Saturday, December 29, 2012

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 :)