French Macarons - a Study in Shells

image courtesy of Laduree - famous famous famous

Ah, this has probably been the most difficult thing I have ever made... Having said that, it was the actual reason I decided it was worth learning how to do: it was difficult. I am a sucker for a challenge!  An elusive cooking technique that would take time to understand, let alone master?  More than I could resist.

The French can make boiling water look difficult.  To watch videos from Pierre Hermé made this seem an impossible feat.  I researched on the internet, surfed blog after blog, bought numerous Kindle books on the topic and finally just decided that it was all hype.  Nothing but fluff about fluff...

What I came to realize is that while the technique is veiled in mystery and all kinds of ideas that seem more like superstition to me than anything else, the actual process of making macarons is all science. And while it is only a handful of simple ingredients, everything about the recipe depends on your environment.  Sound at all familiar?  

There was one recipe my mother and grandmothers used to make that really did depend on the weather and that was meringue.  As it turns out, macarons are actually just meringues mixed with ground almonds. No big deal, right? Right. No big deal.  

Let's attempt to demystify and simplify this hyped up little treasure...  I saw a u tube video of the daftest ding dong of a girl make these her first try and it validated all I already suspected: the Frenchies are on crack (just kidding Frenchies, I love you!). These are not only easy to make but they are truly fun and terribly addictive, so beware. The only thing you will have to work hard at is to not devour them before you have finished making your first batch. Seriously. Powerfully attractive little buggers but worth every bit of effort.

For this lesson, a Study in Shells, we will focus on just the cookie part and once we have that mastered, we can talk about filling. Trouble is, I can't keep them in the house long enough to need a filling... :)

Ingredients:

• 165 g of powdered sugar
• 165 g of  whole almonds or almond flour
• 115 g egg whites (room temperature) beaten to stiff peaks
• 150 g organic granulated sugar mixed well with 
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter and pinch of salt

Process:

Resting shells, not quite ready for baking... still too shiny.

1. Process almonds and powdered sugar and set aside. **Don't let it process too long or the heat from the motor can turn this into almond butter. Instead, pulse the almonds and sugar until it is as fine as you can get it. If you want to use a sifter to catch the larger bits, that is a good idea, if you care about that. I don't bother.
2. Mix granulated sugar, pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer or mixing bowl, beat room temperature egg whites to medium peaks.
4. Slowly sprinkle in the sugar/salt/cream of tartar mixture and continue to beat until stiff and shiny peaks form.
5. Turn mixer to the lowest speed and slowly sprinkle in the almond/sugar mixture.  This is also a good time to add your food  coloring gel, if you are coloring your shells. We will get into flavoring agents in a later post. Right now, let's just work on getting some good shells.
6. Turn off mixer and fill your piping bag with batter.
7. Pipe rounds about the size of a quarter to start. You can go bigger or smaller but we need a frame of reference and I find this size to be about perfect for me.  You will see what I mean. On your last sheet, try a couple of different sizes to see what works best for you.
8. Pipe everything at once so skins form on the shells. 

Hint: The shells go from very shiny to very dull and don't stick to your fingers if set.

Baking:

Bake at 275-280 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes.  

This is my sweet spot for my particular oven. I have tried so many different temps and baking times and this was what 3 months of effort yielded for me. :) Try it first and alter it if you must. You may have no choice if your oven is at all finicky or unpredictable.

Lessons I had to learn because I was a non-believer:

1. To make almond "flour". I use whole almonds from Costco and don't worry one bit about the skins on the almonds. Makes not a bit of difference so save yourself some money and make your own "almond flour".  That's just another way of saying: finely ground almonds.
2. Egg whites should be at room temperature for best results.
3. To get properly formed "feet", you must let the shells rest for at least 10-15 minutes, maybe longer, if you have high humidity. The shells need to dry out a bit so they form a skin. This allows the shells to lift or rise properly during the baking.  If yours crack or look a tad volcanic, it is likely due to missing this minor, but important resting step.
4. Pipe them all at the same time. Sounds crazy but it is easier. I cut parchment paper to fit my pan and cut 4 or 5 more pieces the same size so I can line them all on the countertop or table and pipe them in one go.  They dry properly and your batter won't deflate in between pipings.  It's meringue, remember, so pipe it while it's fluffy.
5. Your oven is different than mine so temperature here is relative. Arggg.  I know. But here is the deal: Bake your first batch at 275 degrees. Then try 280 if those don't turn out the way you think they should. Suffer a cook's guilt and test one by eating one or twenty to see what the texture is like. Test again after they have cooled. My best macarons are done between 275-280 F.  I've tried starting low, rotating trays, turning it up high. Nonsense.  Unnecessary if you find the right temperature for your oven.
6. May sound like a pain, but bake only 1 sheet at a time, middle rack, until you get the hang of it. I can't seem to bake multiple sheets and still get good feet without a lot of fussing. I can't handle it so go one sheet at a time.
7. Parchment is actually better than silpats.  I love silpats but can't afford to buy 6 and parchment paper is divine. It can be reused until it can't... I know, they say it can't but it's another industry fib, like how some clothes can't be washed and have to be dry cleaned. Whatever.  Not only does it work fine for many batches of macarons but the shells leave marks which can help you learn to be consistent with your piping. Just pipe onto the same circles your first batch of macarons left behind.
8. Piping - do not get French fancy. Keep your piping bag and tip straight up and down and pipe directly then pull straight up. If you have a peak, just tap it down once the shells have rested.  In time, you can learn to pipe straight up and down the drag to the side to keep the tail or peak from forming but in the beginning, just do your best to keep the shell round and even; that will be hard enough if you've never used a piping bag before. My mother in law said my first ones looked like terds... Nice. But she was right. Don't worry about it. They don't taste like terds... LOL!
9. Piping bags - great but totally unnecessary. Load your batter into a gallon zip lock bag, zip the bag almost all the way to let air escape. Twist the end to keep it all compressed towards one of the bag corner-ends and snip the tip off the bag when you are ready to go. Just be sure you are ready... ;)
10. Weigh your ingredients exactly. I mean, exactly as if someone were grading you on it.  Exact measurements (don't groan :) is key to doing it right. Weighing is important because it is an exact ratio of ingredients and each ingredient weighs differently.  Do you know how many cups of almonds are equal to 165 g of almonds? EXACTLY. Neither the hell do I! :) Weigh it, my friend.
11. Save your egg yolks for making Zoku pudding pops, TexMex Valley Lemon Curd or Gelato. :)

Zoku Crazy

Don't these look yummy?  I've been learning to make French Macarons, a treat I enjoyed on my recent visit to Paris.  One of the excellent by products of practicing a pastry technique you may never ever master is having an abundance of egg yolks left over from separating out egg whites.

The egg whites are used for the macaronnage lessons I am faithfully attempting on the weekends.  I typically need 4 egg whites and wind up with 4 egg yolks with nothing to do... until this.

I recently bought a Zoku Popsicle maker from Sur la Table in Minneapolis.  There was a self proclaimed "Zoku Queen" in house at the time who gave me such lively encouragement on this new kitchen device that I quickly gobbled up two of the little units. One for myself, a Zoku Queen-in-the-Making, and one for some friends of mine who were visiting at the time.  They have six amazing children who could surely make this successful even if I couldn't.

It takes a little practice but the most important aspect is to have a good recipe with all natural ingredients.  This post is for my Mom, who wanted the perfect ice cream base for her new ice cream maker and for Noelle, one of the kids who seemed to enjoy the Zoku machine from the start.  Noelle, in case you haven't found the perfect recipe yet, let me share mine with you:

Vanilla Pudding - World's Best Ice Cream Base:
4 egg yolks
1 cup of Organic Whole Milk
1 cup of Organic Heavy Cream
1/3 cup of sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out or 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Flavoring Additions:

• 2 tbsp of cocoa powder (I used Black Cocoa Powder from King Arthur but use what you like best) for making a luscious chocolate flavor like above 

OR

• 2-4 tbsp or organic fruit preserves such as strawberry, cherry or apricot

Directions and a little encouragement:

First of all, this is a "cooked" ice cream base that is really just homemade pudding.  I know you can buy pudding in a box, but really, if you want to really cook, you will try this way just once. I promise you, you will never be fooled by pudding in a box again.

Find a glass or metal bowl that will nest in the top of a soup or stockpot.  My kitchenaid mixing bowl works great for me and the bowl should fit the pot underneath but not touch the bottom of the pot. This is very important because what we are doing is creating a double boiler.  The point is that the bottom pot holds about 2-3 inches of water which will gently simmer but it must not actually come in contact with your mixing bowl or your mixture and mixing bowl will get too hot. Because we are using eggs, think about what would happen if the bowl of eggs got boiled... You would end up with scrambled egg popcicles, kinda yucky. So just make sure that the water can't touch your bowl and you are set.  

1. Put all the above ingredients into your mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly to incorporate the ingredients well. (Cocoa can be added at this time too. For jams, etc, add them last and wait until after the pudding has cooled.)
2. Add about 2-3 inches of water to the bottom of your simmering pot.
3. Set your "double boiler" pot and nested mixing bowl on the stove over medium heat and allow the water to begin to simmer. It doesn't need more heat than this.  This creates enough heat to cook the eggs more slowly over a lower heat so they don't curdle or scramble.
4. Stir constantly, do not change the tv, wash your hands, go to the bathroom, nothing. Just stir constantly.  It will take about 15-20 minutes but when it begins to thicken, it happens very fast which is why you need to stir the mixture at all times.
5. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon, take it off the pot and allow to cool down. It will continue to thicken as it cools. 

**Tip:  Transfer to a squeeze bottle with a fine tip if you will make Zoku pops. Makes it easier to fill the popcicles quickly and cleanly as you need to put the sticks in right away before the pops freeze too hard.  If making ice cream, transfer it to a storage jar and keep in the fridge until it is cold. 

**Remember, ice cream maker inserts need to be frozen for 24 hours before they can make a good ice cream. Same is true for the Zoku Popsicle maker.

Why the pudding? Well, this is the real secret between a good ice cream and an AWESOME ice cream. In fact, in Europe this is the only way ice cream is usually made. This is often referred to as "Gelato".  Gelato is made from a custard (pudding for us Americans) base and custards use cooked eggs in their base.  Most American ice creams don't do the cooking step because well, ice cream makers are lazy and looking for ways to streamline the process and that is why our ice cream isn't really as good as the Europeans. Sorry, America, it's true.  

But all this means really is that you simply need to make a pudding first.  Like I said, if you do it once on the stove yourself, you will be so well rewarded that you will not want to try it using a box pudding and it is likely that your first batch of pudding will never see an ice cream freezer or popcicle maker either. It's that good.

This is really two secret weapons in one so give it a try.