Making macarons like a pro

I am going out on a limb here and declaring that I have eaten the best macarons ever.  Oui, ever, even including the ones I've had in Paris at some very chic and famous shops.
It all started a few weeks ago when a student, LK, brought some in for her classmates.

Her mom, Amy Tornquist, is a local chef and restaurant owner (Hummingbird Bakery, Watts Grocery, Sage and Swift).  (Dad is also a chef and quite an accomplished artist.). LK made these macarons with their pastry chef, Susie.  I asked if Susie would be willing to give me a lesson and LK responded that her mom was thinking about offering a macaron making class.  Just a week or so later, the email popped up in my box and I immediately signed up.
It was a small class.  There were only 8 or so of us.  Arles Lucy signed up, as did Iron Woman.  Two mothers of students and one grandmother were also there.
Introductions were made-

And Susie, in the hat, and crew set about showing us the how-tos.
First, a tamis, also known as a drum sieve, comes in handy for getting all the lumps out of the ground almonds, confectioner's sugar and cocoa.  It was suggested that perhaps on my next trip to Paris I should go to E. Dehillerin or another shop to find one.  And I have to confess that I've never been to that shop even though Julia Child wrote about it often.  (now on the agenda for the January trip)
Then some eggs whites were added to the almond meal mixture-

This mixture should be about the consistency of Play-doh, for those of you who remember getting your hands in that as a kid.  Thick.
Next comes the step that I was curious about.  Would Susie use French meringue or Italian?  Italian. This consists of heating water and sugar to make a syrup, then adding that to egg whites and beating it into stiff, glossy peaks.

This meringue is added to the almond mixture by thirds to make sure not to add too much.  It is hard, if not impossible, to go back and add more almond flour if the batter becomes too thin.  This meringue doesn't have to be folded or handled gently.  The egg whites are very stable.
The batter should now look like melted ice cream, but thicker.

It is now ready for the pastry bag.  It was great to get pastry bag handling tips from pros.  I feel much more confident now.  I am usually a mess after dealing with a pastry bag.  A round tip with a fairly large opening works best.  And it may sound silly to have to say this, but I didn't know so here goes... fold down the top of the pastry bag so that if it gets messy, it's okay because you are going to pull it back up before you pipe!

Now, to pipe.  LK is really good at this and showed us how to do it.

Susie has a sheet of parchment paper that she uses as a template.  She traced around a jar of sprinkles to get the proper size and she puts the template under another sheet of parchment so that she can see the circles and not mess up her template.  Genius, n'est-ce pas?  I had previously tried to pipe in circles.  Nope.  Just put the tip down, squeeze the pastry bag and when the cookie is the right size, staying just inside the circle, lift up the tip.  (In The Kings of Pastry, Jacquy makes little noises as he does this-- LK reminded me of this and said it might help! I showed this movie to my 7th grade classes last year and they loved it and at least one of them remembers it.)
The macarons now need to sit for 15-20 minutes to "dry."  They go from shiny to a matte finish and when they are ready you can touch them without getting dough on your fingers.

Susie's husband showed me a trick to not waste a bit of the macaron dough/batter.  Use a pastry scraper.

Next, in the oven, then allow them to cool before peeling them from the parchment paper.
Fill with whatever you wish-- buttercream, ganache, fruit jam, Nutella.  The sky is the limit here.
LK was filling these with a peanut butter buttercream.

She also made some with buttercream around the edges and then chocolate ganache in the middle. The cookies should now go in the freezer.  Yep, that's right.  That helps bring out the flavor.  I left mine in overnight, but Susie says they should be in for at least an hour.
We were given ganache to take home and fill ours with, but we were asked to sample Susie's creations made the day before.  Sigh.  Someone has to do it, you know.

Crummy photo-- focused on my hand and not the macaron, but who can blame me?  I wanted to get back to my taste test.  Salted caramel, candied peanuts and chocolate were involved here, people.
I ate both of them.

We then tasted one that we had just baked and LK had filled with the peanut butter buttercream.  (Again, sorry for the crummy photo...)

It was delicious, but I could indeed tell the difference.  The flavors hadn't had time to meld and the cookie was crunchier than the first two that had spent some time in the freezer.  (Allowed to thaw, of course.)
Susie's husband was in my group.  He is a great piper.  Very steady hands.

My little macarons were given out to a few good friends who seemed to truly enjoy them.  That's the joy of baking... making people happy with little bites of deliciousness.

I got a little sloppy with the ganache.  Must do better next time.
(I have a bowl of egg whites in my refrigerator this very minute liquifying so that I can give it a try again, this time with Italian meringue.  I am thinking pink ones with a buttercream/raspberry jam filling.)

Susie's Chocolate Macarons
(if you do not want to make chocolate cookies, leave out the cocoa; if you want to color them, use gel coloring added to the egg whites so that you are not adding too much liquid)

212 g almond flour
212 g confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder

Sift these ingredients in order to remove lumps.

82 g egg whites (separate them and let them sit for at least 24 hours-- you need 172 g total for the macarons)

Add the egg whites to the almond-sugar mixture and mash it in until it is the consistency of Play-doh.  Don't add too much- it's hard to go back and add more almond flour at this point without making the batter lumpy.

236 g granulated sugar
158 g water

Heat the water and sugar to 238˚F.  Use a candy thermometer to get the precise temperature.  Do not let the thermometer touch the bottom of the pot, though, or you will get a false reading.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat 90 g of egg whites with a pinch of sugar until soft peaks form.  After 5 minutes, add the syrup and mix until stiff peaks form.  Err on the side of too stiff, if in doubt.

Add about one-third of the meringue to the almond-sugar-egg mixture and mix well with a spatula. You do not have to be gentle.  Add another third and keep mixing until the mixture looks kind of like melted ice cream, but still rather thick.  Better too thick than too thin.  (If you have leftover meringue, you can bake them into meringue cookies later!)

Fit your pastry bag with a round tip (#806) and pipe onto parchment paper.  Allow the macarons to sit until the finish goes from shiny to matte, about 15-20 minutes.

Bake at 325˚F for 13+ minutes, according to your oven's temperature.

Take them out, let them cool on the parchment paper and then peel them off.  Fill them and place in the freezer overnight or for at least an hour.

For chocolate ganache:

300 grams (12 oz) superior quality dark chocolate
225 grams (9 oz) heavy cream
90 grams (4 oz) butter, cut in small pieces

Chop the chocolate into very small pieces. Put into bowl. In a saucepan, heat the cream to boiling point. Remove from heat and pour slowly over the chocolate. Stir gently until the chocolate melts, then add the bits of butter, one at a time, stirring gently and continually until the chocolate starts to thicken. Pour into the shells. Let cool before eating.

Bon appétit et merci Susie, Amy and LK!  I sincerely hope that I got this right.  Happy Macaron-Making!

Macaron dreams

So, I must be feeling better-- back in my plate, dans mon assiette, because last night I dreamed of macarons.  Not just any macarons.  Pierre Hermé and his macarons.  The photo here is proudly stuck to the front whiteboard of my classroom.  Et oui... it is signed Pour Teresa.   He may only know me in my dreams, but he has written my name expressly for me one time.

My 8th grade students have to write thank you notes in French as part of their final exam.  I mail them and wait to see if anyone responds.  In 2012, several of them wrote to M. Hermé, thanking him for the macarons they tasted while in Paris.  He wrote back.  Sent a beautiful poster of all of his flavors and autographed photos. (Take that François Hollande, M. le Président, who didn't even acknowledge the letters.)

This year, just two weeks ago, I took those who wanted to do some quick power shopping to Galeries Lafayette while the other group went to the Catacombs.  (Yes, the boys and two brave girls went to see the skulls.) We had one hour before meeting the rest of the group for lunch.  That's really all one needs when a Longchamp purse and Pierre Hermé macarons are on the list.

I can tell you where to find both.  (The quickest place to get the purse- without body guards and a long line- is on the 4th floor near the luggage department and Pierre Hermé's shop is found in the basement, -1, with the shoes.)  I hate to shop, but I can make exceptions now and then.  Look for his logo.

http://www.pierreherme.com/storelocations/?city=France&name=Galeries+Lafayette%2C+Paris+9%C2%B0

Drool over all the flavors, but ultimately you have to choose.  I always feel hurried, but it doesn't really matter.

I explained to the young lady waiting on us that M. Hermé is a very nice man and I have an autographed photo to prove it.  She was quite impressed and said that she doesn't even have that.  Yes, I can be a bit of a braggart de temps en temps, from time to time.  (He does sign her paycheck, though, I suppose, so if it's a competition, she wins.)

My regret?  Not the euros that I spent on the beautiful cookies, if I dare call them that.  I gave them as gifts to my French daughters, one who always sacrifices her room for me.  I didn't buy the cookbook on display.  A Pierre and Dorie Greenspan collaboration.  Oh well.  La prochaine fois.  Next time.
One of the girlies shared her macarons with me, though, on the bus on our way to Normandy.  What a sweetheart.

Last night's dream?  Strange as usual.  But here you go.

I was with my students on our annual trip.  We didn't seem to be in Paris, though.  We were staying in a really cute hotel and it seems that we were on the Riviera, maybe Cannes or Nice.  I let the students loose to go shopping one afternoon and some of the girls and I went to Pierre Hermé's shop.  They bought their macarons, but just as it was my turn, the lady behind the counter said that it was time for a shift change and would I mind waiting.  I wandered around the shop and even found a comfy chair where I fell asleep.  When I woke up, all the macarons were sold and they were closing.  The lady told me to come back the next morning and I wouldn't be disappointed.  So, I went back to the hotel.  It was almost 9:00 pm and I had missed dinner at the hotel.  Some of the students were still in the dining room, though, as was Arles Lucy, my co-chaperone on this dream trip.  My Favorite Parisien was the tour manager and he fussed at me for missing a wonderful meal.  Of course.  He is French.  Missing a meal is a blasphemous.  I explained to the kids and to Arles Lucy what had happened.  They were under-impressed.

At this point in the dream, I woke up, looked at the clock (4:11 am) and decided to go back to sleep.
I resumed the dream.  (Don't you love that when you are in the middle of a really good one??)

Dream Part Deux:
I got up early and went back to the shop.  The shop keepers were all dressed in really cute black dresses, perfect make-up and hair.  I was the first one there.  As the ladies were filing into the shop from what I guessed was the kitchen, I watched.  Then, lo and behold, Pierre Hermé himself walked past me, touched me on the shoulder, and winked.  One of the shopkeepers started smearing a pink concoction onto a slice of brioche-type bread shaped like a teddy bear.  It looked divine.  Pierre watched me watch her and then he came over and told her to wrap that up for me, along with a cup of café nonna con crème.   I know that nonna is Italian for grandma.  The rest is just my jumbled up way of getting a cup of coffee with cream, café au lait or café crème.  Pierre bid me farewell with a kiss on the cheek and told me that he had to get back to work and that he hoped I enjoyed the rest of my stay in his country.
And I woke up at 6:15 am wondering if I should attempt rose or lemon macarons today.  Or maybe some using the confiture de lait that IronWoman found for me...I can make up my own!

I still haven't decided.  The eggs whites are sitting out, 110g of them, warming to room temperature.
More later.  Stay tuned.

Macarons made this past week by students and their dads.  I am always happy to sample!!
Pistachio

Peanut butter

Bon appétit and sweet dreams to all macaron-lovers!

Macarons and messes

Summer vacation is here-- we are already at the end of week 2, but who's counting, right?  I've done some cleaning, read a couple of books, visited my family up in the mountains, roamed around downtown Durham, and tried out some new recipes.  Yesterday, in order to stave off boredom and make good on a personal promise, I decided to tackle macaron-making for the second time.  My first ones were a flop, but I've learned a couple of things since then.  Use a coffee grinder to grind the almonds (no, these are not the coconut cookies that some Americans think of-- these are made with almonds) and let them rest on the baking sheets for 45-60 minutes before baking them.  (Chef Érick was making them when I popped into his kitchen one afternoon last March and offered up advice.)

That's the secret to the "feet" that you see in the first photo.
I made a caramel-salted butter filling for mine,

but that didn't go too well.  It tastes heavenly, but the macaron kept sliding off.  Not sure what went wrong, but the Ex-Ex loves the sauce.  It will be really good on vanilla ice cream.

So I went back to the filling drawing board, found a recipe for chocolate ganache filling and stirred that up.

And I gently filled the rest of the macarons (the cookies crush easily!)  After I had finished and used up all the macarons, the Ex-Ex made an excellent suggestion (but too late, unfortunately)-- a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom cookie, then a thin layer of caramel, then another thin layer of chocolate and then the top cookie. 

I have to admit that the whole time I was making them, I felt The Kings of Pastry, Chefs Jacqui and Sébastien, M.O.F., looking over my shoulder.  I tried making Chef Jacqui's funny noises as I piped the macaron batter onto the parchment paper.  (It didn't work out as well for me as it does for him-- guess I need more practice...)  Then, as I finished and looked at my countertops and the mess of confectioner's sugar, ground almonds, and egg shells, I could hear Chef Sébastien's (said with a French accent) Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness... to the guy whose work station and piping bag were a mess.  (I was attempting to pipe with a ziploc bag... I do not own very many kitchen do-dads or trucs so I attempt to make do with what I have.)

In my high school Home Ec classes (now called Family and Consumer Sciences) my grade always suffered because I made messes.  But I do clean up after myself.  Some French Guy wasn't much help.
I am pretty proud of my results this time.  The cookies are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Miam, miam to quote Carol of Paris Breakfasts!

Basic Macarons
(makes 30-40 cookies)

90 g egg whites (about 3 large), ideally placed in a bowl in the refrigerator for  2-3 days to liquify or age (they do not spoil the way the yolks do)
30 g granulated sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almond flour or almond meal

Combine almonds and powdered sugar in the food processor and pulse until finely ground and no lumps remain in the powdered sugar.  (I ground the almonds myself, first in the food processor and then in a coffee grinder, then I combined the two in the food processor.  I didn't toast the almonds first, but if I do this again, I will just to change the flavor a bit and make the almonds easier to work with.)
With an electric mixer, beat the eggs whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add granulated sugar and beat until meringue is really stiff.
With a rubber spatula, fold in 1/3 of the almond-sugar mixture, using quick, firm strokes.  You want to break up the meringue in this step.  Add remaining almond mixture, 1/3 at a time, using gentle stokes to fold until all almonds are incorporated and no lumps of meringue remain.  The batter will be thick and when you drop a teaspoonful of the mixture on top of the rest of the batter it should take 30-60 seconds to disappear and be reincorporated.
Using a pastry bag or ziploc bag with the corner cut off, pipe the meringues into 1-inch circles on parchment paper.  You can trace circles on the paper if you want or just guess, but try to make them uniform sizes since you will match them up later to make sandwich cookies.
Let air dry or rest for 45-60 minutes.  Preheat oven to 300F.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet and then carefully transfer to wire racks.

Salted Butter Caramel Filling
1 c. sugar
3 oz (6 Tbsp) salted butter
Additional pinch of salt
1/2 c. heavy cream, at room temperature

Melt the sugar over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Whisk the sugar as it melts to ensure it heats evenly.  When the sugar is a dark copper color and you can smell that it has caramelized, turn off the heat, add the butter all at once and stir it in.  Then add the cream and stir to incorporate.  Store in glass jars in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Ganache Filling
2 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Combine cream and chocolate in a small bowl.  Heat in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between intervals, until chocolate is melted.  Cool to room temperature.  Put in a pastry bag and pipe onto macaron.

Merci to a couple of blogs whose recipes helped me out-- Savour Fare  and Honey and Butter.

Bon appétit, les macarons!