Daring Bakers: Macarons (Take I)

"The 2009 October Daring Bakers? challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming?s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe"

Rawr. I had grand plans for these babies, nevermind that I'd never attempted these notoriously tricky goodies before.

I went shopping for supplies:

Dark chocolate & white chocolate for the ganache filling...

Peppermint, Coffee and Orange essence for flavour....

Red, Blue and Green colouring to tint the shells amazing colours...

*sigh* Fail. Fail. Fail.


Instead, salivate over the professional's wares at:

Laduree, Paris

Pierre Herme

Paulette Macarons and

La Maison du Chocolat

And if you're game, here's Claudia Fleming's French Macaron recipe. It's worked remarkably well for other Daring Bakers. The trick lies in the technique, which requires lots of practice!

Equipment required:
? Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
? Rubber spatula
? Baking sheets
? Parchment paper or nonstick liners
? Pastry bag (can be disposable)
? Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
? Sifter or sieve
? If you don?t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
? Oven
? Cooling rack
? Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets? Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients:

Confectioners? (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners? sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners? sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don?t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It?s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

My Failed Attempt:

What they're SUPPOSED to look like:

I'll attempt these again soon. You win this time, Macaron ... You win this time...











Image credit: reducewaste.blogspot.com