Macarons

These almond meal and meringue based cookies are all girly decadence. But being just bite-sized and also flourless, they will please almost everyone, including gluten-intolerant people! The filling possibilities are just about endless so go get creative and wait for the 'Oh la-la!'s to roll in!

Recipe includes fillings for the five flavours I made: Honey on Toast, Raspberry Chocolate, Orange and Lemon curd, Spearmint and Manuka, Apple Pie. As well as these I have added a recipe for a favourite flavour, Salted Caramel, and made some other filling suggestions for you to try.

Working in a patisserie was less fun than I thought - I wasn't one of the cooks, you see. Watching the chefs at work was certainly fun though and I was inspired to try making macarons for the first time. I don't have a commercial kitchen at home nor did I want commercial quantities so I used recipes from a book I own, 'The Secrets of Macarons' by Jose Marechal, and also from the recipe recently featured on the TV show 'My Kitchen Rules' - Thanks Nick and Rocco!
Even when not making commercial quantities these cookies they can take some time! They're perfect for when you want to spend an afternoon baking (Unless you're a Nick or Rocco and can make them in 1 1/2 hours from wo to go). I was more keen on the pleasure of making the macarons than eating them as I've been restricting sugar and such for lent and have got used to enjoying sweet treats as eye-candy! So try these pretty biscuits and enjoy sharing them with friends. Such petite bites are a perfect little treat - or package them nicely for a dainty gift!

Macaron Shells

Makes about 45 macarons (90 halves)

200g caster sugar
75ml water
4 egg whites
200g almond meal, sifted
200g (1 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
Gel food colourings to match/complement filling flavours




1. To make macaroons, preheat oven to 200C. Combine caster sugar and water in a small saucepan and simmer over low heat, stirring, for 8-10 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Heat sugar syrup until it reaches 118C (test using a sugar thermometer), brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush to avoid crystallisation.


2. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk 2 egg whites in a medium bowl until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high, then slowly add sugar syrup in a constant stream until combined. Set aside. (My old 'SwiftWhip' hand beater worked fine but it IS tricky to pour in the sugar syrup before it cools and hardens AT THE SAME TIME AS continuing to beat - an extra pair of hands would have helped!)


3. Sieve almond meal and icing sugar into a medium stainless-steel bowl, then gradually add remaining unbeaten egg whites, mixing with a wooden spoon
until the mixture is firm and paste-like.


4. Separate mixture into smaller bowls, depending on how many colours you want. Add desired food colouring to each bowl and combine well, then divide beaten egg whites evenly between each bowl and thoroughly combine. The mixtures should have a velvety texture. I added extra eggwhite mixture after taking these photos - in fact I had too much eggwhite as my eggs were small ones and I over-compensated - hence the mix spread out and made thin macarons. Don't overmix - if you do the mix will become too runny and the macarons too thin to form their 'feet' - the ruffled bit at the bottom which is desirable as it lets the top surface stay smooth and uncracked.







5. Spoon coloured mixtures into piping bags fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle. Pipe mixture to make 3cm rounds on silicon-mat or baking paper lined baking trays. Tips:
- Make a circles template sheet by tracing a 3cm circle, from cookie cutter etc, onto a sheet of baking paper. Put another sheet of baking paper over this and you'll be able to see circles underneath and pipe to size. Then you can slide the template sheet out and use for the next tray.
- Attach baking paper to tray with wee dots of the mixture like glue. This will stop the paper curling and lifting in the oven's heat.
Tap trays to flatten peaks and rest for 30 minutes or until mixture feels dry to touch and forms a skin. This drying time is very important. If you try to cook them when the surface is still a bit sticky, the 'feet' won't form at the base and so the top will crack and they won't look pretty and smooth.





6. Reduce oven temperature to 150C and place trays in oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until bases are firm and a macaroon can be lifted from the tray. Remove trays from oven and slide the macarons-on-baking-paper onto a wet benchtop - the thermal shock will make them easier to remove. When you can separate the macarons from the paper, put them on a wire rack to cool.

7. When your fillings are ready (some will need cooling time and could be made ahead), assemble macarons.
Using a piping bag fitted with an 8 mm (3/8 inch) nozzle (or spread carefully with a teaspoon), fill half the macaron shells with filling(s). Then top with the other half of the macaron shells. Place in container (single layer or separated by baking paper) in fridge for at least an hour. They are especially good the next day as flavours have developed. You may even freeze the macarons straight after you have assembled them and thaw out when you want to use - a good idea if you're not sharing these as the recipe makes quite a few!





Fillings
NB if you don't fancy making fillings, the macaron shells are very nice on their own with a coffee or a nice cuppa.

Chocolate Ganache
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100ml thickened cream
To make ganache, melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until smooth. Add cream and stir until thickened, then cool to set.

You can add different flavours to this.
Raspberry - Make a coulis (puree) by mixing raspberries and a little sugar to taste and heating over medium heat. Strain through a fine sieve over the chocolate. Gently combine to dissolve chocolate and make ganache smooth. Cool until at suitable consistency for spreading (thick like peanut butter).
Or you can try
White chocolate
Chocolate Mint

Lemon Curd
75g (1/2 cup) cornflour
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) lemon juice
310ml (1¼ cups) water
2 tsp grated lemon zest
3 egg yolks
60g unsalted butter, chopped

To make lemon curd, combine cornflour and sugar in a medium saucepan over low heat, then gradually stir in lemon juice and water and stir until smooth. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and stir in lemon zest, egg yolks and butter. Stir until melted. Cover with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature. When ready, add to buttercream, 1 tsp at a time, to taste.

Other Fruity Jam type fillings
Save type and use a favourite jam like plum, blueberry, strawberry etc


Buttercream
180g caster sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) water
3 egg yolks
300g unsalted butter, diced, softened

To make buttercream, you can go easy or complicated. I used the long recipe here but I reckon it would have worked just about as well saving a lot of hassle to just cream butter and sugar and beat in egg yolks - no heating! OR this is the recipe I tried if you have enough time:
Place sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir for 8-10 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Brush sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush to avoid crystallisation. Boil to 121C (test using a sugar thermometer).

Meanwhile, using an electric mixer on high speed, whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl until thick and pale. Reduce speed to medium and gradually pour in sugar syrup in a thin, steady stream. Whisk for 5 minutes, then add butter 1 piece at a time and whisking after each addition, until combined. Divide mixture between however many bowls to make the different flavoured fillings (I used buttercream for 3 of my five fillings) and leave for 15-20 minutes to cool completely.

The three buttercream flavours I made:
Honey on Toast - 2 tsp of your favourite honey. I used redgum.
Spearmint & Manuka - Mix and heat 1-2 tsp of spearmint & manuka tea (or other nice tea flavour - rooibus? dandylion?) in 1-2 Tbsp of water or cream to extract flavour. Strain, squeezing out as much flavoured tea extract as possible.
Apple Pie - Mix Applesauce with a little buttercream to set it.

Other ideas to mix with buttercream:
Nut - hazelnut, pistachio etc
Coffee
Rosewater
Vanilla
Coconut
Mango

Salted Caramel Filling
250 g (9oz) Caster sugar
75 ml (2 1/2 fl oz) Water
120 ml (4 fl oz) whipping / pouring cream
200 g (7 oz) Salted butter

(You might want to add a caramel or light brown food colouring or 2 drops of yellow colouring to the macaron mix)

1. Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan, over a medium heat. Without stirring too much, watch over the sugar until it becomes a lovely light brown caramel colour.

2.Next add the pouring cream, little by little, gently stirring with a spatula to stop the caramel cooking any further. The caramel will foam up and can burn. Watch out for splatters - hot sugar is dangerous! It might pay to wear long sleeves and use a splatter-guard.

3. Once the cream is well incorporated into the caramel, put in the thermometer and monitor the temperature. Once it reaches 108 celsius (226 F), remove from the heat and add the butter in small pieces. Beat or whisk until the caramel is smooth and even.

4. Pour caramel into suitable container and chill in the fridge for at least 1 1/2 hours so that the caramel thickens.