Macaron Party

It is not entirely a secret that I love baking and I have made macarons for some of the parties I've been invited to. So it wasn't really surprising when one of my university friends asked if I would teach her how to make macarons. I had never before taken the time to teach someone to bake, so I readily agreed and invited her over to my kitchen. Then another class mate overheard and said that she would also love to learn how to make them. I invited her too. In discussing the process and logistics, another friend overheard. The third person was critical mass for me and so I invited all the girls in the Masters maths class to join in on a Macaron Party, as well as a few other friends. 

Music from Phantom of the Opera playing in the background, we set to work making a macaron feast. We made raspberry, pistachio, chocolate and lemon. There are bowls of white and dark chocolate ganache, along with the bowls of almond and egg white, featured in the picture above. We also made lemon curd for the lemon macarons. The recipe for macarons that we made can be found in my Halloween Macarons post. It took the whole of the morning and most of the afternoon with a brief recess for a simple lunch of Spaghetti Pomodoro and another for an oven malfunction. 

It was a fantastic bonding experience and fast-tracked that awkward getting to know each other phase that new class mates would ordinarily have to go through. While I don't necessarily think any of them will attempt the recipe at home, at least they will be a little more appreciative of the magnitude of the effort it takes the next time they eat a macaron. 

Halloween Macarons

Macarons are difficult. Why do I carry on making them? Temperamental, glorified cookies.

I'll tell you why.

It's because they're fabulous. Pretentious, classy and also fun. And, you can say to people, "yeah, I can make them," with a smug tone. I made these for a Halloween party. I didn't have black food colouring, so I used a combination of blue, red and a smidge of yellow. Plus a healthy dose of cocoa. The orange ones were easier with just red and yellow. I filled the black chocolate ones with raspberry preserve. Pretty decent stuff from Woolworths. The orange ones got chopped peaches and double cream.

Making macarons requires a strategy. You have to be sure you have enough time; be sure you have enough egg white; be sure you know how to get the right colour. And even more important: know thine oven. Learning to make macarons is a trial and error process, but then, even when you've done it a million time, it can still go wrong. 

Vindictive little buggers.

I'll be helping my friends sister make them after my exams in about a month, so there shall be more detailed instructions forthcoming. These instructions will be pretty detailed anyway.

Step 1: Grind the Almonds

135g ground almonds

135g icing sugar

50g egg white

I know the almonds are already ground. Grind it again. Together with the icing sugar. Sift. Discard the bits that don't get through. Add the egg white and the food colouring. Mix mix mix. Cover with cling film and set aside.

Step 2: Making the Italian Meringue
135g sugar
30g water

50g egg white

Put the sugar and the water in a small saucepan and put on medium heat. You'll need a sugar thermometer. Stir until the sugar dissolves then don't stir again. Keep track of the temperature. When it reaches 110 degrees, start beating the egg white with an electric mixer. When the sugar reaches 118 degrees, remove from the heat. Add to the egg whites, while continuously beating on medium speed, in a thin (not too thin) stream. You won't get all the sugar. Don't stress about it. Put the beater on high speed and continue beating until the egg white cools to luke warm.

Scoop in the beaten egg white and fold in. This is the truly tricky bit. Mix until everything is incorporated, but don't over-mix or it will be too runny. Test the mixture on a plate by dropping a spoonful on it. Wait 30 secs. If there's still a peak give it a few more stirs. If it breaks it's circular shape, I'm sorry, but you'll have to try again. Unbaked, failed macaroon mixture makes a great semi-freddo base. Just add double cream.

Pipe the rounds onto non-stick baking paper. Allow to crust for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Bake in a pre-heated oven (160-170 degrees; it depends on your oven, but it has to be a convection oven, no fan assists) for 7-9min. Keep your eye on it. When/if you see the "feet", breathe a sight of relief.

Macaron chilling on the window sill.