The story behind my Macaroon Obsession.

I know I only wrote my first post yesterday, but I'm all fired up with enthusiasm.  I have just been making macaroons.  Anyone who knows me or who is a friend on Facebook will know I am just a bit obsessed with making and eating macaroons, so I thought I'd write a post on how it all began...

It was Good Friday, 2010.  My lovely mother-in-law (or Mil for short) had both children for the day and I had a rare and lovely day all to myself.  I spent the morning watching a film the husband would hate - "Julie and Julia" - thoroughly recommended to anyone interested in new recipes - while he washed the car, as he loves to do.  And in the afternoon I made my first ever macaroons.  I had seen them on the cover of delicious. magazine that month and really fancied making them, but had heard they were time consuming and tricky to get right; but I like a challenge, so read the article carefully and off I went. 

Just in case you don't know there are many sorts of macaroon (or macaron as they are called in France) from different countries.  The ones I'm talking about are basically ground almonds, (sometimes mixed with other nuts) and icing sugar folded into an often brightly coloured meringue which may include other flavourings; the mixture being piped into rounds and baked before being sandwiched together with a filling, usually butter icing

I made two sorts that first time, pistachio and strawberry, and they were a great success, taste wise, especially the pistachio ones which are still my favourite flavour, even after trying lots of others. The colours weren't as bright as those on the magazine cover though which was a wee bit disappointing.  I've since learned that normal supermarket food colourings aren't "bake safe" and don't keep their colour well in the oven, you need paste or gel food colourings which you can buy online or in cake decorating shops.

When we had them after dinner on Easter Sunday my sister declared they were "better than Harrod's or Fortnum & Mason's" and I felt sure I would make them again.  Since then I've made a variety of flavours with varying amounts of success, the only ones that really didn't work were the chocolate ones, substituting some of the icing sugar for cocoa powder seemed to do something wierd to the consistency of the mixture and they wouldn't pipe properly and were too hard and very chewy when baked.

So, what are the secrets of a good macaroon?  Well, it isn't really all that difficult when you've done it a few times. There are two basic methods, the French method and the Italian method.  Use the French method every time.  The Italian method is very faffy, involves sugar syrup, thermometers and pans of boiling water.  The French method is much easier and gives good results in my opinion.  I can't compare it to the Italian method because I have never tried it!

Blitz 75g almonds and 115g icing sugar in a food processor, and sieve them.  Whisk two large egg whites to stiff peaks and then whisk in 50g caster sugar.  Colour and flavour the meringue as desired.  Fold in the almond and icing sugar mix, this is the most crucial bit!  You HAVE to get the right consistency or they won't pipe properly.  I use a silicone spatula to do the folding, keep going until you get a ribbon consistency, the mixture will fall from the spatula into the bowl in beautiful flat ribbons.  If you dont fold enough it will be too stiff and the finished macaroons will be all pointy rather than flat; if you fold too much they will be too flat and go crispy like biscuits with no yummy chewy middle bit.

Now for the piping.  I have a fabulous silicone piping bag which makes life so much easier, especially the cleaning it afterwards part, but any piping bag will do.  You can pipe the rounds by eye, draw circles on baking paper, use a template sheet that goes under the baking paper (I bought one from Squires shop online) or best of all use silicone macaroon moulds (from Lakeland) which do feel a bit like cheating but they do come out all beautifully the same size.  Where would we be without silicone?!

After piping carefully but confidently lift the baking tray about a foot in the air and drop it onto the work surface (warn family members first!) This gets rid of bubbles in the mixture.  Then leave them for about half an hour until a skin forms so that no mixture sticks to you when you poke them gently with a finger.  Then bake at 160 degrees C for 15 minutes.  Leave to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from paper/moulds and cool completely before sandwiching the pairs of macaroon "shells" together with the filling.

The most traditional filling is butter icing, flavoured with whatever complements the flavouring of the shells eg chopped pistachios, coffee, vanilla, lemon zest.  You can also use fresh whipped cream or creme fraiche mixed with fruit such as raspberries or blueberries, but this does make them go soggy quite quickly.  Macaroons should be crispy on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle.  You can get quite adventurous with the flavours - I've made green tea and lemon, sesame and lime, saffron and cardamom, and Christmas spiced ones to name just a few.

Once you've done a few they are not too time consuming.  When the contestants on the Great British Bake off made them, they had five hours to make three flavours.  Tonight I had made the mixture and piped a batch in less than half an hour.  It all comes with practice.  I made a double batch for the village auction of promises and they raised £32.  I have also made some for a friend's daughter's graduation party, but cooking anything for paying customers isn't really something I want to do very often.

It has got to the point where people have very kindly given me macaroon inspired birthday cards, and gifts, including a set of macaroon teacups - pictured below. My name is Caroline, and I am a macaroonaholic.

I have pink fingers once more tonight (from the food colouring).

 The first ever macaroons.

 Blueberry.

 

 

 The pink ones are rosewater and the others hazelnut.

The fab cups.  What a great present.

After yesterday's post, my son reminded me about something I had forotten to put in.  When we made the peanut butter squares, we were about to put the biscuits in the food processor when he noticed a spider in the food processor bowl.  Ignoring his advice to blitz the spider, I took the bowl into the garden and tipped out Mr Spider to "go back to his family", washed the bowl and all was well.

Until next time.

Thanks for reading,

Caroline x