Well, I got on the macaron baking bug a couple of weeks ago, starting with a recipe I got off a trusted blog (refer to my first post
here). It could be considered a success and I was exhilarated.
On the second attempt however, my macarons flopped big time, deflating literally, including my ego as well. I pressed ahead, marketing them as meringue sandwiches instead :) After all, I made really yummy salted caramel, courtesy of Pierre Herme, for the filling. I say, anything with that damn caramel would be tasty!
But secretly, I was disappointed with the results. I refused to say die and tried baking the damn 'rons for the third time, just one day after. This time, I made some slight modifications. Luckily, third time's a charm and them salted caramel macarons turned out relatively unscathed. Not the best, but definitely not a disaster.
Inspired by the "new" recipe, I embarked on my fourth macaron baking attempt. Out came my spanking new bottles of rose and lychee flavorings and with a tiny touch of red food coloring, I got lovely rose shells and a lychee buttercream. I am fairly confident the modified recipe is relatively fail proof (barring any uncontrollable acts of God a.k.a. atmospheric and weather conditions of course) and here I'm sharing with you so you can go forth and start your own macaron obsessions.
Ingredients for shells (makes 10-12 macarons)
75 grams finely ground almond (I bought mine from Phoon Huat)
75 grams icing sugar
56 grams aged egg white (egg white that had been left out at room temperature for at least 2 days)
red food coloring (1 tsp for liquid, 1 tip of a toothpick if you are using powder)
1 tsp rose flavoring
75 grams granulated sugar
19 grams plain water
1. Sift ground almonds and icing sugar together into a medium size mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Place egg white into a stainless steel mixing bowl. Add red food coloring and rose flavor into the egg white, and start whisking on medium until lightly frothy and soft peaks are formed. Set aside and start preparing sugar syrup.
3. Place granulated sugar with water in a saucepan that is easily managed as you need to pour the syrup into your egg white mixture.
4. Boil on low heat until sugar is melted and a thick syrup is formed. Strictly speaking, you want to achieve a soft-ball candy stage (about 114C) but in the absence of a food thermometer, I find you can eye-ball it.
5. When you get a thick syrup with a consistency almost in between maple syrup and honey, remove from heat immediately and slowly drizzle down the sides of your mixing bowl containing the egg whites, continuously whisking on medium speed.
6. After all the syrup has been incorporated, turn up the speed to high, beat for another 3-4 minutes until the egg whites become glossy and stiff peaks are formed. The true test is to turn the mixing bowl upside down, nothing should move or fall out.
7. Whisk in 1/4 egg white into your dry ingredients and blend until a thick paste is formed.
8. Repeat with another 1/4 egg white and slowly start to lighten the paste with a "folding and turning" motion.
9. Do the same with another 1/4 egg white and your paste should slowly be more lava-like. Before you add the last 1/4 egg white, test your batter's consistency. If you scoop and drop some batter, does it disappear slowly say in 15 seconds? If yes, you are good. If no, add a bit more egg white to further lighten up the batter. If the converse is true, i.e. the batter disappears very quickly (in like 5 seconds), you have over beaten the batter and you will not have success. Don't throw out the mixture - bake them as you would and you have made almond meringue cookies :)
10. Once your batter is ready, put them into a piping bag and a 0.9cm to 1cm tip. Pipe them about 1.5 inches (I use the length of time I used to say "1,2,3") and about 1.5 inches apart. They will spread slightly. I bought Silpats which are God-send except they don't exactly fit into my oven properly. I only recently found they sell non-stick baking paper (I bought mine at Phoon Huat as well). DON'T USE REGULAR PARCHMENT PAPER unless you want to send them into the trash bin :)
11. Most bakers reecommend banging the sheet of piped macarons a few hundred times to remove the air bubbles. I tried doing it, and not doing it. The 'banged' ones turned out flatter with a smoother surface. The 'unbanged' ones didn't spread out as much and had a more rounded look but a rougher surface. Take your pick.
12. Leave the macarons to air until a skin is formed. In the Singapore environment, I leave them out for at least 50 minutes. Touch them lightly and they should not stick to your fingers. That's when they are ready. Meantime, you can prepare your buttercream (see below).
13. Preheat oven right about 45 minutes into your waiting game. This will save you some electricity. Preheat oven to 160C and then bake your macarons for about 14-15 minutes. They are done when you touch them and they are lightly springy. For the flatter macarons, bake them ~1 minute less.
14. Remove from oven when ready and let cool completely before filling them shells with the buttercream.
Ingredients for Lychee Buttercream
120 grams unsalted butter, softened
1.5 tsp lychee flavoring
3 cups of icing sugar
1. Beat butter with 2 cups of sugar and lychee flavoring.
2. add more sugar if neccessary to achieve a good frosting consistency.
15. Identify similar sized shells and start pairing them side by side.
16. Pipe (or if you are lazy like me, use a teaspoon) a generous dollop of buttercream down the middle of the one side of the shell. "Kiap" with other shell.
17. Age in the fridge overnight. The shells will soften and meld with the cream and you will have a lovely lovely macaron to eat.
