Macarons, french macarons. Did you ever wonder where the French thought of such a quirky name for their famous cookie?
The word 'macaron'comes from the Italian word 'macaroni' It is defined as 'a pasta dish with cheese' Funny that, isn't that the macaroni and cheese us kiwis love??
I have to be honest, I am not a big fan of macaroni and cheese. Our family never has thrived off the dish.
I have fond memories of when I was a kid, it was summer and we were spending our summer at the beach like most kiwis. Our cousins from the South Island were at the beach with us aswell. And I can remember every time myself and the boys would go around to challenge the cuzzy bros on a game of cards. I can fondly remember our Aunty always making macaroni and cheese.
Myself and the boys would politely say, 'don't worry about lunch aunty we have some at our batch' We would quicky run home before we had to eat that dish. So as you can tell from that story, my family and I are not big fans.
These little beauties are gluten free, so all you coeliacs keep on reading!
These macarons are vanilla flavoured, but I coloured them red so they would really 'pop' on the white backround. They have a peach Italian buttercream filling though.
I have been face with macaroni and cheese for the past 4 years, and I have no way of polietly excusing myself from the dish.
It's a common lunch dish served in the dinning hall at school. I remember as Year 9 you would push and shove your friends to get a plate before them. As Year 9's we would try get to the front of line as uicky as possible.
Otherwise we would be left scraping the bottom on the pan, picking up macaroni and cheese that had been scooped and mixed 10x by the older years. It would look like soggy pasta that was coated in a watery cheesy sauce. Spooning that onto my plate I thought I was in Amercia, in one of their cafeterias. With the big lady serving you your lunch slopping it onto your tray.
The seniors would scoop all the crispy topping, which wasn't much better, dried undercook pasta and cheese on top for a crunchy topping.
But after that huge discussion on that dish, I can assure you that these macarons are nothing like 'macaroni and cheese'
I loved shooting this food photoshoot. I loved styling it because it was like gift wrapping macarons. There were so many props I could use.
Lets learn how to make these beast!
Pulse your almond meal until it is small enough to go through a sift. PLace powdered sugar and almond meal in a bowl.
Place egg whites in a clean bowl (make sure they are at room temperature) with clean beaters, beat th egg whites until frothy. Add a pinch of cream a tatar (this stablises the egg whites)(about 2 mins) Add your caster sugar all at once to the egg whites.
Continue beating the egg white mixture until thick, pale and goregous. To test this you can turn your bowl upside down over your head and the mixture should stay.
Gradually add the powdered sugar and almond meal in 3 stages until both mixtures are well incoperated.
Once all the dry ingredients are incoperated into the meringue, add your desired colour. Continue mixing the mixture until the right consitency is reached.
You know you have the right consitency if you lift your spatula and let the mixture drop back on top of the mixture in the bowl.
If the dropped mixture sinks right back into the mixture without being idendfiable than you have the right consitency.
Another test is if you lift the spatula and a ribbion of mixture is formed.
Line your baking sheets with a template and baking paper.
Begin piping the mixture out of a piping bag (and preferbly a 1A tip, but I have been a bit cheap of the baking tools lately)
Once all the macarons are piped, bang the tray aganist a hard suface a couple of times, just to knock the air bubbles out.
Allow the macarons to sit at room temperature and form a skin. A skin is when you can touch the macaroon slightly and no sticky mixture is left on your finger.
Bake the macarons in a preheated oven for 7-11 mins depending on your ovens strength. Macarons are not suppose to brown.
Congratulations you successfully made macarons. You deserve a pat on the back because these are one of the most delicate pastries out!
French Macarons
Ingredients
115g almond meal
230g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
114g egg whites (aged egg whites are not necessary)
72g caster sugar
Pinch Cream a Tatar
Method
-Begin by preheating your oven to 160 degrees. Having an oven thermometer really helps when making these biscuits.
-Pulse your almond meal very slightly until it can go through a fine mesh strainer.
-Sift your powdered sugar and almond meal into a bowl. Set aside
-Place your egg whites in a clean dry bowl and with dry beaters whisk until the egg whites are frothy(about 2 mins) Add your pinch of cream a tatar and then dump all your sugar into the egg whites. Beat the egg whites on high speed until thick and glossy.
-Add your dry ingredients to your meringue in 3 stages, folding the mixture into eachother until well incoperated.
-Add colouring if desired. But insure these are gel colourings (brought from a cake decoarting store) not food colourings from the supermarket. There base is water so it will water down your mixture.
-Mix the mixture until the right consitency is reached. See photos for refrence to right consitency.
-Place into a piping bag and pipe out macarons on baking paper with a template underneath.
-Bang the baking tray on a hard surface a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Set aside
-Allow the macarons to sit at room temperature until they develop a skin. You know when a skin is formed when you can touch the macarons gently and no sticky substance remains on your finger.
-Place the macarons in a preheated oven and bake for 7-11mins.
-Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing, otherwise they might break.
-Ice and decoarte as desired.
Well I hope you made it through that task. I'm telling you it's not an easy one, but the feeling you get when you sucessfully make these is undescribable.
Until next time lovelies..
