How to...

...make macarons: A Masterclass.

First, lets reveal the beast of a birthday present:




Method:

The ingredients (from left to right): dark chocolate, double cream, ground almonds, butter, icing sugar, caster sugar, eggs, red food colouring.

Background: pestle and mortar, 70's spice rack, stonebaked kitchen tiles.

Liquid refreshment for the pâtissier

Seperate the whites into a bowl...

... and reserve the yolks to make Hollandaise/Bearnaise sauce

Carefully measure the ground almonds and icing sugar

and sift together. The idea is to get a fine mixture but that meant I had to ground the almonds up and I couldn't be bothered so I abandoned this step half way through and dumped everything in au naturel but this shows up in the final product.

Whisk the eggwhites on medium, and gradually add the granulated sugar...

... until it forms soft peaks (the peaks will collapse gently when pulled)

Add some food colouring (nope, I didn't cut myself; and yes, I thought of the orginal unabridged Snow White story where her mother cuts her finger and 3 drops of blood fall into the snow)

Whisk the coloured egg whites until it forms stiff peaks. The peaks should now hold their shape when pulled.

Now add the ground almonds/icing sugar mixture, and fold in with deft movements. The air will escape and the end product should look like this:

and have the consistency of magma.

transfer mixture into pastry bag. (Note the coarse bits of the ground almonds)

Pipe onto a baking sheet with Swiss precision...

... then leave to air for about 1 hour so a skin forms on the macaron shells.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins at 160°c.

Meanwhile, we prepare the ganache. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces in a mixing bowl.

Transfer the double cream to a saucepan and gently bring to the boil.

Pour the hot cream onto the broken chocolate pieces and stir vigourously.

Then add a knob of softened butter and mix until fully incorporated.

See the glossy sheen this has now achieved? Leave to cool and set for 30 mins to an hour.

Remove the macaron shells from the oven (note the flecks of coarse ground almond)

Turn onto a cooling rack to cool before filling with the chocolate ganache.

I forgot to take pictures of the filling process (because I was now on Beer # 3), but I think you get the idea: fill pastry bag with chocolate ganache, pipe into one shell and sandwich with the other half. Chill in fridge and eat next day with gusto.

Verdict: Not Bad at all. Next time I will grind the almonds down to a finer consistency, and I will leave the egg whites out to age for a day or two as this reduces the water content and allows the macaron shell to retain a more chewy consistency. I would also add more colouring so the red/dark chocolate contrast is more striking, and I will definitely experiment with other flavour combinations. However, for a first attempt I hereby declare this a Success.