Macarons

While macarons are beautiful and rather impressive, they're definitely not the easiest things to make - but when they do work, it's an incredible feeling!

This is my tried and true recipe, with all my tips for macaron success (after a lot of trial and error!)  I hope that this helps with your macaron endeavours.

Do note that macarons' behaviour can differ depending on the climate that you live in, so what works for me may not necessarily work for you.  I encourage you to keep experimenting!

Recipe adapted from: David Lebovitz
Ingredients
180g icing sugar
75g almond meal
3 egg whites from large eggs
97g white sugar

Method
1. Using a food processor, process the icing sugar and almond meal until combined and smooth.  This step helps to break down the almond meal into smaller particles, which will result in a smoother macaron batter.
You can also use hazelnut meal, which provides a lovely flavour, however I find that my macarons don't usually work how I want them to when I use hazelnuts.

2. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks.  (Top tip - I often use spare egg yolks to whip up some lemon curd!)

3. Add the white sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating in between additions.  Continue to beat until firm peaks form. 

4. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites in two batches.  (If you are using food colouring to colour your macarons, now is the time to add it!)  Ensure that all ingredients are combined, but do not overmix.

You don't need to be too gentle - the 'macaronnage' technique calls for the mixture to be smeared across the site of the bowl a bit with the spatula to decrease aeration.  The macaron batter should be smooth with no streaks of egg whites.

5. Line baking trays with baking paper.  I usually use a silicon mat and top it with baking paper to ensure that no oils from the silicon come in contact with the macarons.

6. Pipe the batter into small circles with a small round piping tip.  I usually make my macarons around 4-5cm in diameter.  Make sure to leave some space between macarons as they can spread.  Rap the baking tray on your table a few times to flatten the macarons and remove any large air bubbles.

7. Preheat your oven to 185C (365F).  While the oven's heating up, set the macarons aside to set a little - a skin will form on the top which will help your macaron to form a 'foot' when baked.

8. Bake the macarons for 10-15 minutes.  I bake my macarons on the fan setting for around 5 minutes (the foot should form during this time), then turn the fan setting off and lower the temperature to 150C (300F).

If your oven element is on the bottom of the oven, don't put your macarons on the bottom rack as it will be too hot for them and they may crack.  You can also put an empty baking tray on the bottom rack to help block the heat a bit.

9. Let the macarons rest on the tray until cool.  They can be sticky if you try to pull them off the baking paper while hot.

10. Sandwich your macarons with your desired filling - I usually use buttercream or dark chocolate ganache.  You can also make a dam of ganache or buttercream and put jam, caramel or another softer filling in the middle.

A dam of dark chocolate ganache surrounds salted caramel in these macarons!

Macarons at Savour Chocolate School

I attended the Decadent Chocolate Biscuits class at Savour Chocolate School a few months ago, which was an amazing experience.  I went back recently to go to their Macarons class. 

I learnt some great techniques for both macarons and fillings - previously I only used the 'French method' for macarons, which involves folding icing sugar and almond meal into beaten egg whites, but now I know a method which creates a much sturdier macaron!

We made six flavours all together - bergamot cream, salted caramel, peanut brittle, passionfruit lime cheesecake, coffee hazelnut and these really cute burger macarons (ganache 'patty', white chocolate 'cheese' and raspberry jam 'tomato sauce').

This is the salted caramel macaron - dusted with demerara sugar and filled with an amazing caramel.

This is the peanut brittle - my favourite!  Filled with chopped brittle and brittle-infused ganache (that actually tasted like peanut brittle!)  We splashed these with red-tinted cocoa butter which was really fun.

Next up is the passionfruit lime cheesecake.  I'm not a huge cheesecake person but my brother loved this.  The filling was a tart passionfruit lime jam surrounded by fluffy cream cheese buttercream.

This is the bergamot cream macaron - the biscuit itself was infused with tea and the bergamot cream filling was smooth and a bit tart.  I'd never used bergamot before but it tastes kind of like lemon, but different.

Citrus Macarons

Mum made masses of macarons for a fair.  They were yellow and orange and filled with citrus buttercream.

Macaron recipe here.  Happy baking!

The Elusive Macaron

Ahhh, the elusive macaron.  Frustrating, temperamental, inconsistent, and oh so delicious.
Macarons seem to be the latest 'in' sweet after cupcakes, and have caused me much grief.  These French egg white based biscuits are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, with a shiny shell and 'foot' below it.  They are traditionally sandwiched together with a filling such as jam, buttercream or ganache.


I've made macarons what seems like a hundred times and have had many fails - but the scrumptious, sugar enhanced glow of success that comes with the perfect batches makes up for it all.


Now, after many a test and trial, I think I've got it right.
But now, the recipe.  Follow it to the letter and you have a much better chance of success.


Recipe Source: David Lebovitz
Ingredients
Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered (icing) sugar
1/2 cup powdered almonds or hazelnuts (almond/hazelnut meal)

2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tbsp white sugar

Method

1. Using a food processor, process the icing sugar and almonds/hazelnuts until combined and well pulverised.  For this batch, I'm using almond meal.

Before pulverisation

2. Separate the eggs.  It's important to bring the eggs to room temperature before using, it makes them easier to separate and apparently it's better for the baked good.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape (soft peaks).  Add the white sugar 1 or 2 tbsp at a time and beat in well.  Be careful not to overbeat your eggs!

3. Fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a rubber spatula.  (If you don't know what folding is, click here to view a helpful video).  You don't need to be too gentle (but don't be too rough!) - in fact, there is a technique called 'macaronnage' that calls for the mixture to be smeared across the side of the bowl with the spatula.  I do it, and it doesn't seem to harm the macarons.

If you are adding food colouring, do so now and combine well.  For this batch, a bit of orange colouring was added.


4. When the mixture is smooth and there are no streaks of egg whites, scrape the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a small circular piping tip.

5. Pipe small rounds of mixture onto a baking tray covered with baking paper.  Make sure you leave quite a bit of room in between them because they spread.

If there is a blob of un-combined nut mixture stuck in your piping tip, remove it with a toothpick.  Do not just squeeze harder.  If you're using a piping bag that isn't super strength, the bag will be in danger of bursting.  Bursting is messy and a severe blow to your baking ego, trust me.

6. Leave them out so their surface begins to harden up.  This will help the macarons form their shiny shell and 'foot'.  Rest them for as long as it takes to heat up the oven to 180 degrees C.  You can leave it on fan forced as it heats, but when you put the macarons in turn it off fan.

After the oven is heated, place the macarons into the oven.  If your non fan forced oven element is at the bottom, don't put the macarons in the bottom rack as it is too hot and they crack.

7. Bake the macarons for 10 - 15 minutes.  Remove them from the oven then let them cool completely before peeling them gently off the baking paper.  (When they are warm, they stick).
Here's where you get that glow of success I was talking about.

8. Sandwich the macarons together with ganache, jam, buttercream or whatever you've got sitting around.  For these macarons, Mum and I put orange flavoured buttercream in them.

The alternative is leaving them separate, then smearing filling onto an individual macaron and eating it straight away.  This works well too.

We made some hazelnut meal macarons too.  These have a stronger nutty taste than the almond ones.  They turned out to be very crunchy and cracked, without a foot; we suspect because the oven was too hot.  However, when sandwiched with coffee buttercream, they still taste fantastic.

Tips and Suggestions
 - Bring the eggs to room temperature before using

 - When transferring the batter to the piping bag, attach some sort of clip just above the piping tip to make sure the batter doesn't drip out the end.  Then stand the bag in a measuring jug or water glass so it stands up, and off you go scraping!
 - When using hazelnut meal, turn oven heat down to 165 - 170 degrees C
 - Heat oven on fan then turn to normal.  (Quicker this way)
 - Don't use the oven rack right next to your heating element
 - If you want to make many macarons, just do one batch at a time.  It works better, believe me.
Edit: I have found that the best base for baking the macarons is a silicon mat with baking paper on top.