Macarons
Macarons are tricky. There’s no getting around it, but it’s what makes them special. This Italian meringue technique helps to stabilise the sugar and egg white to give you a fighting chance.
Ingredients
For the macarons
- 170g/6oz icing sugar
- 160g/5¾oz ground almonds
- 120g/4¾oz egg whites (from 3-4 medium free-range eggs), divided
- 160g/5¾oz granulated sugar
- 1 tsp powdered raspberry-pink food colouring (or other colour of your choice)
For the raspberry chocolate ganache filling
- 120ml/4fl oz double cream
- 110g/3¾oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 25g/1oz unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 75g/2½oz raspberry jam
Method
Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3½.
Line 2 large baking trays with greaseproof paper. (A clever thing to do is to have a template with evenly spaced circles that you can slip under the greaseproof paper when piping the macarons; then you can just slide it out when you are finished and re-use it.)
Blend the icing sugar and ground almonds together in a food processor until really smooth. Sift the mixture into a bowl. If there are quite a few big pieces of almond, tip it back into the food processor and pulse it a few more times.
Sift the almond mixture into a bowl and stir in two of the egg whites to form a smooth paste.
Whisk the remaining two egg whites in the bowl of a freestanding mixer until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.
Meanwhile, stir 50ml/2fl oz water and the sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil until it reaches 118C/244F (check this with a sugar thermometer).
While whisking the egg whites on high speed, slowly pour in the sugar syrup, being careful not to pour the hot syrup onto the beaters as it could splash up. Continue whisking for a few minutes until the meringue has cooled slightly, and is warm, but not hot, to the touch. The meringue should be glossy, and form beautiful peaks when the whisk is removed. Whisk in the pink food colouring until the meringue is evenly coloured.
Fold the meringue into in the almond mixture until smooth (be careful not to overmix). Spoon the mixture into piping bags and pipe 4cm/1½in rounds onto the baking trays. Knock the trays hard on the work top to get any big bubbles to rise to the surface and pop.
The macarons must stand for 20–30 minutes before going into the oven as it helps to form a skin. (The macarons can rest for 1–2 hours.)
Bake for 13–15 minutes until risen and set.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Carefully peel the macarons off the greaseproof paper.
For the raspberry ganache filling, heat the double cream in a saucepan until just boiling, then remove from the heat.
Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
Stir in the butter and raspberry jam. Spoon the ganache into piping bags and set aside to cool.
Pipe a small amount of ganache onto half of the macarons and sandwich together with the remaining macarons.
Recipe Tips
There are several problem points you will want to take extra care on.
Ensure the ground almonds are very fine so there are no heavy speckles in the macarons. Sieve out any big bits before mixing in the egg whites.
Weigh the egg whites: eggs can differ a lot in terms of size and weight.
Be precise with your temperatures on the sugar syrup, and pour it down the inside of the bowl so as not to knock the air out of the meringue. Beat the meringue for at least 4 minutes so it can cool and stabilise.
If you have gel food colouring, this will also work well.
Finally, don’t skip drying the macarons before baking!
You can change the filling for a plain chocolate ganache, a white chocolate ganache, or a simple flavoured whipped cream.
