My apologies. :) It's been a long month since I've last posted, but a combination of exams, Christmas and the beginning of holidays have put me out of blogging.
I've been 'experimenting' with macarons and so far I've ticked off chocolate, green tea and lemon.
Note that macaroons are meringue-like cookies usually made from coconut,
whereas macarons are the french biscuits made of almond meal, which usually have a filling inside.
Recipes can be found all over the internet for countless flavours.
From bakeries and patisseries, macarons cost around $2.20 each
So its much cheaper to make them yourself.
Above: Green Tea Filling
Below: Chocolate Filling
For both fillings I made a ganache, which is a fancy term for melting chocolate with boiling cream. The melted mixture is then cooled and sets to a spread-able consistency.
The chocolate filling is simply made of dark chocolate and cream.
The green tea filling is made of white chocolate and cream. Green tea powder is then added to this mixture.
Green tea powder or matcha is quite rare now and can only be found in a few specialty stores. If you require some, I can buy it for you. It's $6.50 for 100 grams.
Macaron Batter
For the green tea macaron, I just added a teaspoon of vanilla extract or essence to a basic batter of almond meal, egg whites and loads of sugar.
The chocolate macaron followed the same recipe, except that an additional 25 grams of cocoa powder was added.
Tips
1. Don't bother buying piping bags. Simply use a snap-lock plastic bag.
Get all the batter in and cut a medium-sized hole (about 1.5cm diameter)
2. The batter should flow like lava. Otherwise it won't bake properly.
3. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the egg whites and use quick swift movements with a spatula to mix them together. Stop straight after streaks of egg white disappear and if you over-mix the macarons won't rise properly.
4. When you've piped all the macarons make sure you rap the baking sheet on the kitchen bench a few times. This gives the macaron a footing to rise from and gets rid of any large air bubbles.
Despite the cracks, the macarons turned out alright. A nice and crispy outer shell and a chewy inside. I still haven't found the perfect amount of time and the perfect temperature to bake them at. But, it varies from oven to oven.
I've found that the higher the baking tray is put in the oven, the more cracked it gets.
Trial and error. Trial and error.
MY CRACKED MACARONS. :)
They tasted really nice.
Of course, make sure you cool the biscuits before you add in the filling.
Macarons are great as a gift.
Nom Nom Nom
-WB
