Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate, wait 20 seconds, allowing the heat of the cream to melt the chocolate.

Stir the mixture with a whisk until a glossy ganache forms.

When the chocolate has fully melted, add the butter.

Stir the butter through and mix well.

Cover the bowl with glad wrap making sure the plastic touches the surface of the mixture; put the bowl into the fridge to firm.

Macaron shells:

Put almond meal and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until very fine. Put mixture into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.  

Hot tip 2: if not using a food processor, sift the mixture three times to remove any lumps and to aerate and blend the ingredients). 

Add 45g egg white into the well, mix with almond meal to make a paste, mix in food colouring, set the bowl aside. 

Hot tip 3: when adding colour a paste or powder is best as we don't want to add moisture to the meringue (although I have used liquid many times).

Put 50g egg whites into a mixer bowl and on a low speed slowly whisk.

Pour water into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and gently stir. Place the mixture onto the stove and slowly bring to the boil. At the first sign of bubbles turn mixer to high speed and whisk egg whites to soft peaks.

Boil sugar syrup until top is bubbly but mixture is clear (remember you are not making toffee). If using a cooking thermometer stir until mixture reaches 118oC. Remove from heat and allow bubbles to settle a little.

On a medium speed, slowly run the hot sugar mixture down the side of the bowl so it blends with the egg whites. After bout 8 minutes it should form a firm white glossy meringue mixture sticking to the beaters in nice peaks.

Hot tip 4: The meringue is ready when you can turn the bowl upside down and it doesn't move. This also time allows the meringue to cool slightly.

Add 1/3 meringue to the almond mixture and gently fold through. This loosens it out slightly, then fold through the rest of the meringue.

Hot tip 5:  Take care when folding the meringue and almond together, the "macronage"; under-mixing results in lumpy shells as almond meal is not all dissolved and over-mixing results in a too runny batter resulting in flat shells as "feet" won't form.

Fit a piping bag with a 9mm nozzle. Fill the bag halfway, and pack the mixture down tight so there are no air bubbles. Pipe each shell to fill the circle. 

Hot tip 6: when filling the piping bag place it in a tall glass to hold the bag open.

Lightly tap the base of the tray to remove any excess air.

Set the tray aside for 30 minutes or until a skin forms on top of the shells.

Hot tip 7: piping the shells is better from an angle then directly above. To remove the piping "nipple" wet fingertip and touch on top of shell.

Bake at 135oC for 20 minutes. If baking 2 trays rotate trays in oven after 10 minutes. 

Hot tip 8: Smaller macarons will require less cooking time and larger ones will require a longer time.

When shells are cooked slide the baking paper off the tray onto a cool bench, this stops the cooking process. Allow to cool, flip them over and match up pairs.

To assemble, mix the vanilla ganache till smooth and load up a piping bag using a 7mm nozzle. Pipe a ball of ganache onto half of the shells, then top with the paired shell to make a sandwich.

Finish decorating macarons with edible glitter, place on a tray, cover with glad wrap.

If possible it is best to leave in the fridge overnight so the macarons can develop their flavour from the various fillings.