French Macarons
It has been a very long time since my last blog post. That is not to say that I haven’t been baking and cooking like MAD though! I just haven’t had the time to post. I would like to start making the time, because I want to get better at both baking and taking nice pictures of the food that I make.
I am most recently excited about my new ability to make macarons. I have tried twice in the the past, and both times resulted in a gloppy, lumpy-looking almond cookie that was edible but ugly, and nothing what a macaron should look like. My stockpile of frozen egg whites was starting to get out of control due to all of the ice cream that Tommy and I have been making recently, so I gave macaron-making another go. I put together all of my ideas as to why the previous attempts failed, got serious and started again. The result was plain-but-beautiful macarons that tasted delicious. I was hoping that I hadn’t just gotten lucky, so I made another batch the following weekend and was successful in that as well.
In the next few months, I want to venture into adding flavor and fillings to my macarons. And if I continue to make ice cream, I should have plenty of egg whites queued up for my experiments.
Plain Macarons
Ingredients
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
4 oz (1 cup) almond flour or finely ground almonds (I used blanched almonds and ground them in my blender)
¼ cup plus 2 tbsps egg whites at room temperature (this is about 4 egg whites, depending on how big the egg is)
pinch of salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
Preparation
Allow egg whites to dry out by leaving them uncovered at room temperature for one or two days.
Line baking sheets with parchment. If it is important to you to make perfectly sized macarons, then draw 1.5-inch circles on the back of the parchment for a guide when piping. I find it more fun to try to match up the differently-sized macarons in the end for a perfect fit.
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar. Mix the almonds and powdered sugar in a bowl and set aside.
In a large, clean, dry bowl whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase the speed to medium-high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip to stiff peaks – the whites should be firm and shiny.
With a flexible spatula, gently fold in the powdered sugar/almond mixture into egg whites until completely incorporated. The mixture should be shiny and ‘flow like magma.’ When small peaks dissolve to a flat surface, stop mixing. This should all take about 50 strokes of the spatula.
Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch (1 cm) round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets (in the previously drawn circles if you drew circles). When you pipe the batter, leave the tip in the center and let the batter move out. Do not try to “swirl” the batter when piping. Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles. Let dry at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to allow skins to form.
Bake, in a 310F oven for 10 to 11 minutes total, rotating the baking sheet after 5 minutes for even baking.
Remove macarons from oven and transfer the parchments to a cooling rack. When cool, slide a metal offset spatula underneath the macaron to remove from the parchment.
Chocolate Ganache Filling
8 oz heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 2 minutes, then stir with a whisk until the chocolate and the milk have been incorporated and the mixture looks like shiny ganache. Let sit at room temperature for at least an hour to thicken.
Pair macarons of similar size, and pipe about 1 tsp of the filling onto one of the macarons. Sandwich macarons, and refrigerate to allow flavours to blend together. Bring back to room temperature before serving.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:14 pm
[...] them a day to thaw out, but I have not had any problems using them so far. I’ve even made macarons with my frozen-then-thawed egg whites and have been successful. This entry was posted on [...]