An Angel at My Table

More Macarons!!

Theses ones are Ribena (blackcurrent) flavoured and filled in with whipped white chocolate ganache. I followed the below recipe to achieve this result. Each attempt makes me quite nervous, it is still not a process I master.
This time I ended up with an amazing result, I'm thrilled.

I had a quick look at Pierre Herme's surreal PH10 (Oh Excalibur!). He seems to use humongous amounts of eggs whites and sugar... you're more likely to end up with an industrial production of macarons. My recipe roughly uses the same proportion of ingredients in smaller quantities.

- 100 g almound ground
- 125 g icing sugar
- 10 g starch
- 15 g castor sugar
- 2/3 (80g) egg whites
- A pinch of salt
- flavour. Use 20g bitter unsweetened chocolate powder for Chocolate Macarons

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Let the egg white at room temperature for 24 hours.

Sift almond powder, add icing sugar and starch, sift again. The mix should be very light. If it seems to be too moist, place it into the oven for a few minutes to dry it. Extra dryness is the key to sucess!

Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat until foamy. Add a third of the castor sugar while beating and then, gradually add the rest and increase the beating speed. Stop whipping when the whites are firm and shiny.

Carefully add the almond mix, little amounts at a time. Don't overmix, it will cause the batter to be runny. And a runny batter means the macarons will not rise in the oven, they'll just flatten and crack!!!
Be extremely careful, this is a crucial step: The batter should be dense. Picks should disolve slowly at the surface.
 
Tranfer part of the batter into a piping bag and form little nut-like shapes on to a thick baking tray covered in baking paper. (If the baking tray is too thin, the base will cook too fast, it'll be all burnt and chewy).

Leave enough room between the macarons for them to expand.

Let them sit for at least 1 hour. Their surface will slightly dry out.
*From what I read you could also put the macarons straight away in a very hot oven and decrease the temperature:The outside is supposed to cook and dry fast leaving the inside moist and soft. Well, let me tell you it does not work in my little domestic, non-industrial oven. The macarons flatten and look like large cookies. Not too mention that their pretty crown base does not form.

Bake for 10/12min (140°C). Use the fan-bake option, if N/A, leave the over open using a wooden spoon and rotate the tray at half time.

When cooked slide some cold water under the baking paper, it'll help you taking the macarons off.

Pair macarons by size and sandwich with fruit coulis or chocolate ganache and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Comments

[Giant Squid]

Thank you..... you did not have a look at my first attempt though
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsquidattack/88358513/
Please don't laugh

You're doing well, you'll get nice looking/tasting macarons soon

[Giant Squid]

Thank you..... you did not have a look at my first attempt though
http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsquidattack/88358513/
Please don't laugh

You're doing well, you'll get nice looking/tasting macarons soon

[Gerald]

Wow, those macaroons look amazing! Much better than my first attempt!