I bought a book about macarons a few months ago called Mad About Macarons. I was swayed by the fact the author claimed the recipe was the easiest way to make macarons. No slamming of trays and no fancy equipment needed. Always a good thing. So I thought this weekend would be the best time to give it a go.
The recipe was
150g of egg whites (which turned out to be 3 medium eggs, plus some from another egg)
180g of ground almonds
100g of caster sugar
270g of icing sugar
I measured out the egg whites VERY carefully
I whisked them in the mixer and gradually added the caster sugar as I did. Soon they were in little white peaks. I popped in some purple food gel at this stage since they were looking a fairly beige colour...
Next up I measured out the ground almonds and the icing sugar and sifted them together.
Egg whites were added and mixed together with the spatula. Afterwards I used a plastic scraper to push the mixture back and forth to get rid of the oxygen from the whites.
I filled the piping bag and let it sit for a moment while I put a sheet of parchment on the baking tray and drew circles to use as a guide. Needless to say when I did my first try I realised the circles were far too close together and made some changes for the second tray...
They had to sit for 30 minutes to let them set. You know when they're ready because they feel tacky but not wet to the touch. Popped them into the oven for 10 minutes at 160 degrees and checked on them. They were still a little wiggly so I returned them in for another 3 minutes. When they came out they looked pretty good!!
Let them cool and sandwiched them together with chocolate frosting in some and apricol jam in the others. Sadly out of the 30 I put in the oven, only about 8 were good enough to do anything with. But considering how 'hard' they are to make I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt. I'd definitely recommend the book and am looking forward to making more macarons and actually attempting different flavours.
No comments:
Post a Comment