FOOD FRIDAY - MACARONS

“If God hadn’t meant for us to eat sugar, he wouldn't have invented dentists.” - Ralph Nader
 
A little bit of whimsy for Food Friday today. As we had egg whites left over after making mayonnaise, we decided to make some French macarons. These are all the rage in Melbourne presently and there are even some shops completely devoted to making and selling these dainty biscuits.
 
French Macarons
Ingredients
 
4 large egg whites (or 5 small)
70g caster sugar
230g pure icing sugar
120g almond meal, finely ground
2g salt (tiny pinch)
gel food colouring (optional)
vanilla essence (or flavouring of your choice)
 
Method
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C
Place egg whites and caster sugar in a bowl and mix with electric mixer until stiff enough to turn the bowl upside down without it falling out, continue to whip for 1-2 more minutes.
How long this takes will depend on your mixer. Add gel or powdered food colouring and continue to mix for a further 20 seconds.
Sift the almond meal and icing sugar and salt twice, discarding any almond lumps that are too big to pass through the sieve. Fold into the egg white mixture. It should take roughly 30-50 folds using a rubber spatula. The mixture should be smooth and a very viscous, not runny. Over-mix and your macarons will be flat and have no foot, under mix and they will not be smooth on top.
Pipe onto trays lined with baking paper, rap trays on the bench firmly (this prevents cracking) and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Check if one comes off the tray fairly cleanly, if not bake for a little longer (make sure you are using NON-stick baking paper or they will stick).
 
Ganache filling
Ingredients
 
100g chocolate
30ml cream
 
Method
Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute and then stir. If it is not adequately melted then microwave for 20 seconds and stir – repeat until smooth. Allow to cool and thicken before piping onto macarons.
 
Buttercream filling
Ingredients
 
120g butter
330g icing sugar
1-4 tablespoons of milk or cream
Vanilla essence (or flavouring/colouring of your choice)
 
Method
Leave the butter to soften at room temperature then beat together with the icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk or cream until smooth and light in colour. Add extra spoons of milk one at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
 
This post is part of the Food Friday meme,
and also part of the Food Trip Friday meme.