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2013 Cooking Club Week 5: French Macarons
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08-02-2013 8:41am#1Lemon and Raspberry French Macarons
Macarons are quintessentially French, dainty, colourful almond biscuits sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream, chocolate, jam, or curd, so, while we can't all get to Paris for Valentine's, we can all have a little bit of Paris at home! (All offers of trips to Paris gratefully received nonetheless. :pac:)
Don't be taken in by their cuteness, in spite of the simplicity of the basic steps involved, they are contrary! They are well worth it though, and both impressive and delicious when they work out! (Even when they fail, you should have light and tasty almond biscuits at the end!) Once the basic biscuit is mastered, it is very easy to generate new flavour combinations, as it is really only the filling that needs to be changed.
This recipe is for raspberry and lemon macarons - lovely, fresh flavours which, in pink and yellow, could brighten any dreary day. They would also round off a romantic meal perfectly
or look amazing nestled in a gift box, but for a special occasion I would recommend practising first! (Win-win situation.)
You are aiming for something like these:
Some notes:
The recipe is based on ratios of dry incredients to egg white:1g egg white : 1.8g icing sugar : 1.2g ground almonds : 0.7g caster sugar, with 1-2g egg-white powder for every egg white used (to help to stabilise the meringue). This means you can scale the recipe up and down easily – I've often made a batch based on only one egg white, and there's nothing to stop you doing the same, once you keep the ratios intact.
Digital scales make measuring the ingredients easier and more precise, but I have also given a guide for traditional spring scales which are usually marked in 25g and 1oz increments. If you have a choice, go for the digital scales.
This particular recipe should make about 50 complete macarons, depending on how big you pipe them (each egg you use will yield about 25 one-inch macarons and fill a baking tray). Don't worry if that sounds like a lot, these will get eaten. The first time you make them, I would pipe some out on extra small trays or plates, to use to test the temperature of the oven, instead of finding out your oven runs hot only when a full tray of your macarons comes out cracked and brown.
Splitting the recipe to make different coloured shells can be a bit of a hassle, so you can skip this (leave them uncoloured or have them a single colour) and simply use different flavoured or coloured fillings, if you like.
They are best assembled a day or two in advance, but the shells can be made earlier and frozen.
Okay, enough chat...
Time:
Give yourself at least two hours from start to finish, preferably more, at least one day before they are to be eaten.
Equipment:
Digital kitchen scales (ideally);
Stand mixer/electric whisk (hand whisk + stamina will substitute, and you will deserve all the macarons you can eat :pac:);
Icing bag with c. 1 cm nozzle (the coupler works fine on its own) or a freezer bag with the corner snipped off (snip after the batter has been transferred into the bag and coaxed into the corner);
2 large baking trays lined with parchment/baking paper.
Ingredients:
80g egg whites (about 2 large egg whites) at room temperature;
96g (100g less 1 level teaspoon) ground almonds;
144g (150g less 1 heaped teaspoon) icing sugar;
56g (2 oz / 50g + 1 heaped teaspoon) caster sugar;
2-3g (about 1 level teaspoon) egg white powder (e.g. Dr. Oetker) (not pictured);
A few drops of red and/or yellow food colouring (optional but recommended).
Ganache:
90ml cream;
150g white chocolate;
60ml (4 tbsp) strained raspberry jam / lemon curd / sauce (total, i.e. 2 tbsp of each if you will be having half raspberry and half lemon flavour), or to taste;
A little more colouring (optional).
Method:
Sieve the icing sugar and ground almonds together, discarding the ground almond grains too large to pass through the sieve. Alternatively, whizz them together in a blender or food processor for a couple of seconds.
In a separate clean, dry bowl, prepare the meringue. Whisk the egg whites until frothy throughout, like bubbles in a bubblebath, then continue whisking while gradually adding the caster sugar and egg white powder until very thick and white. When removed, the whisk should leave a tall peak with a fine tip that curls over a little at best (better is if it stands up pretty straight). If it “slumps” over, keep on whisking! It should look a bit like fresh shaving foam or thickly whipped cream at this point, and part of it should gather in a ball around your whisk attachment (it's not very clear in the picture).
Divide the meringue evenly into separate bowls. Add the almond/icing sugar mix equally to the bowls of meringue. Repeat the next steps for each colour you are using.
Add a few drops of food colouring and fold everything together quite well, in a circular motion, trying to “flatten” the mixture against the base and sides of the bowl as you go along (a spatula works best for this). Scrape down the sides of your bowl - and your spatula - regularly, as you don't want lumps of undermixed batter being incorporated at the last moment.
This is the most important part and the easiest part to get wrong:
Unlike many recipes using whipped egg whites, you are not trying to preserve the air in them - you are trying to press it out. Once the colour is uniform throughout, slow down, and pay more attention.- You want to get the batter to a point where it is glossy and not "mousse-y”, and rather dense as most of the air has been pressed out of it.
- It should flow slowly but steadily when the bowl is tipped to one side and if you pull the batter away from the edge of the bowl when it is sitting level, it shouldn't be in any hurry to refill the gap but it should still make a slow advance. Nothing about it should move briskly!
- If you lift the spatula from the bowl the mixture will fall from it in thick, shortish, ribbons (not clumps) and slowly start melting back into the rest of the batter. When left to sit for a bit, the surface should become pretty smooth, without defined edges, but still show traces of where batter had been dropped onto it.
- If it looks and acts like pancake batter, or paint, it has been mixed too far (but you might as well continue, it might be a bit messier to work with though)
Spoon the batter into a piping bag with a large plain nozzle, or into a freezer bag as I am using, and then snip the corner. (Put the bag into a tall glass and bend the rim of the bag around the edge of the glass to keep it open makes it easier to fill.
Pipe circles of about 1 inch diameter onto the prepared baking trays (mine are a bit bigger than that), leaving space between then as they will spread a bit. Don't worry if there is a little peak on each round when you pipe them, this should have disappeared by the time they go in the oven (and if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world, it just means they might be a bit undermixed). When not using a nozzle, I find it better to snip quite close to the corner to make a smaller opening, and then pipe spirals rather than single blobs, as the sealed edges of the bag distort the opening a bit, which is minimised by using the smaller opening.
Lift the trays and rapidly and repeatedly pat the bases from underneath to bring any air bubbles to the surface (this will also help them spread and flatten any peaks left when they were piped). Gently pop any bubbles with a toothpick, then tap the trays again to help fill the little hollows left behind. Had a bad day? For a louder alternative, bang the trays on the counter a few times, pop the bubbles, and bang again. Try to work quickly as they start “setting” after a few minutes.
Set the trays aside for 30 minutes to an hour, to allow a skin to form on the surface (this will be dry to the touch – this is the indicator you are looking for). The macaron shells will have lost their shine and will now be matte.
As this waiting time elapses, a) make the ganache (see below) and b) heat your oven to about 150-160 C, or about 130-140 C if you have a fan oven. You might end up having to experiment a little to find the right temperature for your oven using the smaller trays/batches mentioned above in the notes. Mine go in at 130 C.
Bake one tray at a time in the centre of the oven, for around 15-17 minutes. At this point they should lift cleanly off the parchment, but if they stick to the paper or shift a bit on their base when you poke one, give them another minute or two. Using any liquid, like the food colouring, will lead to a longer baking time, so if you have gone for a really vibrant colour (and used traditional food colouring rather than gel colouring) you will need a few more minutes. Similarly, the larger they are, the longer they will need.
Remove from the oven, cool, and put the other tray in. If the shells are browning on your first batch, for your second tray reduce the oven temperature a bit. In my oven, 10 degrees is the difference between perfect colour and discolouration (fading and browning).
Congratulations, that's the hard part done!.
Ganache recipe follows.
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To make your ganache:
To make your ganache, heat the cream in a small saucepan; when it is just about to boil, remove from the heat and add the white chocolate. (Alternatively, use the microwave... break chocolate into pieces, put into a tall glass, pour over the cream and heat in 30-second increments until the chocolate starts melting.) Stir the melting chocolate until smooth, divide in half, then stir in the jam or lemon curd and a few drops of food colouring into each half as appropriate. Allow to cool until the ganache is a spreadable consistency and not too runny. You want it to be thick enough to take the weight of a shell on top of it without oozing out the sides.
Match up pairs of similarly-sized shells and, before it has become too solid, spoon some of the ganache onto a macaron shell and press its pair down gently to make a sandwich. (Pipe it if you prefer.) Be a bit more generous than I was! Repeat for the remaining shells. Cover and refrigerate to allow the shells to draw moisture from the filling and soften – it is best to allow a day between assembling and eating, so they can reach their optimum.
Rumour has it they will keep for a couple of days at least at room temperature, longer when covered and refrigerated.
Then, most importantly, enjoy!
Forgive the amount of detail – I just really want them to work out for anyone who tries them!0 -
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Galwaymother wrote: »Ooh I tried macarons before as I love them, they tasted great but did not look right. You just provided the motivation to try again for Valentine's dinner! Yours came out perfect, I'm so impressed!
I might do giant ones though, would it be any different apart from cooking time?
Thanks!
I really recommend doing a batch in advance (say using one egg white) - a few days before the "real batch", just to iron out any kinks with your oven etc. so they're perfect when you want to show them off!
I think the cooking time would be the main thing to watch out for. I've never done giant ones though so I'd love to hear how you get on!
FABULOUS recipe!
I've always wanted to try my hand at making macarons, but I hate almond
.
Thanks!
These aren't very "almondy", certainly nothing like marzipan, for example, but I know what it's like when even the idea of something can be offputting!
You can use other nuts too though. I've made them with home-ground cashews (didn't really like the taste personally, but they worked fine). Apparently, ground pumpkin seeds are also often used for nut-allergy sufferers so that's another option.
(I even saw something on a blog where the blogger did an analysis of fat/protein content and figured finely-ground chocolate would work!)
If you are grinding your own nuts, add in the icing sugar at the start, as this will help it not turn into nut butter! I've used a blender and a food processor and both work well. 0 -
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I found mine in Tesco, in the baking aisle, round about where they had the icing supplies, rather than the baking supplies (e.g. glycerin, gel food colouring etc.) (as in, a bit further down the same aisle!).
It isn't absolutely essential to include it, and I have made them without (the rest of the steps, and ingredient ratios, are all the same, just maybe be more careful making the meringue so as to not accidentally over beat it). What I have found is that the biscuits seem to end up hollow without it (think of a chocolate-marshmallow tea cake without the marshmallow, a thick base and empty round shell!). The additional egg white powder helps to stabilise the meringue in the oven so it doesn't collapse (i.e. the centre doesn't disappear) and gives much more consistent results.
They still look "correct" and taste great, but the texture is different. (Also, it feels like you're eating fewer calories :pac:
) 0 -
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You know, I'd go ahead and make them, using one egg white, and do one colour. (But then, I really love macarons!)
That way you aren't "wasting" too much of the other ingredients if you're unhappy with the result, and it'll give you a feel for the different stages. Half of the time involved is just waiting for the surface to dry a bit (this helps the foot form, as the air can't escape upwards through the skin so has to exit through the base) and then the time in the oven, so it's really just an hour of measuring / whipping / mixing / piping, and for most of the rest of the time you can be doing other things.
Also, maybe they wouldn't end up hollow for you! It might just be me! 0 -
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I am now making these next week instead. I am making Paperclip2's Lemon Cake (mammy loves her lemon!) for tomorrow. I woulda made these too but there are two apts tomorrow, I had one today, and going out for dinner I thought they'd be wasted (only two of us) so best made next week instead. I can devote more time to them that way 0
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Pigwidgeon wrote: »Right. That did not go well...
I think I know where I want wrong though. I think the first problem was the lack of egg white powder which made the meringue not the most stable. I think the next problem was that the mixture was too thick and I piped them too big, I did a full mixture and only got something like 20 full macarons. They were in the oven for ages and were still quite sticky on the bottom and when I tried them they were kind of chewy. They also spread out an awful lot when cooking, instead of rising upwards.
Macarons 1 - Pigwidgeon 0Galwaymother wrote: »Ah ah they look great really! Mine were more or less problematic in the same way
I hope you're not too disappointed! Believe it or not, those are actually not too far from being perfect!
You have feet - I definitely didn't get feet on my first batch! (My first batch weren't remotely recognisable as macarons, and being blue, were barely recognisable as being food!)
They have a great colour, not faded or browned, and they are a really good round shape, so while they might have been very big, you had a really good piping technique The hollowness is exactly the same as I experienced. When you get the egg white powder, it should definitely help.
When I saw the pics at first I thought perhaps they were a bit over-mixed, which makes the batter more runny and liable to splay out the bottom rather than "holding its own". Usually if the batter is under-mixed, you get little lumps on top where the tail end of the piped mixture doesn't settle in, even after tapping, or they crack and have no feet. Did you find it difficult to pipe them cleanly? As in, would there have been trails of mix coming out of the bag as you moved between "blobs"?
Another thing would be to make sure to tap the pan a lot to spread them out before they form the skin, so they don't have much scope to spread further in the oven.
If they "erupt", rising in the centre and breaking the ceiling, that suggests there's too much air left in them and maybe the oven is too hot (they could still have feet).
If they crack across the top like a ginger snap, they are probably under-mixed again, but the skin wasn't strong enough to keep in any air, so they probably won't have feet in this case.
If they turn out like yours, somebody probably just distracted you at the wrong moment as you were on your way to deliver amazing macarons 0 -
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Right, I think I'm finally ready to try these. One question - Can I just use lemon curd and jam in the filling or would they be too wet? I'm not sure I can be bothered with the ganache the first time
I have never had the patience to try to make these, but love them and buy them often at howth market. Imo jam or lemon curd would be too overpowering as they are very delicate in flavour. Perhaps some lemon curd or nutella folded into some whipped double cream, if you don't want to make the ganache.0 -
Right, I think I'm finally ready to try these. One question - Can I just use lemon curd and jam in the filling or would they be too wet? I'm not sure I can be bothered with the ganache the first time
If it is a good thick lemon curd (e.g. shop-bought as some homemade ones can be a bit thin) you would be fine if you don't put much pressure on the lids. I would find jam a bit thin (I like a good layer of filling to balance the biscuits and I think jam would ooze out the sides if I put on as much as I like!) I know others who happily use a thin layer of jam though.
I remember you saying you didn't like almonds, so while lemon curd would be a strong flavour as rosebush says, it might be good from your perspective if it obscures the almond flavour!
Good luck! 0 -
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RoseBlossom wrote: »If it is a good thick lemon curd (e.g. shop-bought as some homemade ones can be a bit thin) you would be fine if you don't put much pressure on the lids. I would find jam a bit thin (I like a good layer of filling to balance the biscuits and I think jam would ooze out the sides if I put on as much as I like!) I know others who happily use a thin layer of jam though.
I remember you saying you didn't like almonds, so while lemon curd would be a strong flavour as rosebush says, it might be good from your perspective if it obscures the almond flavour!
Good luck!
Thanks! I tried macarons for the first time recently, and you were right: There's not a strong almond flavour at all. I do prefer a bit of a stronger flavour from the filling, so I'll definitely try the lemon curd. 0
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