French Macaron Recipe

Macaron Recipe: For main ideas I have used http://www.amazon.com/Les-Petits-Macarons-Confections-ebook/dp/B005QBKXQO#reader_B005QBKXQO Les Petits Macarons book. I have since simplified and developed my own recipe. You will need: sugar: 165grams of powdered sugar and 150 grams of granulated sugar 165 grams of nut flour 4 egg whites That's it and that's all. Some recipes call for more ingredients, but this is all that is needed to begin with. Preheat the oven to 200F/105C Set up the cookie sheet and pan. 1. Sift together nut flour and confectioner's sugar. Set aside. 2. Beat the egg white until peaks form. 3. Stir in the granulated sugar. 4. Pour in the flour mix. 5. Pipe the macarons through a piping bag onto the trays leaving room for them to grow (maybe 1 inch in-between in a grid). 6. Let them sit 20-45 mins so that they have time to develop a skin or a shell. BAKE: 1. At 200F for 15 minutes 2. Up the temp to 350F for another 6 or so minutes (depending on your oven). 3. Open the oven door for 30 seconds and remove the macarons slowly. Let the macarons cool before removing them from the sheet. Voila! They're ready to be filled with any filling of choice

Angry Birds Macarons

For the Holiday break I had more time to experiment. Since I feel pretty confident making a typical macaron, I wanted to try using a different combination of nut flour. So I ground up some pistachios and mixed 100 grams of pistachio flour and 65grams of almond flour. It baked just the same as the traditional almond flour did. I did add a little green food coloring as the pistachio by itself did not provide much color in themselves. I have been shown a macaron in the shape of a pig from the Angry Birds game and decided to try making one myself. Well, my first try was a traditional fail as I added the ears and the snout right onto the macaron. The trick was to make the macaron then let it sit for about 20 minutes until it developed a skin. After the shell was slightly hardened, I then added the snout and ears. I had to be careful not to break them off after baking. Then I added the eyes (I used drop candy) and painted the mouth and eyebrows with an edible marker. Not so hard to make. I'd like to make bears next :)

Smore Macaron

Made some plain macarons and set them aside. Meanwhile decided to have a fire in the backyard and make some smores. The idea popped up to have a macaron smore. It turned out surprisingly DELICIOUS! The hot melted marshmellow beat any filling the macaron could've had!

Pistachio Macarons

After making so many almond based macarons with different colors, I wanted to try making macarons using a different ingredient. I have read that it is possible to make macarons using any nut. So I got organic, non-salted pistachios and wanted to grind the whole box to make as much as I needed for my batch. Unfortunately, some little mouths had gotten to the box of pistachios and I had only half left. So I took the ones that had been left, took the nut out of the shells, got rid of as much of the hard brownish skin as possible and ground the rest. It came to total almost half of the 165 grams that I needed. So I added almond flour to make up for the rest and proceeded to make my regular batch. The mix turned out much better than I anticipated. There was a pistachio taste to the macarons, but not overwhelming. There were just enough pistachio nuts to make the macarons as delicate as always, but with a hint of another nut. (This is also true when I added some green tea to the mix. Just a recognizable hint.) It took me a while to figure out what to put in between the cookies, so the photos are just of plain macarons out of the oven. YUM!

Berry Tea Macarons

For these macarons I mixed four bags of berry tea into the almond flour and proceeded as usual.

Mini Macarons

These were made out of the same batch, but split into two colors after mixing. They were about half the size of my usual macarons and they baked a lot better that way. I did not do anything anything different during the baking phase, did not decrease the time or lower the temperature. This makes me wonder if I should simply increase the time for the regular sized macarons. Very often they come out stuck to the paper even after I let them cool. These little ones turned out perfect. I filled them with white chocolate ganache.

Another try at GREEN TEA Macarons. These are made the same way as previous, but I bought the green tea at a Chinese market and ground it finely. Then I filled the macarons with just a slice of strawberry. This way it stayed mildly sweet and complimented the green tea taste.

I tried to put candied sugar into and onto one mac. Not a good idea. The hardness of the candy did not go well with the delicate cookie.

Shopping list for making macarons

Making macarons isn't difficult, but it has to be precise. And sometimes they can be a little finicky, so trial and error is key. Also, KNOW YOUR OVEN. The correct temperature is essential as is timing. Here is a collection of tools and ingredients I use for the basic macaron. (Food coloring and flavors are added to the basic recipe). SIFTER (not pictured). OVERN THERMOMETER (not pictured).

I use a regular Zip-loc bag for piping. I do not have a special sized nozzle or a store-bought piping bag, though I hear that nozzle nr 7 is best to use.

The scale is essential. I found that measuring by weight gives me the best mixture rather than measuring by cups. Any kitchen scale will do.

I grind my sugar using the bullet. The Bullet is also handy with making fillings.

I do not have a KitchenAid mixer. The hand mixer that I do have overwhips the egg whites so I just use a regular glass bowl and a hand-powered mixer. :) After all, the nuns who made the first macarons in the 1400s could not plug an electric KitchenAid anywhere near their kitchen.

And finally, the baking sheet. I like the double sheet or one with aluminum, but any should do as long as the over temperature is monitored. INGREDIENTS: These are the basic ingredients that I use:

Almond flour. I have ground my own (organic) almonds once before and the macarons turned out just fine. As long as the flour is not too moist and sifted very well it will work. And this also works with grinding pistachios.

Confectioner's sugar. I have read that the confectioner's sugar is best by itself, but it is nearly impossible to find it without starch. I am still searching.

EGGS and egg protein powder is what I like to use. After I age 4 egg whites I still like to add a little bit of the protein powder. It seems to make the egg whites' protein bind better.

Failed Macarons

So these are my first tries at making macarons. The pink ones did not have enough sugar, the brown chocolate behaved more like a cookie (and I will explain why in another post) and the green ones were underbaked.

Gift Macarons

These were made as a gift. Yellow are lemon and aqua are strawberry. Yes, strawberry :)

Raspberry Macarons

Raspberry macs with Strawberry ganache.

Green Tea Macarons

Green Tea macarons with lemon filling.

Green Tea macaron with a raspberry as a filling.

Cotton Candy Flavored Macarons

Cotton candy macarons and fruit.

Nutella filling

These plain almond macarons with Nutella filling were my first macarons that turned out the way they're supposed to: with feet and skin :) Previous to this they were less desirable. I will post some of the ones that failed and will explain why they did not turn out.

First post. First photo.

These are almond macarons with vanilla/white chocolate liquor ganache.