Cassis macarons...

As I promised, here's the recipe and technique that I learned from Chef Michel at Lycee le Castel in Dijon.   I was lucky enough to join the class twice. Like I said, Chef Michel was so kind. He liked to teach and shared his experience. I get annoyed when someone saying that he/she can't share his/her recipes. How do we learn or improve with this attitude? I was once had to work with someone who was supposed to teach me, but this person tried so hard to keep everything secret.

Anyway, back to my macarons. Although I was taught to sift the ingredients to make the smooth macarons, but I felt like making a bumpy ones--so I didn't sift them. Using the French meringue in this recipe was way easy than the Italian meringue. I know, most of my Macarons in the past were using the Italian meringue. I liked how stable and reliable the outcome was. But one thing that bother me was sometimes they got hollow inside the shell.



For this recipe, there was no hollow inside. The texture was really nice, crispy on the outside and soft inside. As usual, I baked them on a sheet pan lined with silpat. They came out with perfect feet. If using parchment paper, then double the pan up.

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Ingredients:

1 sheet pan



for the shell

- 150 g almond flour

- 200 g powdered sugar

- 45 g egg whites

- 33 g sugar

- 55 g egg whites

- some food coloring powder



for the filling

- 50 g unsalted butter, softened

- 125 g powdered sugar

- 50 g cassis preserve



Preparation:



for the shell

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Create ?Mass? by folding almond flour, powdered sugar, food coloring powder and 45 g of egg whites together with a big spoon.

3. To make French meringue: whip egg whites in a mixer on medium speed to soft peaks. Slowly pour sugar in additions, continue whipping to medium peaks.

4. Fold in 25% of meringue into ?Mass? to lighten the mixture.

5. Fold in the rest of meringue.

6. Place into a pastry bag with plain tip# 4, pipe 1" diameter circles on a silpat.

7. Rest for an hour to form skins.

8. Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees.

9. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating half way through.

10. Cool them on the silpat.



for the filling

1. Cream butter and powdered sugar together in a mixer.

2. Add preserve, mix well.

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Here are some notes from the class.

- Weigh the almond flour and leave it to dry out overnight.

- Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together, discard the solids left in the sieve.

- Using double tray lined with parchment paper.

- Freeze them immediately for 1-2 minutes after baking so that they come out from the parchment paper easily.