My first attempt was a total fail, but I also didn't age my egg whites or double up the baking pans. But since I had some leftover egg whites sitting in the fridge since Monday, I decided to give macaron-ing another try!
French Macarons
(adapted from here)
Makes: About 30 Macarons (60 shell halves)
Ingredients:
- 200 g powdered sugar
- 110 g almond meal (or almond flour, if you don't want the speckles from the skins)
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 90 g egg whites (3 large or 4 medium, but it's better to just weigh them. Also, leave them uncovered in the refrigerator for 1-5 days. Another thing: at room temperature.)
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Method:
1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and almond meal until combine.
3. Sift this mixture together, and put any refuse in a coffee grinder (or food processor, if you're fancy). Grind until fine enough to go through the sifter.
4. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy ("Bubble bath", as Helene Dujardin, the macaron master, would say.
5. Add in the granulated sugar and cream of tartar gradually.
6. Beat until glossy and has stiff peaks (Dujardin describes it as "shaving cream"). If you are adding any food coloring, add it now.
7. Pour in the almond meal mixture. Fold to combine, stroking quickly at first.
8. Fold until smooth and the mixture flows in a thick ribbon (do not overmix! Macarons will be flat).
9. Pour into a gallon sized plastic bag and cut a small hole in one corner.
10. Pipe 1-inch circle onto prepared sheets.
11. Punch the bottoms of the sheets (or bang against the counter to look like less of a weirdo).
12. Let the macarons rest for about 40 minutes.
13. Preheat oven to 280° F.
14. Place baking sheets upon another baking sheet and place onto middle rack of oven.
15. Bake for about 15 minutes, or more, depending on size.
16. Remove from parchment when done (if you can pick up the macaron by placing your fingers around it and carefully peeling it up, it is done).
17. Fill with whatever you love, let rest in refrigerator for 2 days, and enjoy!
I also made some chocolate filling with leftover evaporated milk from the Nutella pinwheels I made. It was super rich and yummy!
Chocolate Filling/Frosting
(adapted from here)
Ingredients:
- 150 g semisweet baking chocolate
- 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/4 c. cornstarch
- 2/3 c. evaporated milk
- 320 g powdered sugar
Method:
1. In a double-boiler, melt the chocolate and butter.
2. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.
3. Beat until smooth and slightly thickened.
4. Let chill in refrigerator for around 20 minutes.
5. Stir, add in any additional powdered sugar until spreadable, as needed.
6. For filling macarons: Place about 2 rounded tsp. of filling onto one macaron shell and place another shell on top.
Ta-da!
You can kind of tell I undermixed my batter, and also, I'm terrible at piping. I found a lovely/nifty/awesome macaron template to use next time here. And maybe when I become good enough, I'll make macarons like these!
I was overly excited about my macarons matching my new owl mug. Haha! (ohh, and just to make me look like less of a fatty, I didn't eat ALL of those. Only like, 2. ;-) )
I want to get better and better at making macarons, so I decided that every month I will make some with a variation that goes with the month.
Happy macaron-ing!
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