Lemon Macarons

Like all teachers, I've been looking forward to this long Summer break for months.  Time seems elastic at this time of year, stretching out for far longer than it should over the last bittersweet few weeks of the school year, but then racing away at top speed as soon as the holiday starts.  Consequently my long to-do-list for the Summer holidays is still... long.

One thing that I have managed to achieve though is making macarons.  I've been planning to make these again ever since being inspired by Ben, but it's the kind of thing that takes some planning - aging the egg whites for a few days, leaving the macarons to dry out slightly before cooking, etc.  It definitely helps to be around all day when you're making them.

The recipe I used is the one I've used before, and can be found here.  As I'm still on my lemon-kick I decided to go with that flavour for the macarons.

My Meri White is a little (*cough* 2 years...) out of date, but it smelled and tasted OK so I used it anyway...  'Best Before, not Poisonous After' is my motto!   I wanted to flavour the macarons themselves as well as the filling, so added half a tsp of Boyajian Lemon Oil to the batter, as well as some yellow colouring.

I might have gone a little over the top with the yellow colouring actually, it's certainly very 'sunny'.  But I like it.

I did use the food processor to get rid of the lumps in my icing sugar and ground almonds, but even so my macaron shells still weren't perfectly smooth.  I very lazily didn't pipe them either, but just used a teaspoon.  Pierre Herme would not be impressed.

They cooked beautifully at 120 degrees C, for 15 minutes.  They didn't brown at all, and did develop the macaron 'foot' as they rose.

I filled them with a white chocolate ganache (simply melted white chocolate with a spoonful of mascarpone stirred in to loosen it) and my home-made lemon curd.  I put a ring of the ganache onto the shell, and then a blob of the curd in the centre.  The tartness of the lemon curd is a lovely contrast with the sweetness of the chocolate.

As you can see, they don't look nearly as professional as Ben's macarons, they're distinctly lumpy and rather more rustic-looking (they're also about twice the size due to my inept teaspooning).  However, when they're just for home consumption it's the taste that counts, and these taste great.  A crispy outer encloses a chewy inner, and they just seem to get better, chewier, the longer you keep them in the fridge. 

I know Ben will want to know this - yes, a few of the macaron shells were almost hollow, while others weren't.  I wonder why this happens?

At least that's one holiday project successfully accomplished!

Macarons from Ben

I'm so pleased to have met Ben - and even more so that I am now on his 'list' who receive updates about what he's baking and opportunities to buy the results.  A few weeks back (I'm a bit behind on my blogging...) he posted that he was going to make lemon tarts, and macarons.  Now I've always been a macaron fan, so I just knew I had to try some.

The lemon tart was wonderful - crisp buttery pastry, filled with a layer of dark chocolate, then a layer of pistachio sponge, and topped with the most gorgeous tart-but-creamy lemon cream (a Pierre Herme recipe no less)... but of course we ate it before I thought of taking a photo, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

But the macarons... how could I resist taking pictures?!  They are such things of beauty.

I ended up with a box that contained 4 flavours - pictured above (from top to bottom) are Chilli-Chocolate, Nutella and Coconut-Lime.  There was also a gorgeous pale lilac Cassis flavour one, but it got a little crushed so I ate it sans photo!

These macarons were as good as they looked.  I loved the chocolate ganache that Ben had used as the fillings.  I might have added a little more chili to the Chili-Choc one, but that's a personal thing and I'm a bit of a chili-fiend.

I think my favourite was the Coconut-Lime.  I asked Ben how he had made it, and he told me that he had used the juice of limau kapas, or key limes, mixed with coconut cream and white chocolate.  It was a great combination.

The shells just looked so professional, I was really impressed as I know how temperamental they can be to make.  I'm inspired to have another try myself - roll on July and my long Summer holiday!  I'm already pondering different flavour possiblities...

Macaron Afternoon Tea

Tipped off by a fellow Brunei Blogger (thanks Boel!), we headed off to the Empire Hotel for afternoon tea today.  They were having a macaron-themed weekend, and as I love macarons it seemed like a must-try event.  I have made macarons a couple of times before, once with a blackberry theme, and once with rhubarb and orange flavours, but I haven't attempted making them in ages.  They're great fun to do and delicious to eat, but pretty time-consuming.

The idea of an entire meal made from macarons was too enticing to miss.  We arrived at 3pm, only to find that it was fully booked.  However, we put ourselves down for the 'second sitting' and went and sat in the hotel grounds with our books.  Fortunately when we returned at 4pm there was a table free.

The table of macarons looked incredible, such amazing colours.

If you look closely at the bottom picture you can see that there were both sweet and savoury options available...

We decided to start with the savoury ones.  I have to admit I was expecting the macarons themselves to be savoury, but no...  they were all sweet.  Was I naive to hope for savoury macarons, or is that impossible as their ingredients are simply egg white, ground almonds and sugar?

Anyway, it was certainly a 'taste sensation' eating prawns, pate, egg, cheese, smoked salmon and roast beef with horseradish atop a sugary macaron... and perhaps not a taste sensation I'd be that keen to repeat! 

The sweeter versions were much more appealing.

I started with a 'modest' (cough) plateful with a mere 5 macarons (Rob went the whole hog with 7!) and all 5 were tasty.  Perhaps the nicest was the blueberry jelly one in the foreground as it wasn't too sweet; the jelly was pleasantly acidic.  The two pink ones had a strawberry filling, the orange one was peachy, and the white one at the back of the plate was vanilla.

Rob's plate also included a chocolatey one, and a vaguely violet-flavoured one.  As you can see they were beautifully presented, but I felt that the chefs had missed a trick by not flavouring the macarons themselves.  They were all 'plain' (apart from the vivid colouring of course!) with only the fillings providing the different flavours.

Of course we had to return to the buffet table several times, just to make sure we had sampled everything on offer!  Oh dear, all-you-can-eat deals are very dangerous.  We both left with extremely full stomachs and sugar-rush headaches...  a very exciting tea, but maybe just a 'once in a lifetime' experience?!

More Macarons

It's rhubarb season again! I missed out on buying the first of the luminously pink forced rhubarb this year, but now the greener chunkier stalks are everywhere. I bought some last week, but then discovered that a rhubarb-hating colleague at school had a garden full of it... so now I have a plentiful - and free - supply.



Ever since my recent trip to London, and the excitements of the Laduree shop, I have been itching to try making macarons again. I had a vision of making delicately pale pink beauties, filled with raspberry, or perhaps strawberry jam... but the arrival of my first bunch of rhubarb (and a typically heavy hand with the food colouring) meant that my plans soon changed. Those pale pink macarons will have to wait for the Summer.

I used half of my first batch of rhubarb to make a couple of jars of rhubarb and ginger jam, possibly my favourite of all jams, but something I had only ever bought from the local WI market. Sorry ladies of the Womens' Institute, but I think from now on I'll be making my own! Why does no one tell you that making jam is so easy? Clearly it's a WI conspiracy...

I did tint my macaron batter pink, but on seeing the finished jam decided that a hint of yellow colouring was needed. In my usual lazy fashion I couldn't be bothered to use a teaspoon, just thought I'd tip the bottle and add a mere couple of drops..... and in it gushed. Bright orange macarons! In for a penny... I (more carefully) added some orange oil, reasoning that orange and rhubarb were a perfect partnership. These macarons, once cooked, were delicious, with a taste reminiscent of a childhood sweet. Sherberty, like Refreshers. Gooooooood!



The addition of some lightly gingered buttercream, and a dollop of the rhubarb and ginger jam elevated them to Laduree level (well, nearly) et voila, les macarons parfaits!




The recipe can be found here, in my previous macaron post. My first batch had coloured slightly so the only change that I made to the recipe was to reduce the oven temperature to 120C and increase the cooking time to 15 minutes. These macarons didn't brown at all, and had the bonus of an ever so slightly chewy texture.

These were very popular in the school staffroom too! I am pondering new flavours for my next macaron making session... I'm sure it won't be long before I make them again.

Rhubarb

London and Laduree

or Macarons from the experts.

Last weekend I went into London. I love living somewhere where I can do that with such ease. Although not in any way a 'city girl', London is a city I adore for its beauty, complexity, history, and most of all its food! Obviously Laduree is Parisian, but the London branch on Picadilly is somewhere I've been planning to visit ever since I developed my recent macaron obsession.



Macaron heaven! My Mum and I bought a box of eight macarons between us, but the sheer range of flavours made it very tricky to choose four each. (Although the eye-watering price made it unlikely that we'd buy eight each!)



Finally we settled on: (from L-R) chocolate lime, salted butter caramel, orange blossom, rose, bergamot, lily of the valley, red fruits and coffee.



I am delighted to report that my attempts were pretty much spot-on compared to the 'real thing' - the exact same crumbliness, sweetness, creamy filling, etc. I'll be making these again (with added satisfaction now I know the price of the Laduree ones!) I'm not sure I'll manage the sheer range of flavours, but I have some more ideas now. Watch this space...



I kept the box and bag too. Divine.

Some more highlights of the day - Fortnum and Mason.



Lunch in Borough Market. A Bacon, Egg and Bubble Bap from Maria's Market Cafe.




And Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral sung by the St John Singers, with whom Rob and I used to sing when we lived in Salisbury. The choir sounded absolutely superb. The acoustic is amazing - it must be a fantastic place in which to sing.



Sunlight glinting off St Paul, looking as if he's caught in the act of blessing the cranes.

Oooh La La!

In recent years I have begun to develop a fascination with macarons. Not the coconut-laden English macaroon, but the delicately-coloured, airy, meringue-like, cream-filled, crispy mouthful of heaven that is the classic French macaron. Who could fail to be enchanted by the sight of these beauties? This stack was snapped in Raymond Blanc's Oxford patisserie Maison Blanc, but it seems as though macarons are quietly invading our shores, with shops such as Laduree moving across the Channel, and macaron pyramids seen increasingly often in bakery windows.



Despite my fascination, I never really thought about making them myself. I have made Nigella's Pistachio Macarons (from How to Be a Domestic Goddess) several times and absolutely loved them. But there is no doubt that although they taste divine, they are a somewhat more 'rustic' version of the original. Or maybe that was just mine...

However, I have recently stumbled upon several blog posts about making macarons (here, here and here to be precise) and last week I decided that I was going to go for it.

Making macarons is not difficult, but there is no doubt that the whole process takes up quite a lot of 'brain space' (although again that might just be me...). I found myself obsessing over different recipes, buying hitherto unknown ingredients (egg-white powder?!) and planning the entire event days in advance. To be fair, some planning is definitely necessary as the consensus amongst macaron aficionados is that the egg whites need to be 'aged' before using, which simply means separating the eggs up to 3 days before you plan to bake. Fortunately we made a batch of ice-cream at the weekend which used some egg yolks, so I was able to set aside the whites for 48 hours.



I wanted a double filling - some kind of cream, and some kind of fruit - and I also wanted to make them in a pretty pastel colour. As I have some vibrantly purple blackberry and apple jam that I made last Autumn I decided to make this my theme. I coloured my meringue mixture with food colouring paste so as not to thin the mix too much, and then piped it into rounds.



I was nervous about getting the consistency right, but I guess I struck lucky this time as I managed to get 2 trays of well-near-perfect mauve domes of batter. I didn't bother taking a picture of the third tray... in the process of scraping out the bowl I had obviously knocked all the air from the batter so the last piping-bag full just dribbled out and the macarons spread into eachother in a delightfully messy, but decidedly un-Laduree style!



A couple of the macarons cracked a little in the oven, and a few of them browned very slightly too (next time I will cook them at a lower temperature for a bit longer) but most were fine, and had developed the distinctive macaron 'foot' at the base.



Once cooled, I sandwiched each pair together with the bramble and apple jam - making sure to squidge at least one whole blackberry into each one - and a white chocolate ganache that I had made by simply melting some white chocolate with a splash of cream. Filling them is a delicate job, so I warmed the ganache slightly to make it easier to spread without cracking the macarons.



Then I just sat back and admired them. Pride may be a deadly sin, but I couldn't help feeling just a little bit proud of these.



They are so beautiful, I couldn't resist indulging in a little food-posing... how lovely they look with my purple tulips!



And look, they go well with blue hyacinths too!



And how do they taste? Gorgeous. Crispy on the outside, deliciously squidgy on the inside. I couldn't be more pleased. My mind is already buzzing with ideas for other flavours and colours... watch this space.

There are lots of macaron recipes out there as a quick Google search will testify, but I went for a combination of two which seemed to work for me. Here is what I did:

3 large egg whites, aged
1tsp egg-white powder (I used Meriwhite)
1/2 tsp fine salt
50g granulated sugar (I used vanilla sugar)

200g icing sugar
110g ground almonds

In a bowl whip the egg whites, egg-white powder and salt to a foam using an electric-whisk, then gradually add the vanilla sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue. Add colouring paste if desired at this stage. Combine the almonds and icing sugar in a bowl and use a hand whisk to combine the two, breaking up any lumps. (You could also do this in a food processor, but I couldn't be bothered to add to the washing-up.) Add the sugary almond mix to the meringue, and fold it in confidently using a metal spoon. The whole process should only take a few strokes. I found the many hints and tips about the ideal consistency downright terrifying - it shouldn't be too firm otherwise you will get a 'beak' on top of the macarons, but too well-folded and the macarons will spread) so I erred on the side of too firm, figuring that I could always smooth the tops down when I had piped them (which as it happened was not necessary).

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds onto lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit for an hour or so to firm up slightly. Opinion is divided as to whether this is necessary, but I ended up letting mine sit uncooked for about 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 300F/150C - but I would lower this next time, to perhaps 250F/120C. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on their size. Let them cool completely before filling. Pipe or spoon some of your filling on one shell and sandwich with another one.

Makes about 50 macaron halves, so assume about 20 'perfect' sandwiched macarons, with a few mistakes which are just perfect for tasting!

Bon appetit!