Italian Macarons

Ingredients:

Meringue:

120 g caster sugar

55 g egg white at room temperature

pinch of salt or cream of tartar (for stabillity)

40 g room temperature water

35 g caster sugar

Dough ‘Tant-pour-Tant’

150 g Ground Almonds

150 g Icing sugar

55 g egg white at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavour)

1 drop of gel food colour

Filling

Chocolate Ganache / Flavoured Buttercream

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
  2. Prepare your macaron trays/ silpat mats on a baking tray with your macaron template.
  3. Prepare two clean bowls by wiping them down with a bit of vinegar on a piece of paper towel.
  4. In a saucepan, combine the water and 120g caster sugar, and heat to 115 degrees Celsius.
  5. While the sugar and water are heating, sift together the almond flour and icing sugar in one of your clean bowls. Throw out any particles left in your sieve. *Take the sugar syrup off the stove if it has reached the right temperature.
  6. Add 55 g of egg whites to the sifted almond flour and icing sugar and mix to form a paste. You can add the flavour and colour to the paste at this stage.
  7. In the other clean bowl, beat the other 55 g egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar or salt until frothy. Little by little, add in the 35 g caster sugar, while continually beating the egg whites to a soft peak. Slowly pour in the sugar syrup in a stream against the side of the bowl and into the egg whites. The mixture should turn glossy. Beat the meringue to form stiff peaks.
  8. Gently fold the meringue mixture into the dough mixture, a little at a time, until it is well combined. DO NOT OVER OR UNDER MIX. It takes approximately 50 – 60 folds, or until the mixture is at ‘ribbon consistency’.
  9. Pour the batter into a piping bag, prepared with a 1/2 inch plain tip.
  10. Pipe the batter onto your silicon mat, following the circles or other shapes on your template.
  11. Tap the baking tray on the counter to help remove any air bubbles. Use a scribe to pop any that appear on the surface.
  12. Allow the piped batter to rest for about an hour, or until the batter dries out on top.
  13. Bake your macaron shells in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Rotate the tray and bake for another 10 minutes.
  14. Allow the shells to cool completely before removing them from the silicon mat.
  15. Once cooled, you can either fill the shells with ganache or flavoured buttercream, or store the shells in an air tight container in the fridge.