Macarons

Macarons! Macarons! Macarons! Well where do you start with macarons? Well for one thing, macarons are not macaroons. I have found myself in this particular conversation on numerous occasions. The macarons that I am referring to in this blog, originated in France and are technically confectionary due to their high sugar content. Macaroons, on the other hand, are a coconut based biscuit, usually dipped in chocolate and have been around in Australia a lot longer than the French macaron. The macaron has become a lot more popular in Australia recently, largely to do with the publicity on Masterchef and the Australian king of the macaron, Adriano Zumbo.

Macaroon

Macaron

I love cooking macarons. I love the fantastic colours that you can make and watching them slowly rise in the oven with their crinkly feet. I love how you can basically make them any flavour that you can dream of, like some of Zumbo’s crazy flavours. To be honest I love the process of making them as much as I love eating the end result!

When it comes to making macarons, there are two main methods: The Italian method and the French method. The ‘nationalities’ of each of these methods refers to the kind of meringue that is used in the recipe. The French method of making meringue is the most common and is simply the raining of castor sugar over the egg whites while beating at high speed. This is the simpler way although the meringue is not as stable as in the Italian method. In the Italian method, the sugar is heated up to ‘soft ball’ stage (118˚C) and then poured into the egg whites while beating at high speed. This process cooks the egg whites and leaves you with a more stable meringue, which is less susceptible to over mixing.  I have tried many macaron recipes, using both methods, and I have definitely found the Italian method to be much more reliable.

Most recipes call for ‘aged’ egg whites. This means you separate the eggs the day before and cover the egg whites and leave them in the fridge for 24-48 hours. This is not 100% necessary but it is helpful as it gives the egg whites more elasticity. I don’t always use aged egg whites but if I have planned ahead, or if the macarons are for something important, I will separate the eggs the day before. It is important to ensure that the egg whites are at room temperature before using them.

There are many things that will affect the making of macarons but probably the biggest thing is the weather. Simply, the drier the air, the better the macarons will be and the faster they will set. An air-conditioner is a must if you are attempting macarons on a humid day.

I’m sure that there are some of you know who are reading this and thinking “I could never make macarons”. However, I am going to take you through it step by step and show you my method of making macarons and hopefully you will all be able to make them. It does take time (and patience), so it is not something that can be rushed.

After reading and trialling recipe after recipe, I have come up with a recipe that seems to consistently work well for me, so hopefully it will work well for you too! This is the recipe I used when making the macaron tower for my sister’s birthday.

The recipe that I have for you today is for my Jaffa macarons. These are by far my favourites (and not just because they are orange)! This recipe can be altered quite easily by substituting the orange flavouring/colouring for another flavour or colour. Some recipes suggest that you can make different flavours and colours by halving the ingredients and colouring/flavouring each portion as you fold them together. Personally, I find it easier to work with a smaller mix when it comes to making macarons, so for the tower I made this recipe 6 times, rather than trying to combine them.

 

Some equipment you will find useful for this recipe:

Kitchen stand mixer

Candy thermometer

A small saucepan

Pastry brush

Piping bags and nozzles

Mixing bowls

Biscuit oven trays or baking sheets

JAFFA MACARONS

Makes approximately 40 filled 3cm macarons

Ingredients:

100g egg whites at room temperature(approximately 3 eggs)

125g castor sugar

2tbs water

125g icing sugar (not icing mixture)

125g almond meal
1tsp orange essence (can be varied to suit taste)

½ tsp Gel Food colouring (can be varied depending on desired colour of macaron)

1. Divide the egg whites into two 50 g portions. One in a small bowl and the other in the bowl of your mixer.

2. Add 1 tsp of orange essence and ½ tsp of gel food colouring into the egg white in the small bowl and mix together with a fork until completely combined.  Set aside.

3. Place almond meal in a large mixing bowl and sift in icing sugar. Use your fingertips to rub almond meal and icing sugar together until completely combined. Set aside

4. Make Italian Meringue:

1. Place castor sugar and water in a small saucepan and place on a medium-high heat. Stir briefly to combine but do not stir again after this, as you risk sugar crystals forming.  

2. Begin to whip egg whites on high (with the wire whisk attachment if your mixer has one), so that they will be stiff by the time the sugar is ready. 

3. As the temperature of the sugar gets higher, bubbles will form and burst on the side of the pot. Use a pastry brush and water to wash down the side of the pot. This will stop any sugar crystals forming and falling back into the sugar mixture.

4. Use a candy thermometer to check the temperature of the sugar. It will only take about 3-4 minutes to reach 118˚C (soft ball stage)

5. Once sugar reaches 118˚C, remove from heat immediately and pour in a slow steady stream down the side of the mixer bowl, while it is still running on high.

6. Continue to whip on high until the outside of the bowl is no longer hot to touch.

7. The finished meringue should be very thick and glossy.

5. Pour the egg white and colouring mixture over the top of the almond meal and icing sugar mixture.

6. Add approximately 1/3 of the meringue (I find that is usually what is left on the wire whisk from the mixer) and mix thoroughly. Do not be gentle at this point, as it is really important that you get it all fully incorporated before you begin to fold the rest of the meringue. 

7. Fold in half the remaining meringue using a large metal spoon and when almost fully mixed in add the last of the meringue. Go slowly at this stage and ensure that you get right to the bottom of the mixing bowl. When fully mixed, there should be no marbling of the meringue through the mixture. The finished mixture will be very thick and it will ooze slowly off the spoon when lifted away from the bowl. If the batter is too runny it may have been over mixed.

Under-mixed

Well mixed

8. Piping- I like to print out a ‘macaron template’ of 3cm circles to help me to get a consistent size.  

You can now buy disposable piping bags at most supermarkets. I much prefer these to washing and drying a re-usable piping bag and nozzle.

1. Fit the nozzle according to the instructions on the box. I cut the plain nozzle to give it a wider opening and allow the mixture to flow easier.

2. Hold the bag around the opening while you spoon in the mixture (this will help the bag to keep its shape). Don’t put too much mixture into the bag at once. It is easier to use the piping bag with a smaller amount of mixture in it. 

3. Roll the excess bag up and holding it in your right hand (if you’re right handed) twist the bag a couple of times to close it.

4. Put your macaron template on a hard place mat or chopping board and place the baking paper on top of the template.

5. Using your right hand to squeeze the bag, pipe circles by placing the nozzle in the centre of the circle and squeezing the bag with your right hand. There is no need to move the bag/nozzle in circles. To stop the flow, stop squeezing the bag and sharply lift the bag upwards. 

6. After you have piped the whole tray, hold the edges of the placemat or board and the baking paper and bang it firmly on the bench. This gets rid of any air bubbles in the macarons and also smooths over the top.

 

 

7. If you accidently make a mess when piping, you can use a small, sharp knife to clean around the edges of the macaron to help it to rise evenly when cooking.

8. Gently slide the baking paper off of the board and onto the bench to leave to set.

9. Macarons must be completely set prior to baking. This is possibly the most important part in making macarons. They need to form a dry crust over the entire surface. If the crust does not completely form, you will find that the macarons will crack, rather than rise, during baking. Depending on the weather (as I mentioned earlier), macarons can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours to set. When I made this batch, it was 31˚ and quite humid so I had the air conditioner on. They took about an hour to set.

To check that your macarons are ready to bake, gently touch the surface with your fingertip. If you can do this without it sticking, they are ready to bake!

10. Preheat oven to 150˚C (fan-forced). Gently, slide the baking paper onto a baking tray and place in the lower half of the oven. They will take 15-18 minutes to cook. Only cook one tray at a time. You should see your macarons beginning to rise after about 2-3 minutes of cooking.

11. To check if your macarons are cooked, you should be able to lift them from the baking paper without leaving any residue. Ideally, you don’t want them to brown on the top.

12. Once removed from the oven, place macarons on a wire rack to cool.

FILLING: Choc-orange ganache

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

150ml thickened cream

Zest of one orange

1tsp orange essence

40g unsalted butter

1. chop chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat proof bowl

2. Remove the zest of one orange and chop very finely.

3. Cut butter into small cubes and place in a small saucepan with the cream, orange zest and orange essence.

3. Bring cream mixture to the boil, stirring constantly (the butter will melt into the cream)
4. Once boiling, remove from heat and, while stirring the chocolate, pour the boiled cream over the chocolate.

5. Continue to stir the chocolate vigorously until it is smooth and all of the chocolate pieces are melted.
6. Chill ganache in the fridge or freezer, stirring frequently.

Sort the macaron shells so that they are matched with another one of similar size (even if you use a template they will vary in size slightly).

Using the star nozzle on a piping bag, pipe a flat rosette onto each base and sandwich together with the lid.

Unfilled shells can be stored in an air-tight container and kept in the cupboard for up to a week, or frozen for later use. If freezing macaron shells, defrost them in the refrigerator overnight.

And there you have it! My recipe for Jaffa Macarons. This was a very long blog, so thank you to anyone who made it all the way to the end! I’m hoping that I have included enough information here for you to feel confident in attempting to make macarons yourself.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask and let me know if you try them out for yourself.

Happy Macaronning!

My first year of TAFE

I thought while I was in the mood to blog, I might as well write another one. This one is an overview and reflection, of my first year of my Certificate 3 in Hospitality (Patisserie) at William Angliss so hopefully it’s not too long and boring for you all. If it is, you can just look at the pictures!

I feel like I have learnt a lot this year, both from the teachers at TAFE, and from my other classmates. I’m not going to write anything here about the theory classes that we had to endure for two reasons. The first is that it would be quite a boring read and the second is that if you got me started on the ridiculousness of our first semester theory it would probably become an endless rant of all of the problems that we had. The main thing I would like to write about is our practical classes.

I remember the very first practical class when we were all standing around outside our classroom with our brand new, oversized chef whites and feeling like we were back in the first day of year 7. We spent our first lesson cutting up lots and lots of vegetables and learning fancy words like julienne, brunoise and macédoine and thinking about how this was going to help us in our careers as pastry chefs. To be honest I still haven’t answered that question, although I did feel very clever knowing some of these fancy terms when they used them during the last series of Masterchef.

After these few weeks of general cookery we progressed to the pastry kitchens and began our unit on cakes. While the cakes we made were quite basic it was great to have some new recipes and practice the basics of cake making. Probably the best cake we made was the Chocolate Mud cake. I have used this recipe numerous times since making it at TAFE. It is extraordinarily easy to make and the result is a very moist cake that is easy to cut.

Our next unit was Pastries. I was excited to see the picture of a croissant on the front of the workbook for this unit, only to find out that we actually weren’t going to make croissants during the unit at all. Instead we practised making sweet and savoury shortcrust, choux pastry, filo and puff pastry. 

We followed our pastry unit with hot and cold desserts. The highlight of this unit was probably making the Bomb Alaska. The low of this unit was definitely the assessment. After making a perfect chocolate soufflé in class on our first try it took 3 attempts to get it right during the assessment.

 

Our Yeast unit was next and this was definitely my favourite unit of the course so far. This was when we finally got to learn to make croissants and Danishes! I learnt so much in this unit about using yeast and dough, and I’m sure it will be very useful in the future.

 

Our final patisserie unit for the year was present desserts. I found this unit a real challenge. I am, and always have been, artistically challenged. With a lot of the things I cook, they may taste great but often they are not plated up very well at all and this unit was all about plating up. We learnt how to make simple garnishes to finish off desserts and experimented with height and colour on the plate. 

Our last unit for 2011 was in the Angliss Bistro. I must admit I didn’t enter this unit with high expectations and they diminished even more when I found out that we weren’t actually having customers while we were in there. The unit did get better towards the end when we were all able to make cakes, of our own choice, that would be used at the bistro during the week. In the final week of this unit we were able to invite our family and friends to come to lunch in the bistro. I was lucky enough to have my husband John and two of my best friends, Kate and Gav come. It was such a great way to finish the year, sharing what we have been doing with our loved ones.

Esterhazy Torta

While I have been enjoying a few Saturdays without the early morning starts, I am really looking forward to going back for this last 6 months. I look forward to sharing the things I learn with you all!
Thanks for reading!

My First Blog

Well this is my first ever blog post, so let’s see how we go. I was convinced by a friend that a blog is a great way to share the things that you love with the rest of the world. I am by no means a writer or a photographer but hopefully you will enjoy my recipes and the stories that come with them. 

I love cooking, especially desserts and sweet things and in 2011 I began my Certificate 3 in Patisserie at William Angliss Institute of TAFE. I love to cook for my friends and family and my favourite thing to hear is “Would you like to bring a dessert?” because I know that this gives me the opportunity to experiment and try something new or pull out an old favourite recipe.

My hero is Adriano Zumbo and I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing in 2011.

Over the past year, I have made some things that I have been very proud of, but my greatest achievement was the Rainbow Macaron Tower that I made recently, for my sister’s 18^th Birthday. It contained 6 flavours of Macarons:

PINK: Strawberry with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

PURPLE: Boysenberry with white chocolate and blueberry ganache

BLUE: Plain shell with chocolate ganache

GREEN: Mint with choc mint ganache

YELLOW: Lemon with Lemon curd

ORANGE: Orange with jaffa ganache

In a future blog, I will share with you my macaron recipe. However, I thought for my first blog post I would include a recipe for something that is not too tricky to make and is a definite favourite with my family.

FRUIT TARTLETS

Makes 12

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:

2 cups plain four

1 tablespoon castor sugar

100g unsalted butter (cold)

1 egg yolk

3-4 tablespoons ice water

Crème Pâtissière:

250g milk

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste(or one vanilla pod)

3 egg yolk

1/8 cup castor sugar

1 dessert spoon plain flour

1 dessert spoon corn flour

To finish off:

White chocolate melts

Mixed berries

Tortenguss or any clear flan gel

Pastry

Sift four and castor sugar intoa bowl.

Cut butter into small cubes andrub into flour, using fingertips, until it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Add egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of iced water and mix with a flat bladed spatula using a cutting action until the mixture comes together into small balls. If the mixture is not coming together, add another tablespoon of water. 

Use hands to bring dough together but do not knead. 

Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

While resting, make Crème Pâtissière.

Crème Pâtissière

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together egg yolks and castor sugar.

Mix in flours and a dash of the milk so that you have a smooth and runny consistency. 

In a small, heavy-based saucepanbring milk and vanilla bean paste to a boil.

While constantly whisking, pourhalf of the milk onto the egg yolk mixture and continue to mix until combined.

Pour the mixture back into thepot with the remaining milk and stir with a wooden spoon over a low heat untilit has thickened (this custard will thicken quite quickly).

When thickened, remove from heat and pour custard into a bowl.

Sprinkle custard with a little castor sugar and cover with cling wrap, so that it is touching the surface of the custard. This will prevent a skin forming.

Refrigerate until ready to use. 

Preheatoven to 180˚fan-forced

Remove pastry from refrigerator and roll out so that it is approximately 3mm thick.

Cut out circles (approximately 9cm diameter) and put into a greased muffin tray.

Place full tray in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Use a fork to prick holes in the base of each case prior to baking.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until cases are golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on arack.

Melt white chocolate over a double boiler (a bowl over a pot of just boiled water) and brush each of the pastry cases with a thin layer.

Refrigerate until set.

Pipe Crème Pâtissière into eachof the cases and decorate with desired berries.

Prepare flan gel  

Add one packet of Tortenguss (flan gel powder), with 250ml of cold water and 1 dessert spoon of castor sugar.

Bring to a boil over a low heat while stirring constantly.

Take of heat and allow to sit for one minute before spooning over tartlets. 

Thank you to everyone who has read this first installment. Hopefully you have found this recipe helpful! I look forward to reading your comments, especially if you have tried this recipe!