Macarons, Black sesame & green tea
16 November 2009
29 Comments
To say that I have a little bit of an obsessive nature is an understatement. I’m one those annoying people that if I don’t know how to do something, I’ll keep trying until I get it right. Once I get it right, I keep doing it until I get sick of it. Unfortunately for my family and friends, throughout the last couple of weeks, the subject of my obsession was macaron.
Since finally making succesful batches of macaron, I decided to test my luck to ensure that the results of my Daring Baker’s Challenge wasn’t a fluke. One saturday evening, I decided to put my macaron making skills to the test. With each perfect (in my opinion) looking macaron coming out of the oven, I got more confident and experimental, incorporating colours and substituting almond meal for sesame, green tea powder, cocoa powder and coconut. Before I knew it, my kitchen was covered with almond meal, powdered food colouring and sticky icing sugar. However the mess did yield 6 batches of macaron which I filled with vanilla buttercream.
Succesful batches of macaron
Recipe- Adapted from Tartelette’s (yields approximately 40 mini macarons)
- 110gm almond meal
- 200gm icing sugar
- 3 egg whites
- 30gm caster sugar
Method:
- 3 days prior to baking the macaron, separate the white from the egg yolk. Allow it to age in the regrigerator by covering it with a cloth or paper towel. On the day of baking, remove from the fridge and allow egg white to reach room temperature before whisking.
- Whisk egg whites till it reaches a soft peak, gradually incorporate the caster sugar while beating. Whisk till a stiff peak is achieved (about 3 minutes of medium speed).
- Add 1/3 of the previously sifted almond meal and icing sugar into the egg white. With a spatula, mix the mixture, adding the remaining 2/3 of the mixture as you go. Continue mixing until the mixture is well incorporated and is of magma consistency.
- Pipe the mixture onto baking paper, leaving a gap of 2.5cm between each circle. Allow the macaronage to sit for half an hour, this dries out the outer layer- thus when baked forms a crispy shell.
- Pre-heat fan forced oven to 120 degrees celsius.
- Upon lightly touching the top of the piped macronage, the mixture should not stick to your finger. Once this has been achieved, bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
For the black sesame and coconut shells, I susbtituted 55gms of almond meal for either ground lightly roasted sesame or coconut.
Howard’s attempt
Macaron with a bunion
Intrigued by my obsession, Howard decided to give macaron making a go for the first time. Pulling the tray out of the oven, we were in stitches with what he produced. With the help of Twitter, Helen aptly named it “Macaron with a bunion.”
Afetr all my trials and tribulations, my only advice would be to stick to the original recipe. A couple of lessons which I learned throughout my macaron making journey were:
- Pasteurised egg whites purchased in cartons from the supermarket cannot be beaten/whipped. I found this out after half an hour of beating.
- Making Italian meringue without a candy thermometer is plain asking for trouble.
- Squating with your nose stuck to the oven door during the baking process does not improve the outcome of your macaron.
Upon completion of my macaron exorcism, I’m left with 30 egg yolks in the freezer. Besides ice cream and creme brulee, what would you recommend I use the egg yolk for?
Yas
Karen
Ellie
Belle@OohLook
Helen (Grab Your Fork)
chocolatesuze
Y
Simon
Trissa
Jacq
Tina
Howard
Mr. Taste
Dungies || 
Betty
Steph
Mrs Ergül
linda
purpaboo
alice
Phuoc || 
restaurantgroupie
Annapet
I am gonna use your recipe! I’ve been having bad luck with macarons lately. and I have set myself to do 99 macarons for my friend’s wedding too!! Oh no the pressure…. and I havent even got it right! I am soooo gonna fail.