Macarons, Maracons, Maracons.

Macarons have been the bane of my existence every since my first attempt two years ago, where after a few hours work ended up with nothing but sad, gooey pancakes. After a few more failed attempts, I've been procrastinating trying my hand at them again, because I hated wasting my time, and a tonne of almond meal and eggwhites.

But no longer! I finally had a batch where all of them worked. 

After scouring the internet for solutions to all my macaron problems - (lumpy batter, runny batter, no feet, cracked tops, sticking to the baking sheet, sticking to my silicon mat, over baked and hollow..the list goes on) - my salvation came in the form of yet another recipe book, recommended to me by a work colleague. The Secret Of Macarons, by Jose Marechal. I've included his basic macaron recipe below. Honestly, I haven't tried flavouring the shell itself, because it's much easier to make a large batch of the same shell, but just fill with different fillings. You can sprinkle chopped nuts, powders or drizzled chocolate over your shells to differentiate them. So far, I've only used white chocolate ganache-based fillings for my macarons, however you can use buttercream also.

Basic Macaron Shell:

Ingredients:

• 200g ground almonds
• 200g icing sugar
• 75ml water
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 x 80g egg whites

Method:

1. Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor, and process for 5 minutes, or until very fine. Press this mixture through a fine sieve into a medium sized bowl, and reserve.
2. Combine the sugar and water in a small heavy-bottom saucepan, and heat gently on medium heat without stirring. Using a candy thermometer, heat the mixture until 105F. While you're waiting, place 80g of egg whites into a mixing bowl fitted with a whisk attachment.
3. When the sugar syrup reaches 105F, whip the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks. Take care to monitor your sugar syrup. Once it reaches 115F, take it off the heat.
4. While the mixer is running, slowly pour your sugar syrup into the egg whites in a slow steady stream. (Do this towards the side of the bowl..otherwise your beaters will flick the syrup everywhere other than onto your meringue.)
5. Beat the meringue for about 10 minutes, or until very thick and glossy.
6. While the meringue is mixing, take your almond/icing sugar mixture and make a well in the centre. Add the remaining 80g egg whites, and using a silicone spatula, combine together until a paste forms. At this stage, you can colour this paste using gel food colour if desired. (Go brighter than you think..once the meringue is added the colour will fade considerably.)
7. Once the meringue is ready, add a third of it to the almond paste mixture and combine. You don't have to be all that gentle at this step..the aim is to loosen the almond paste mixture so it is runnier.
8. Gradually fold in the remaining meringue. This step is crucial. Be careful to combine all the meringue so there is no white streaks, however you can't over mix it. The mixture should have a final consistency of 'lava'...if you lift out your spatula, the mix should maintain it's shape at first, but then gently and slowly slide off the spatula. I like to err on the side of caution here..I would rather slightly undermix my batter than over mix. Overmixing can't be saved, and if it's a large batch, I find that as I go along filling my pastry bag and piping, the batter becomes runnier. So by the end of the batch, I have runnier macarons than at the start.
9. Gently fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip (approx 1.5cm diameter). Pipe circles approx 3-4 cm in diameter, at least 2cm apart, onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. If your meringue is under-mixed, there will be a 'peak' where you pull away with your piping bag, and it wont settle into the circle of meringue. If this happens, I like to flatten out the tops with my fingers. However, you want a meringue consistency where the peak flattens out by itself.
10. Leave the macarons to dry for 30 minutes. This time can vary depending on temperature and humidity..but you want the macarons to form a 'skin', where you can lightly touch the top of the macaron without pulling away the batter on your finger.
11. While the macarons are drying, preheat your oven to 150C. Once dry, bake for 14-18 minutes. I like to check at 15 minutes - gently press down on the macaron while in the oven. If it sinks onto its feet, its not ready. There should be no give.
12. Once baked, remove the baking paper from the tray onto a cold dampened bench. This helps the macaron come off the paper more easily.

Green Tea Filling

Ingredients:

• 100g White Chocolate (chopped)
• 80ml Cream
• 1 1/2 tsp Japanese Green Tea Powder (Matcha)
• 20g butter (cut into small cubes)

Method:

1. Heat the cream and green tea powder until just below boiling, stirring constantly.
2. Pour the cream over the white chocolate, and let it sit for a minute.
3. Gently stir the cream and chocolate together until combined, Add the butter and stir until dissolved.
4. Refridgerate until pipeable consistency.

I use the same basic filling recipe for all my macarons, by just changing the flavour. For pistachio macarons, I added 3 tbsp pistachio paste instead of green tea. For hazelnuts, I made my own hazelnut praline paste, and added 3tbsp of this instead. You can do the same with raspberry or any other fruit puree. For lemon macarons, I fill mine with lemon curd - I found an amazing recipe that takes 5 minutes in the microwave. Will post at a later date.

Salted Caramel

Pistachio