French Macarons

My first time attempting Macarons where I grew up was disastrous as can
be. It went flat, there´s no feet and its bottom sticked to the oven tray as
though it was UHU glue. Taste wise as I remembered it was unimpressive
too and there I was thinking - why did I even bother. Macarons were hard
to come by then (it was more than 4 years ago) and being exposed to
blogsphere then where every well-known blogger would boast about their
luck with that tiny thing, or having tried the magnificent so and so flavour
ranging from Pierre Hermes to Laduree, it did arouse my curiosity hard
enough to attempt. I blame my first failure to its surrounding and oven
temperature but really, I suspect my own temperature has to do with it too.

Fast forward and many years later, equipped with a better kitchen, controlled

temperature inside the house, as well as having the luxury of time to experiment

in the kitchen more, I finally succeeded. Wait.  There is also a very important

element.  That is, getting the recipe right.   The recipe I am trying is from a dear

friend base in France.  She is one of those whom I would categorise as the type

that when wanna do something, do it right and if not, don´t even bother.

Very talented lady in my opinion and what I really like is, every single recipe of

hers worked. How amazing is that?! 

Here´s the recipe without further babbling ...

Chocolate Macaron recipe :

1)    Blend (Mini Mixer) 100 grams Icing Sugar, 125grams Almond Powder

       (without shell kind) and 3 tbs Kakao Powder till very fine.  I blend them

        in 3 batches for about 1 minute each.

2)    Beat 3 egg white in your mixer (do use a metal bowl) with a pinch of

       salt until it is slightly stiff.

3)    Add in 100 grams Icing Sugar into egg white mixture.  Continue beating

       till mixture is very stiff and glossy looking.

4)    Pour all the dry mixture into egg mixture.  Now comes the part where

       you have to gently fold both the dry and wet together.  I start with

       slowly working the middle fold towards the outer fold.  All and all, it

       should be under 15 folds.

5)    Gently spoon the dough into piping bag with fitted macaron tip of

       ideally 0.8mm in size.  Pipe them neatly on your baking tray lined with

       baking sheets.  Leave a minimum gap of 1.5cm in between.

6)    Let the macaron rest for 30 minutes under room temperature.

7)    Heat up your oven after 15 minutes.

8)    Bake them at 175C for 10 minutes in middle rack of your oven.

9)    Remove them once its cool.

10)  Heat up 80 grams butter, 120 grams chocolate and 1tbs cream in a pot.

       Mix them till its incorporated.

11)  Spread the chocolate ganache between two pieces of macarons.

12)  Enjoy! Another note - Macarons can be kept in freezer to be enjoyed

       later. So, if you have a special occasion for it, do make it advance and

       freeze them.

Here´s a link which I find is very useful especially for first timer, in the event

it did not turn out (not that I want it to fail but its macaron yáll!) It is mentioned

that the common mistakes made are due to these factor and the reasons are listed.

-  Not sieving ground almonds and icing sugar - macarons with blisters,

    lumps of almonds or sugar.

-  Poor mixing of egg-whites and dry ingredients - uneven macarons, almond
   cakes rather than macarons

-  Not waiting the 30 minutes to "form crust" - macarons cracked,

    insufficiently risen or rounded

-  Undercooking - macarons too soft, impossible to remove from baking

    sheet

-  Overcooking - dry macarons

-  Trying to remov macarons from baking sheet before completely cooled

    - macarons break up or split in two

-  My macarons are brown despite my green (or other) food colouring -

    overcooking

I have not tried this websites recipe though but I reckon, once you´ve found the
one you´re comfortable with, this is it. 

Do click HERE and HERE for my sifu´s work ...

Happy trying!