I loooove macarons! Not to be confused with macaroons (see this post to avoid confusion)
I think because they are so delicate, very sweet and also they have a rep for being hard to make. Like sourdough bread, chocolate fondant dessert and souffle. When things are 'hard to make' I feel like I must conquer them. (And lets be honest, I like showing off!) Although sourdough bread, I have had a few attempts at and ended up with something that resembles a brick each time! No showing off in that department!
With macarons I have had more success, as you can see from the unprofessionally finished but well risen and baked, picture to the right.
Although there is definitely room for improvement and I need to perfect the finish, I would go so far as to say I don't think they are that hard to make.
I followed a basic recipe but as usual had to add something different.
After a bit of googling I came accross this site which provides some really good guidelines and top tips for making macarons. If you've never made them before I would strongly recommend that you read this before having a go. I found it really helpful the first time I made them.
I followed the basic recipe from this site as well which you can find here. But as usual, made a few changes.
The apple pie flavour was actually made with some leftover apple crumble. You could use either but I called it apple pie because I think thats the flavour that people would pick out if you didn't tell them what it was.
I was really pleased with the results. They were very sweet but you definitely get the apple pie flavour coming through.
Heres how I made them:
Ingredients:
For the macarons:
100g icing sugar
100g ground almonds
2 medium egg whites
pinch salt
55g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
For the buttercream filling:
50g very soft butter
100g icing sugar
1 tablespoon cream
2- 3 tablespoons leftover apple pie or apple crumble
few drops lemon juice
Method:
First sift together the ground almonds, cinnamon and icing sugar for the macarons.
Whisk egg whites and salt until light and fluffy then add the caster sugar bit by bit and keep whisking until the mixture is thick and glassy.
Fold in the sifted dry ingredients. It will lose a lot of volume but should still be fairly thick. Read the top tips for this part.
Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto a macaron mat laid onto a baking tray. I really recommend using one of these. If you don't have one you can use a sheet of baking paper with circles marked out onto it so you have a guideline to follow. More info on how to do this in the link i posted but I would always use a macaron mat myself.
Tap the baking tray hard a couple of times on the worktop to remove any air bubbles and leave for around 30 minutes to rest.
While they are resting preheat he oven to 140 degrees (fan oven).
After 30 minutes bake the macarons for 8 minutes. Then open and shut the oven door to remove any moisture and regulate the temperature. Then bake for another 7-8 minutes.
Take them out of the oven and leave until completely cold. The first batch I made I was too impatient and tried to take them off the mat too soon. They broke and I ruined them. Don't ruin all your hard work by being impatient like me!
For the buttercream filling beat together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy and then add the cream.
In a separate bowl mash the apple pie or crumble with the lemon juice really well until it looks like baby food and there are no large chunks. Fold into the buttercream. Fill the macarons sparingly. If you use too much filling, you wont taste the delicate macaron and might as well just have a spoonful of the buttercream (not that I wouldn't do that, but you've made macarons! You want to taste them!)
They are best if you leave them in the fridge overnight but to be honest I can never wait that long to try one!
I made them with apple crumble because I had some left over in the fridge but I think you could use loads of different desserts for this.
Lemon cheesecake, Tiramisu, sticky toffee pudding I think would all be great!!
I will certainly be experimenting and trying them out! Enjoy!
Labels: cakes, desserts
