Saturday, September 19, 2009

Macarons

I have read so many blogs that are talking so much about macarons. The photos they showed on their macarons are really pretty that makes me want to give it a try too. I have finally gave the macarons a go today since I was given a box of frozen eggwhite last night. It was not as difficult as i thought it would be. I made two different recipe from two different blogs to try and see if there is any difference in the macarons since both used a very slight difference in the method.

I tried the French Chocolate Macaron by David Lebovitz with a chocolate ganache filling which I have added some Irish Bailey Cream. Oh, the ganache tasted so good with the addition of the Irish Bailey Cream.

I also tried the macarons with Cointreau chocolate ganache. The orange liquer smell is very good too. I tried this other macaron recipe from Happy Flour's blog.

With the leftover chocolate ganache, I made use of them to make more chocolate. This time round the chocolate coating is harder and it didn't melt that easily. I had three types of chocolate. One with roasted almonds, one with Irish Bailey cream ganache and one with Cointreau chocolate ganache.




Recipe (adopted from Happy Flour's Blog with my own changes)

Ingredients
Swiss Meringue
80g egg white (at room temperature)
60g caster sugar

80g ground almond (I put it in the grinder to grind further)
140g icing sugar
1/2tsp lemon juice (I did not use)
orange yellow colouring powder (I used Walton's color paste)

Filling (my own version)
Orange Liquer Ganache
150g dark couverture chocolate
50g whipping cream
30g butter
2 tbsp orange liquer like Cointreau/Grand Marnier

Steps:
Swiss Meringue Macarons:
1. Using a cooker cutter, outline some circles on the parchment paper with a pencil. Turn the paper over with the pencil marking side facing down.
2. Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Grind the ground almond until very fine and mix it together with the icing sugar.
5. Pour sugar and egg white into a heatproof pan and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch.
7. Pour the egg white into the mixing bowl with the whisk attachment and beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks then add in the colouring.
8. Continue to beat until medium stiff peaks.
9. Fold in the sifted mixture in 4 portions into the meringue. Do not over fold batter until it turn watery, batter should be slightly thicker than cake batter.
10.Spoon batter into a piping bag and pipe it within the round imprint which had made earlier on.
11.Let the macarons rest for 30 mins.
12.Preheat oven to 150C.
13.Bake a tray at a time for 20-25mins, depend on individual oven.
14.Remove macarons and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate ganache:
1. Put 150g of dark couverture chocolate (chopped into smaller pieces), 50g butter and 1/2 cup of diary whipping cream into a heat proof bowl. Sit the bowl over a double boiler. Stir until all the chocolate has melted. Remove from heat and add in 2 tbsp of Cointreau and stir until they are well incorporated. Keep aside to let it cool down and thicken before using it to sandwich the macarons.
(NOTE: If the mixture looks a bit grainy, don't worry, keep stirring the mixture until it becomes glossy and thick.)

Assemble the macarons:
1.Pipe the orange ganache on the macaron.
2.Sandwich with another macaron.
3.Keep in the fridge to let the filling firm.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello....wow....i been wanted to try to make but i see like it quite difficult because of the temperature...isit really easy? any advice....thanks
jun

Beatrice said...

Dear Baking Mum,

Would you please share how did you melt your chocolate in order to do the chocolate coating. I tried one recently, but my chocolate coating was not hard and it melt as soon as we touched it. Also, what type of chocolate do you use? Is Cadbury or Lyndt chocolate ok? Or must I use cooking chocolate.

Looking forward for your respondse :)

Hugbear said...

Beatrice, use any kind of coating chocolate. If you like a little bit bitter chocolate you can use the semi-sweet coating chocolate. Cut the chocolate into smaller pieces. Keep 1/4 of that chocolate aside. Melt the rest of the chocolate in a double boiler and using a candy thermometer take the chocolate off the boiler when it reaches 120F. Add in the 1/4 chocolate now and stir to bring down the temp to 80F. After that bring it back to the double boiler and bring the temp up to 88 or 90F. Chocolate is now ready to be use for moulding.

I have tried using 55% cocoa dark couverture chocolate to make but the result is not as good as using coating chocolate. Freeze the chocolates in the freezer for about an hour before unmoulding. This will make it very easy to dislodge the chocolates.

Beatrice said...

Hi Baking Mum,

Thank you for your prompt response. Sorry, but where can I find coating chocolates? If I cant find any coating chocolate can normal cadbury chocolate or cooking chocolate do the trick? HAHA!!

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Hugbear,

My daughter loves rose flavoured macaroons. Do u have any ideas how to add rose flavour?

Thanks!

Wen said...

Hi Hugbear,

You are really talented! Don't even have to attend any classes and your macarons were so pretty & all with nice feet. I always wanted to try making it but find it quite complicated.

Hugbear said...

Wen, it is not as difficult as you think. This was what I thought too but it was pretty easy to do. Give it a try if you are game.

Blessed Homemaker said...

I've always wanted to make macarons but procrastinating for it's way too sweet for us. But just want to make to challenge myself :P

Anonymous said...

Any idea how we can store these macrons and the shelf life?

Hugbear said...

I kept them in an airtight container in the fridge. So far I have kept it for about 2 weeks and it is still ok. I think can keep for quite long in the fridge.

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