Macarons

I had to stand up to my Nemesis one day!  It was today- I wanted to bake Macarons.

A couple of years ago I tried to bake Macarons. The first and the second batch went into the garbage bin with the baking paper they were sticking on. The third batch made it to stage were they were filled and even eaten. But they looked horrendous, deep pink and green and violent yellow. They were spread uneven but the taste was OK.

I watched Cupcake Jemma on Friday, she and one of her bakers from the shop showed in a Masterclass video how they make their Macarons. I bought the rest of the ingredients on Saturday.
In the afternoon I started with sifting the almond flour, a good idea, because some small chunks were in. Then I put the icing sugar and the almonds in the food processor and gave a quick blast. And I sieved it again. That is quiet time consuming.

My new kitchen machine made it easy to make a Italian meringue - well easy is relative.
I had to bring a pot of sugar and water up to 118 C exactly. Checking that is not possible without an electric thermometer. When the eggs are beaten half, let the hot sugar syrup in and beat cold.

I try to get the right amount of eggs to have the egg white for the meringue and split it into two even batches. I needed 4 and a half egg :-)

One batch goes into the almond sugar mix and during working it in, add some yellow colour paste. Do not overmix the batter.

Piping them is a lot of work. Just keep the piping bag fully upright and press a good amount of cream on a circle. It is a good idea to make a template and stick it under the baking paper. I have a silicon mat for Macarons and I used this as a template for the second baking sheet. When you have little peaks on top of each macaron after piping, just make you fingertip wet and dab it flat. Wet your finger after a couple of peaks again.

Now tap the baking sheets onto the table surface a couple of times to get the air bubbles out and then let the macarons sit at roomtemperature for 30 minutes. Sprinkle some coloured sugar on top.

Preheat  your oven at 165 C fan and bake each baking sheet on its own for 12-14 min.
Let them cool down completely.

Make the filling. I used white chocolate garnache with orange oil as a flavouring.

Chop up the white chocolate and pour the cream on top. In the microwave at 1 min then stir. Give it an other 30 sec and stir and so on. Add the orange oil.
Cool down and put in the fridge for 10 min, then with a electric whisk on slow speed whip it up a bit to make it pale. Put into a piping bag and fill the macarons.

Set them in the fridge in an airtight container for the next day to eat.

If you have enough shells that are looking ok, just keep them in a box and fill them a day before you need them. I filled some with Nutella as a second choice.

Recipe:
205 g icing sugar
190 g ground almonds
144 g egg white
190 g caster sugar
60 ml water
250 g white chocolate
70 ml double cream
10 drops orange oil