It is interesting to realise what type of cook you
are. This is a topic I have covered
before but I have never so completely realised it that when I learnt to make French
macarons. For those of you who don’t
know, these are meringues made with almonds and then stuck together with butter
icing, ganache or some other sweet treat.
I arrived at the class (held in a café in East London
by Old Street) on time(ish) and met the lovely, bubbly instructress. She has a passion for macarons and doesn’t
have a problem pronouncing them sexy. I
had substantially less of a passion but hell, I was prepared to give it a go.
First, sieve 80g of ground almonds and 120 g of icing
sugar. This takes longer than you think
and personally involved a little bit of swearing – my friend was also not
hugely keen on the process.
Then take a baking sheet and cover it with baking
parchment. Find a suitable circle
(smaller than the standard tin lid but larger than a drink bottle lid – think red
bull can size) and trace as many circles as you can onto the paper. Try to keep them straight – ours looked like
we had been drinking heavily, sadly we hadn’t.
Then separate 2 eggs and pop the whites into a
bowl. Whisk with an electric beater
until it forms soft peaks and then add 70g of granulated sugar gradually until
it is completely mixed and forms solid peaks.
Add flavour – this could be rose (although too much
makes it taste soapy), hazelnut syrup, chilli with a little cocoa powder or
anything you desire. Then add colour
which you can buy in most big supermarkets.
Remember the colour deepens and
changes when cooked – mine came out looking like they had spent time with a
pigeon with intestinal issues – not an ideal look.
Fold in the almond mixture and then put into the piping
bag. While that sentence is short, the
process isn’t and to be honest if I was at home, the wine would have come
out. Pipe onto the circles on the baking
tray. This requires a technique, I still
haven’t mastered. You need to put the
head of the bad against the parchment in the centre of your circles and squeeze
until the mixture reaches the outer edges.
Then let them rest for half an hour. This is when you create your filling which
for us was butter icing so more elbow grease needed. Take 140g of softened butter and add up to
280g icing sugar. Keep mixing until you
cry or it becomes icing. The former is
more likely but the latter is probably a better idea.
Do not lose your temper, the end is almost in sight. Check the macarons and gently push in any
nipples (yes, I did a double take too but this is techy baking talk for the
drip left by taking the piping bag off when the circle was full)
Pop the tray in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes at 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3 until the macarons
are completely dry. I poked mine to
check but you can see if you open the oven to check. This has no impact on any rising or falling
so don’t worry.
Let them
cool (tried to ice a hot cake with butter icing before so I know that is a bad
idea so feel smug) and then pipe a little icing onto the bottom of one macaron
and secure the other macaron.
 |
| Not much for my blood,sweat and tears |
At this point at home, I would collapse weeping into
a ball clutching a bottle of wine but instead, I manned up and shared my
macarons. Will I be making them
again? Nope, I have better ways to test
my patience and the edges of my sanity so while it was a good experience, I
will not be making them for a party or trying to test loads of flavours as my
instructor suggested.
Life is just too short
Lx
Follow me on twitter@alittleofwhat
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