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January 9, 2010

the recipe :: french macaron

As a follow up to my French macaron success blog, I wanted to share the recipe.  I hope you find success with this recipe as well.  Remember it is an adaptation of a couple of blogs and a Martha Stewart meringue recipe.  Here goes.  

Step 1 :: make meringue

1 3/4 c  sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 c   water
6 large egg whites

In a small heavy saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, corn syrup and water.  Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.  Once dissolved, stop stirring and let it boil till the temperature reaches 230 degrees (use a candy thermometer).  You might need to brush the sides of the pan with cold water if the sugar starts to crystalize.  This should take 5 min or so.  

Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on medium speed till soft peaks form (a couple of minutes).  Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar.  Remove the syrup from the heat and pour in a steady stream (slow) into the egg whites (medium to low speed).  Let the mixer go on medium speed till the sides of the bowl are have cooled.  This could take 5-10 min or more. 

You will now have a very thick, shiny meringue.  

Step 2 :: make macaron

250 grams almond flour 
500 grams powdered sugar

Place almond flour into food processor (or blender) to break up any lumps - a minute or so, be sure to shake the bowl around to get all of the almond flour.  

Sift together almond flour and powdered sugar.

Add dry ingredients to meringue - this is the hard part.  I found the meringue to be quite stiff and added bits of cold water to keep the consistency a little more like "magma."  The goal is to have a batter that will flow off of your spatula like magma - slow, smooth and will not form a peak.  This is the tricky part folks!  I did not add more than a teaspoon of water at a time. 

Once you have the desired consistency you can add food coloring (preferably powered).  You can split the batter into multiple batches for different colors too.

Pipe batter onto baking sheet (I use Wilton 12" bags with large collar and #12 tip) that has been lined with silicone liner (silpat) or parchment paper.  Keep them about 1" apart and each cookie should be about 1" in diameter.  Bang the cookie sheet on the counter a couple of times to get ride of any "peaks."  Let the cookies sit 15 minutes or so before baking.

I found baking at 300 degrees for 11 minutes worked best for me.  From all that I have read, no two ovens are alike and there may be some trial and error here.   Remove cookies and let sit on pan for about 10 minutes before trying to remove.  The cookies will settle into their "feet" a bit.  Removing them from the pan takes a very delicate hand.  

Voilà, you now have French macarons!  You can fill with anything from buttercream to ganache to jam!   

Best of luck to you and let me know how it goes!

* * *
Blogs I found helpful - David Lebovitz - Tartlette - Kitchen Musings - Mercotte

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January 3, 2010

sweet success

Oh it was a sweet Sunday!  I took my fourth stab at french macarons and am so happy they were successful.  Now maybe I can move on to making something else yummy. :)  
So here's what I learned.  I work better with Italian meringue methods rather than the standard or French varieties.  I did find this meringue much more stiff and had to improvise and add tiny bits of water to get it back to the "magma" like consistency.  I thought for sure I had messed up the whole batch, but was knee deep in the process so I went for it!  

I have read so many things about waiting 30 minutes or more before putting them in the oven - there are so many schools of thought and it seems like more trial and error.  So, I put the very first tray I piped directly into the oven - those are the super cracked ones on the right - and that was a mistake.  So, I let the other pans rest for 15 min or more and they look spectacular!  I was shocked really.

I had separated the batches in two because the meringue was extremely hard to work with in a full batch!  The white ones were the second round and I needed a little more water in that one because there are more "beaks" - but even still, every single one came out beautifully.  

Look at those perfectly shiny tops and in line feet!  I thought I had a few "perfect" cookies during round three, but now know I did not... they tasted fine and upon first look seemed OK, but... 

In the photo above you'll see round 3 on the left.  See how the "feet" have sort of blown out the sides?  The cookie on the right show the feet are in line with the top - that's the way it's supposed to be.  It only took me four tries to get it right.  : )

I am nothing if not persistent!  

I filled them with buttercream - orange, rose, peppermint, dutch chocolate (some with a touch of salt) and almond.  All are superb, but I must say the rose is intense.  I probably needed 1/4 the flavoring for that one.  Ahh... live and learn.  Maybe next time I can actually put things on top - like those bacon & maple buttercream variety.  

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December 6, 2009

macaronage

I decided to take some better than iPhone shots of my macaron take two adventure.  Even with cracks and beaks they look pretty good.  I will tell you they taste damn good.  I'm loving the traditional recipe with the orange buttercream better than the chocolate w/chocolate ganache.  I used dutch process coco and it's pretty bitter.  I think in the future if I use the dutch process, I'll need something sweeter or saltier to offset the bitter cookie.  

         

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November 29, 2009

french macaron #1 :: macaron massacre

I have read blog after blog about making French macarons - they are all soooo different I wasn't quite sure where to start.  So I took the recipe for the basic macaron - no fancy colors, fillings or etc. - from here.  Seems she'd tried most everything and worked out the kinks.  

I used the above ingredients measured to the exact gram!  

125 grams almond flour
225 grams powdered sugar
3 egg whites
25 grams of sugar

Pinch cream of tartar.

I had even let the egg whites sit for 36 hrs in the fridge and brought them to room temp this morning (about an hour or so).  I have read that this helps quite a lot, but also that using fresh eggs works best.  Clearly I did not have that option.  I may have to hit the farmer's marked for the next try.  

I put the almond flower (purchased @ Whole Foods) into the food processor - ran that till it was much finer - added the powdered sugar and processed together. Then sift.  Now here is one step that I did wrong - I sifted once and should have sifted twice... Somehow I don't think this was the problem tho.

The batter looked perfect - like thick magma as described by many a blog!  It is possible that I over folded, but I limited to folding to 50 folds - and everything was blended pretty good.  I combined the dry to the egg whites in three batches - I've read anything between 2-6.  

Piping was easy - used my wilton bags and they came out beautifully.  I made them too big and spaced them too close together... 

I wanted to go with peppermint garnish - so I pulverized some candy canes and sprinkled on top - I think this was OK, but maybe too heavy in one spot... dunno.

I let them set for 30 minutes on the counter (rapped them once on the counter to flatten, though I didn't really need that).  At five minutes in the oven they were perfect - round with little feet forming then all hell broke loose and the feet took over.  They are basically hollow shells with all their guts spilling out --- what did I do wrong???  Did I over fold?  Did I over or under beat the egg whites?  Did I bake at the wrong temp?  What?  

Only a couple of them cracked their tops, but these feet are 100% wrong.  I will now have macaron mush to eat... hmmm.  I'll keep you posted when I try again.  I am determined to get these right!!!

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