Macaroons - A Daring Bakers Challenge!

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.

Macaroons aren't something I would ever even think to make. I've actually never eaten one until this Daring Bakers Challenge (my first :) ). Oh I've seen them before, both the more American version with coconut as well as the French ones, but as they aren't my type of cookie (chocolate chip/peanut butter/oatmeal with raisins/white chocolate macadamia nut are the kinds that have a tendency to make me swoon) I just never tried them.

My hubby oddly enough thinks of macaroons as the American version rather than the French version, yet he's from Europe and has visited France. This of course meant I needed to do a little explaining and then some show and tell with photos off the internet. While looking at them I thought this may actually be fun if I could pull them off, seeing as I've actually never worked with a meringue, not even for a lemon meringue pie.

Now on to the recipe!

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)

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.

Now that the recipe and the instructions are done, I feel the need to explain a little more. I did alright with the beating of the egg whites to make the meringue, the part after is where it started getting difficult. I have no sifter to sift the almond flour (I used powdered almond that I found bagged and in the same section of the baking aisle as chocolate chips and shredded coconut as there was no almond "flour" to be seen), so I used a plastic pasta strainer with a handle and a fork to sift my almond powder into the meringue. This took 30 minutes instead of the 5 tops it would have taken to do it with a sifter.

Next was the folding of the almond powder into the meringue after sifting, trying very carefully not to over fold yet fully incorporating it. At this point I had called my mother because I figured she had worked with meringue before (she makes the above mentioned lemon meringue pie) I figured I would use her for moral support and  help if I had problems. I had noticed that my meringue was "deflating" and I was worried I had over folded, so I asked if this is what was supposed to happen. My mother, not having made macaroons since my older sister was little (whom is 25 years older than me) couldn't remember as it had been way too long since she had done it herself.

I, obviously disappointed in myself, finally hung up the phone to get the batter into my zip lock bag to get it ready to pipe it onto the parchment paper. I just happened to "accidentally" get some batter on my finger so I decided I should taste it. It tasted good, really good! Feeling a little better in knowing that even if they didn't look pretty they would still taste good and that's what really matters when it comes to cooking as looking good is a bonus (it's what's on the inside that counts!).

I put them into the oven for the first round at the lower temp and walked away (terrible habit I have when I don't have something to do when I'm in the kitchen) and then came back to see that they looked flat. A little unhappy with that but not as down about it as I was when I had found my meringue had "deflated", I took them out and turned up the temperature on the oven then put them back in when the pre-heat light turned off signaling to me that it was hot enough. I let them cook and again walked off to do something or another.

I came back to check on my flattened macaroons to find that, wait a minute... they weren't flat! They had puffed up! They even had the infamous "feet" that were supposed to have! I quickly took them out and ran with the pan into the living room to show off my fairly decent macaroons to the hubby. I finished making the rest and let them cool and wrapped them up for the next day to fill.

For the filling I decided on hazelnut chocolate. This was great till I decided I wanted to take it up a notch and add in some instant coffee to it then use peanut butter to help sandwich it, then they became fantastic. Rich, but fantastic.

All in all I would say it was quite successful as the hubby liked them, I liked them, and the little one loved them. I also learned quite a bit about meringue and egg whites, which is the point of these challenges, to learn.