This morning I wanted to get out an old favourite, something I love and requires practice to maintain the skill. Yes, yes, I made Macaron.
I've posted a few blog posts about these yummy little nibbles, but never yellow ones.
Macaron don't have to be something terrifying or excruciatingly hard to make. You just need to know the techniques and get into your own knack of making them. I know everyone says that, but it is true. It's like anything. If you are learning to ride a bike, then you aren't going to go very far if you are trying to be the world's biggest and best biker the first time around.
You're probably going to end up falling, scratching up your bake (I love it when Belfast Slang, marries the topic I'm talking about in perfect harmony) and feeling really silly. You need to build up to it. There will be messes. There will be tears. And there will be frustrated moments that cause you to blast the music to a super sad song and sing out of tune to it, whilst flinging the failed baked good across the room... No, I'm not speaking from experience.
My first ever attempt at making Macaron was when I was like 14. Wow- that was 6 years ago... now I feel a little old. Anyway, we were having someone over for dinner and I wanted to test out a bake on them. Although, why I thought serving something that I'd never made before and was trying it out for the first time on them was a good idea, is a mystery to me now. When people come to your house for dinner, it is normally considered polite to serve something edible.
They (the Macaron I made for the first time) came out being bigger than a baby's head in circumference and were as flat as you like. And could you see the feet on them? Nope, they were nowhere to be seen. They also tasted under baked. But hey, what did I say, this was a process. To sound like a motivational poster 'it's not a sprint, it's a marathon'. This has been and continues to be my 6 + year marathon. To maintain your ability to make these, you just need to stick at it and keep making them.
I love making Macaron as they leave a lot of room for creativity. Whether it be in the colour of them, the flavour of them or the shape of them. I always love the traditional shape of the circular Macaron, and not because I'm staying in my comfort zone. Anyone who has ever made or attempted to make Macaron, will know in a painfully obvious manner, that there is no comfort zone when it comes to making these. They basically take you and all your happy go lucky attitude and kick it away. These are fickle. I find that they can be easier to make or harder to make depending on a few factors;
- The temperature of the day; whether it is really warm, wet or humid.
- Whether you, yourself are happy when making them. If you are stressed or don't want to make them, this will be reflected in the Macaron.
- Whether you are following every step to the absolute exact point.
I love the more traditional shape because I think they look really elegant and pretty.
I have used a lot of different recipes for making Macaron and that is why I think i've become better at making them. I must admit that I favour this recipe I found on the BBC Food website from Lorraine Pascal. Although, I make it in a different method to how she does... well from what i've seen on television.
The equipment you'll need is;
- Free stand mixer preferably, but hand held will do, if not adding to stress of making these
- 2 Baking sheets, lined with baking paper
- 2 Piping bags
- 1 Plain tipped nozzle
- 1 Non- stick pot
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Sieve
If you don't have a piping bag, then you can go for either the baking paper cone method. This is when you roll up a sheet of baking paper, corner first and roll it up diagonally. Then snip the tip of the cone and use it that way. Or you could go with a sandwich bag.
The ingredients you'll need to make these will be; (these make 13 Macaron)
- 125g Icing Sugar
- 125g Ground Almonds
- 110g Caster Sugar
- 90g Egg whites
- 2 tbsp of Cold Water
- 1/2 - 1 tsp of Sunrise Yellow Food Colouring Gel
Buttercream:
- 250g Unsalted butter
- 10 tbsp Icing sugar
- 2 tbsp water (if needed)
Method for making these:
- First you need to preheat the oven to 170 C in a Fan Assisted oven and allow this to heat up to the required temperature.
- Then get your baking sheets and line them with the baking paper. Don't worry if they keep rolling up and won't stay flat, lining the tray. When the Macaron mix is made, then you can use a little of it to act as the glue and stick the corners of the baking paper down.
- Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar together and put through a sieve. Sieve this until the mixture is smooth and completely combined.
When you sieve this, all the little hard and thicker almond bits will be left behind. Chuck them away.
Sieving the almonds and icing sugar helps them to mix, but also ensure that your Macaron will be smooth and aesthetically appealing as there aren't any lumpy bits left in the mixture by the almonds.
- Whisk the egg whites until they become soft peaks. This is basically whisking the eggs whites and only the egg whites to their full volume potential.
- Whilst the egg whites are whisking, heat the caster sugar and the little water in a pot and boil this until it reaches 114 C in temperature, is thick and syrupy looking and is bubbling away.
- With the mixter on slow (this is why I said a stand mixer would be better as if you have a hand held, you're going to want to sit your bowl on a slip proof material as you'll have one hand on the mixer and the other pouring in this incredibly hot sugar mix. Be careful, if it spills on you, it will hurt and you'll probably scar. I did.
- Slowly pour the sugar mix into the egg white mix until it is all finished. Then turn the mixer on high and quickly whisk the meringue until it becomes thick, glossy and fluffy looking. You also want the meringue to have cooled down quite a lot. Add in a little food colouring and whisk until it is a stable colour and not just rippled through.
- Chuck the almond/ icing sugar mix into the egg whites and mix until it is smooth, glossy and shiny looking. You want to mix it enough until it falls off the spatula in a steady stream.
- You want it to be able to fall off the spatula and not just cling on and hold its shape.
- You want it to be able to imprint on the mixture below when it falls on itself and not just sink in, it needs to stay on the surface for a few seconds.
- You want it to be liquid enough to be piped easily and know it is mixed enough and won't crack when baking, but not so liquid that it just spreads and spills like water.
- Once this is achieved, piped the Macaron onto the baking trays and slam them down on the counter tops. This will get rid of all those little air bubbles that, if not burst, would pop when baking and ruin the look of the Macaron. Slam them about 4-5 times on the counter, this will also level and smooth them out. If there is still a little mound of mix on the surface where you finished piping, dampen your finger or the back of a spoon and smooth it out.
- Leave them to prove (sit) for around an 1hr and a half, in a cool, dry and shaded room. This will allow them to form a skin, that will protect them from cracking out the surface when baking. Also allowing them to develop their foot.
You'll know they are proved enough when you press on them gently and none of the mix comes off when you pull away.
- Once they are proved, pop them into the preheated oven and bake for 6-10 minutes until they have risen, have their little feet and when they have formed a little shell and aren't incredibly shaky. It is okay if they are a little wobbly when you press to see if the top has set.
- Once they are baked, take them out of the oven and slide them off the tray onto a cool surface. Leave them to cool completely before trying to move them.
- Once they are cooled completely and have firmed up enough to move, remove them from the baking paper and flip them onto their tops, so that the base of them are facing upwards. Leave them aside whilst you make the buttercream.
- Put the butter in a mixer bowl and give it a good whisking until it is smooth, whisked and fluffy looking.
- Add in the icing sugar, a little at a time, and then cover it with a tea towel in between each addition of the icing sugar. This will stop your whole kitchen or room where you are baking being covered in icing sugar. Add a little water at the end if it looks a little thick or too stiff to be able to pipe.
- Ocne this is done, plop it into a piping bag and snip the bottom to form a really small hole. This will ensure that only a little buttercream is piped at a time.
- Get your Macaron and Pipe half of them with buttercream and leave the other half plain. Once half of them are filled, sandwich the other half on top. As this recipe makes 13 Macaron, it will produce 26 Macaron halves. Pipe 13 of them and then sandwich them all together, giving you 13 whole Macaron.
- Then plate up and eat. Now you can colour and flavour these in any way that you want, but I would recommend that if you are going to flavour them, use a powder flavouring. Adding any extra liquid to these will have catastrophic effect on them. Like I said they are fickle, don't go messing with them- they won't thank you for it.
- You could add zest on top or a sprinkling of chocolate shavings or melted chocolate to decorate them differently. But I like them plain and simple, well as simple as Macaron can be.
Hope you've enjoyed this post and have a lovely evening all!?
Talk soon,
Ciara
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