Macarons

Macarons as we know all know is a popular French food, it is made out of two almond meringue cookies filled with a layer of either buttercream, jam, or ganache.

I guess I don’t need to explain what this is a this is one of the popular food items this last two decades, it’s so popular you can now buy them everywhere even in McDonalds but is this confection a new thing? Why did it only show lately? Is this what they call the new cupcake? Well I guess cooking shows can be attributed to its current popularity alongside its attributes that made cupcake popular like the variety of colours and flavours and the diminutive size that does not interfere with a good diet.

Macaron as we know all know is a popular French food, it is made out of two almond meringue cookies filled with a layer of either buttercream, jam, or ganache. It was said that this sweet confection was created in 791 in a convent near Cormery a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. But some say that it was brought from Italy to France by Catherine de’ Medici’s Italian pastry chefs during the 1533 when she married Henry II of France. Then on 1792 it started to become popular when two Carmelite nuns called the “Macaron Sisters“, seeking asylum in Nancy during the French Revolution, baked and sold these cookies in order to pay for their housing. The macarons they sold was nothing similar to the ones we have now as they don’t have a variety of flavour nor its filling. Then in the 1830’s it started to resemble the macarons of today where it is served in pairs where jams, liqueurs, and spices are sandwiched in the middle.

Macaron can look intimidating especially when you watch how it’s made in cooking shows but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite easy. For this post I will give you a really simple recipe for the four of the most famous flavours, the chocolate, vanilla, pistachio and raspberry.

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Macarons

  • Author: Raymund
  • Prep Time: 30 mins
  • Cook Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 50 mins
  • Yield: 30 1x
  • Category: Dessert, Snack
  • Cuisine: French

Description

Macarons as we know all know is a popular French food, it is made out of two almond meringue cookies filled with a layer of either buttercream, jam, or ganache.


Ingredients

Scale

Macaron

  • 4 large egg whites
  • 1/3 cup caster sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • pinch of salt
  • gel food colouring

Chocolate Ganache

  • 150 g chocolate
  • 3 tbsp cream

Pistachio Buttercream

  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar
  • 1/3 cup raw pistachios, ground
  • 2/3 cup butter, cut into small cubes

Vanilla Buttercream

  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2/3 cup unsalted butter, cubed
  • 3 tbsp water
  • pinch cream of tartar
  • pinch of salt

Raspberry Jam

  • 1 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Instructions

Macaron

  1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C
  2. Combine egg whites and cater sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until it forms very stiff peaks.
  3. Add gel food colouring and continue to mix until colour is well incorporated.
  4. Sift together almond flour, icing sugar and salt making sure the sifted ingredients are fine. Gently fold into the egg white mixture until well incorporated, smooth but not runny. Lots of websites suggest 50 times of folding.
  5. Place mixture in a piping bag with a middle sized round tip then pipe into non-stick baking paper lined tray or Macaron Baking Sheet then bake in a 150C preheated oven for 20 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven, let it cool then remove from tray. Set aside

Chocolate Ganache

  1. Combine chocolate and cream in a bowl then microwave for 10 second, try to mix to combine and repeat process until well incorporated.
  2. Let it cool, place in piping bag then pipe onto macarons.

Pistachio Buttercream

  1. Beat together eggs and the sugar in high speed, the volume should double in size.
  2. Place in a saucepan together with the pistachios. Place in medium heat while continuously mixing until it resembles a thick batter.
  3. Remove from heat, refrigerate and let it chill.
  4. Place butter in a mixing bowl then beat in high speed until it becomes pale and creamy, add the pistachio mixture and mix until well incorporated.
  5. Place in piping bag then pipe onto macarons.

Vanilla Buttercream

  1. Split vanilla pod and scrape the beans, combine this with the sugar.
  2. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl then beat in high speed until it forms stiff peaks.
  3. Place sugar mixture and water in a saucepan then bring to a boil, continue to cook syrup in low heat until sugar is melted.
  4. Gradually pour the syrup in a mixing bowl with eggs while continuously mixing in medium speed for 5 minutes.
  5. Add salt, butter and continue to whip in high speed until it becomes fluffy, this will take around 12 minutes.
  6. Finally add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
  7. Place in piping bag then pipe onto macarons.

Raspberry Buttercream

  1. Place raspberry jam in piping bag then pipe onto macarons.

Notes

Macaron recipe makes roughly 20-30 pieces depending on the size you make, you can fill it with anything below.
Colour your macaron according to the flavour you want to use.

 

 

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12 Responses

  1. Wow! Brilliant job.
    🙂 Mandy xo

  2. cynthia kantor says:

    there’s a cookie I tasted in the Philippines, could this be like it? I think they call it “pacencia”.

  3. Oh, I do love a good macaroon – thankfully we have Entice here in Hawke’s Bay who make really good ones – so while I’m tempted to try this recipe not sure if I will – but recipe looks great.

  4. cquek says:

    t looks so refreshing!

  5. Amanda says:

    Wow. These are so beautiful. I want to try to make one, but like you said, I’m intimidated. SIgh. Maybe I”ll do it this weekend. I really want to.

  6. Seriously, Raymund, is there anything that you can’t cook/bake? I can’t wait to become a billionaire so I can hire you as my personal chef (yes I’m still saying this!). 😀

  7. Wow, Ray, bow down for your maccarons result !!!
    t color is so soft and made me wanna crave for more, definitely looks better than the store brough

  8. Peachy A. says:

    I want to try to make macarons but I get intimidated!

  9. mjskit says:

    You sure you don’t make macaroons for a living? These are just perfect and I love, love, love your fillings, especially that pistachio buttercream.

  10. Your macarons look beautiful.

    I’m slightly obsessed with macacrons lately. They’re so temperamental and are very tough to make perfectly. I’ve made about 10-batches and still can’t get them quite right.

    Next, I plan on taking an upcoming macaron class at a local kitchen supply retailer and hopefully I’ll have better results..

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