Macarons

Surprisingly, there is a colossal difference between a French Macaron and a Macaroon. This is something I never knew until recently as I always thought it was a matter of pronunciation. A French macaron (the one I have made) is a light airy meringue type of biscuit which is usually sandwiched together with a filling such as lemon curd or buttercream (nutella would also be acceptable!). Whereas a macaroon is a chewy unleavened coconut, making it very popular with the Jewish during Passover. Both have almost the same ingredients however when you bake them and compare you will notice a huge difference.

My quest for the perfect macaron recipe began on Monday. I was searching for the most full proof recipe I could find so that I would have something decent to put on the internet and not a disaster. So I went to my usual sources of recipes – Jamie Oliver, Cupcake Jemma, Sorted and Everyday food (Martha Stewart).

Unfortunately, I did not have much success with my usual suppliers of recipes and therefore I had to scroll through many bad youtube videos to find something that would give me the results I needed.

Finally, I found a recipe on youtube, I have never done any of her recipes before however her tips were very helpful and I think I have made a pretty good first attempt. If you like to have a video to follow from here is the recipe I used (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ636Y8N6E8)

Macarons

Ingredients: - 3 egg whites - 50 g caster sugar - 200 g icing sugar - 120 g almond flour

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C (300 F)

2. Beat the egg whites until foamy and the add the caster sugar (If you want at this point you can add 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar and a pinch of salt to make the peaks stiffer, however I did not do this and it worked for me)

3. Proceed beating until peaks stand up and are stiff. At this point you will want to add any colouring or flavouring. I used wilton lemon yellow to colour mine. However, I think it needed to be a shade or two darker as the colour fades when you cook it.

4. Sift the ground almonds and icing sugar through a sift (a fine sift would be better if you have one. ) If your dry mixture is still lumpy then put in the food processor and blitz until you get a fine powder.

5. Fold the sugar almond mixture into the meringue gradually. This is the trickiest part because the batter needs to be the right consistency, Beth describes it as "molten lava" I am not sure what this means I have never seen molten lava nor felt the consistency of it. I would say the right consistency is when it is still thick and drops off the spoon and as lump free as you can get it.

6. Transfer the batter to a piping bag

7. Pipe out small "blobs" onto a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper (Mine were just a little bit too big but I think it was because they spread out as they were not the right consistency)

8. You need to let the macarons rest before they go in the oven so you want to give them about 20-30 mins before you pop them in. IMPORTANT: Only put a tray in the oven at each time as you want to give them an even bake.

9. Put each tray in the oven for twenty minutes (do not under bake them because they will stick to the tray and believe you do not want that!)

10. Make your filling. In this recipe I used lemon curd here is the link to the recipe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqtrF3ampo)

11. Sandwich together your macarons with your desired filling and serve.