28.8.13

Secret Macaroon Video


Hello sweetlings, how are you all doing? So, I've got to come clean about something.. I've been sitting on a French macaroon instructional video for several months…! I know, I'm sorry for holding out on all of you. You see, it was my first attempt at an instructional video and it contains many 'cringe' moments! But recently, I was assured by a Youtuber friend of mine that nobody's expecting perfection from a Youtube video as long as the content is good. So after some thinking, I've finally gathered the courage to let this video go live on the blog.. a lot of hard work went into it after all.

This vid was shot at my house in Auckland by some good friends of mine Clinton Chang and Martin Paris. I wrote the song playing in the background, and it's called "This Winter". It is performed by my band Teacups and recorded by another buddy of mine David Parker. If you like it, you may download our record here.

So here's my "Secret Macaron Video" for all of you lovely readers..
Ssshhh...






French Meringue Macaroons

Yields about 60 shells or 30 filled macarons

125gr ground almonds
175gr icing sugar
125gr egg whites (approx 4 size 6 eggs)
pinch of salt
75g caster sugar
gel food colouring

1) Prepare three baking trays with the piping templates and baking paper. Organize your piping bags and piping tips ready for use.
2) Sift together ground almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and set aside. (If you own a food processor you could process both into a fine flour.)
3) With the wire whip attachment on the electric mixer, beat the egg whites, salt and meringue powder on low speed. Start to increase speed as the egg whites rise, and gently shower in the caster sugar. Add the food colouring little by little until desired depth of colour is reached.
4) Remove the bowl of meringue from your mixer. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of the flour mixture into the meringue and gently fold with a rubber spatula. When the flour almost disappears into the mixture, add another 3 to 4 tablespoon of flour and begin folding again. Do this until the flour mixture is exhausted.
5) Keep folding the mixture until the batter falls in a wide ribbon when you hit the spatula onto the rim of the bowl. Do not oevermix! It is much better to undermix than overmix using this method!
6) Using the piping template, pipe dots of batter onto the baking tray. If you end up with peaks that remain on the discs after piping, the batter is slightly undermixed. Hold the baking paper down and tap down the baking tray onto the counter to eliminate some of these peaks. This also helps to get rid off air bubbles in your shells.
7) Preheat your oven to 135 degrees celcius. Leave the trays of macarons to rest for about 30 minutes until the batter does not stick to your finger when touched.
8) Bake for 17 minutes, after the first 5 minutes pull the oven door open briefly to let the steam out. Bake only one tray at a time and place in the centre of the oven.
9) When cooked, place whole sheet of baking paper on the counter to cool before peeling off the macaron shells and placing them on a cooling rack.

Dark chocolate, lavender ganache
300gr dark chocolate - chopped
200gr heavy cream
1T cooking/organic lavender

1) Place cream into saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat
2) Add in the lavender and leave to steep for 10 minutes
3) Strain off the lavender and bring the cream back to a simmer
4) Pour into the chocolate, stir with a whisk to combine with the chocolate.
5) Place in fridge until completely cool.

White chocolate cream ganache
200gr white chocolate - chopped
200gr heavy cream
50gr unsalted butter – in room temperature
1 vanilla bean pod, scrape the pulp

1) Place cream into saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat
2) Add in the vanilla bean and pulp and leave to steep for 10 minutes
3) Remove the vanilla pod and pour into the chopped white chocolate.
4) Stir slowly with a whisk to incorporate.
5) Place in fridge until completely cool.
6) When ganache is cool, beat butter until light in colour.
7) Add in the ganache and beat again until you have a light fluffy cream.





28 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your video and recipe. I have never been brave enough to try making macarons but might give them a go using your recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! Yes, this is a great recipe to start experimenting with..! Good luck and feel free to email me w pictures if you have any problems..

      Delete
  2. is it ok if i change "ground almond " with another nuts? ground chasew maybe?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not tried this... Maybe try by substituting half first. Thanks for the question

      Delete
  3. Anonymous25.12.13

    do you grease the parchment paper?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11.1.14

      there's no need to grease the paper, almonds have enough oil in them already..

      Delete
  4. Anonymous20.2.14

    What kind of heavy cream did you use? I mean, the brand.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello may i ask,for the egg white..before mix it we should refrigerate it first or just put in room temperature? Thank you

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  6. hii chef, thank u for the recipe... n niceee....finally I found u here :) Good luck for your job n JBU..

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  7. hi, for the egg do you mean 4 eggs in 6 size egg or 6 egg in 4 size eggs?thankyou

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  8. Nice video. Can't imagine what you thought was cringe-worthy.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Anonymous12.12.18

    Hi, it is possible to reduce the amount of sugar then substitute it with almond flour? (icing sugar : almond flour in this recipe is 175 : 125, can i change it to icing sugar : almond flour = 125 : 175)
    I want to make not to sweet macaroon shell

    ReplyDelete
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