Macarons, version française ici.
My sons prefer the thinly crusted meringues and macarons over the buttery, rich flavors of other cookies. They leave practically untouched most of the dense cakes, giving their votes to creamy Bavarian or airy angel food cakes. They will feast any day on fruit or chocolate mousse but will nibble on a small wedge of buttercream torte. And a coffee cake will be eaten only if it’s studded with thick pieces of fruits.
Today they’re at home. School is closed to allow teachers prepare the trimester’s mark sheets to send to parents. The weather is gray, rainy, humid and sad, forcing us to switch on lamps in the living areas of the house. They read stories, they played on the game-cube, they built little time capsules to burry later in the garden but finally they got bored because they didn’t have their breath of outdoor fresh air. I decided to treat them with their favorite cookies to lift up their spirits.
Yes, I know ! The macaron subject has been beaten almost to death already. But I couldn’t resist sharing the recipe that delivers the best results for me each and every time.
I have to warn you though, this is a French recipe and it is all measured in grams. You have to weight almost everything. I never tried to measure in volumes because I feel macarons recipes should be very precise for best results. You can find inexpensive scales meant for dieters or diabetic people at the pharmacy. Or you can treat yourself to a state of the art kitchen scale at the kitchen supplies store. You will also need a candy thermometer.
An other precision about this recipe. It is not necessary to leave the piped macarons to air-dry for hours before baking. I go right ahead and cook them. They still have a nice shiny crust.
I use my trusty and favorite double baking sheets. These are rimless and are 2 sheets of metal separated by a void. I never have the problem of overcooked cookie bottoms.
This recipe yields about 70 macarons cookies (1.5 inches – 4 cm each) or 35 “sandwiched” macarons.
Macarons
238 g finely ground almond meal (the finer the meal the better)
238 g icing sugar
100 g room temperature egg whites
240 g sugar
80 g water
80 g slightly beaten egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
Cover 3 baking sheets with baking paper. If you want regular shaped macarons, you can draw circles on a 4th sheet (I used a 1.5 inches – 5 cm vitamin bottle cap as a guide to draw the circles).
Sift together the icing sugar and the ground almonds. Discard the bigger almond pieces if any. Put the mixture in the food processor and run the machine few seconds to sift and mix well the powders. Sift again through a sieve on a large sheet of baking paper. Set aside.
Pour 100 g room temperature egg whites in a big mixing bowl and whisk them with an electric mixer just until they form medium air bubble. You don’t want them in a meringue texture but just bubbly. Keep your electric whisk ready near the mixing bowl.
In a little thick bottomed saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil on medium heat. Cook until the candy thermometer registers 250º F (121º C), which is the temperature at which the syrup will form threads when pulled with a fork.
As soon as the syrup has reached the right temperature, begin to whisk again the egg whites at very high speed while pouring the syrup slowly in a thin stream. When all the syrup has been poured, continue to whisk the meringue until it is cool to the touch. This will take about 10 minutes of high speed electric whisking. If you have a stand-up mixer, use it instead of the electric whisk. It will free your hands while doing the job.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts and whisk to combine to the macarons batter.
Lift the baking sheet with almond meal/icing sugar mixture on it and pour the powders on the meringue. Using a rubber spatula, incorporate the powders to the meringue by lifting the mixture from under, bringing it up and then back under again. It’s difficult to explain but if you look at the 2 pictures of the macaron batter below you will have a good idea of what I mean.
Add the slightly beaten egg whites and incorporate in the same fashion. These will adjust the batter consistency. The second picture below shows what texture the batter will be after the addition of the 80 g egg whites.
Put the batter in a pastry bag fitted with a plain large tip. If you use guides drawn on a baking sheet, put a plain sheet on top of the one which has the circles on it. You will see the circles underneath the clean baking sheet. Pipe the batter on the sheets.
Preheat the oven to 300º F (150º C). Put a sheet at a time in the pre-heated oven and lower the heat to 250º F (120ºC). Keep the door very slightly open using a wooden spatula to stop the door from closing. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately lift the baking paper to pour a little bit of water underneath it (not too much, you don’t want to wet the bottom of your macarons.) This will help remove the cookies. Allow to cool before attempting to remove the macarons from the baking paper.
Before putting the following macaron sheet to bake, bring back the oven temperature to 300ºF (150ºC). Lower to 250º F (120ºC) again after the baking sheet is in and don’t forget to leave the oven door very slightly open using a wooden spatula if necessary to prevent it from closing.
When all the macarons are cooked, use your favorite filling and make the little “sandwiches”. I used homemade apricot jam, white chocolate ganache, lemon/saffron/vanilla custard and wild berries jam.
Enjoy!
This recipe is adapted from the one developed by Patrice Larchevêque, instructor at l’Institut National de la Boulangerie Pâtisserie, Rouen - France.
6 comments:
Hi Zoubida,
I've never tried Macarons although they have them here. I think it is because the are expensive. Almost $2 for 1!
You're macarons look good :)
Whoah! I made pistachio macarons a while ago, but they looked nothing like uniform and professional like your French macarons, Zoubida! Very impressive!
Hi Kat,
I agree french macarons are really expensive in bakeries. We love them so much I had to "master" their recipe. Otherwise, it wouldn't have made sense budget-sise to buy a whole bunch of them at high prices to satisfy the 5 of us.
Thank you so much Pille. My macarons were not always that good-looking. The nice professionnal look comes after several "so-so" looking batches of them. Practise is the key with these temperamental cookies. This being said, even when they look very "homemade" they are still divine tasting. And that's the most important thing. I'm sure your pistachio macarons were divine!
Wow Zoubida,simple out of the world.I just want to grab them off the screen.
Whenever I come here,I hate having to leave the site..:)
I have never made macarons and one of my food challenges is to learn some baking from you,Anne and Chanit.You 3 inspire me no end with your food.
Thanks so much,Zoubida
I'm laughing here Sailu! Did you know that most of your images make me want to grab them out of the screen too? I doesn't show that much in my blog but I'm a savory kind of person. I love savory and spicy over sweets.
Thank YOU so much Sailu.
Where can I buy double-lined baking sheets? I did a quick Internet search for them, which turned up nothing, unbelievably.
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