I have been reading about the famous macarons craze in Singapore and Malaysia. So I have to try making macarons and see what all the fuzz was about. After researching some recipes, I've decided to use this recipe.
The first important thing about whisking egg whites is that the bowl must not have any oil, fat or any egg yolk at all. The other is the egg whites must be at room temperature.
120 gms almond meal
150 gms icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
3 egg whites
4 tablespoon castor sugar
a pinch of cream of tartar
- Sieve the first three ingredients together.
- Add a pinch of cream of tartar into the egg whites and beat at medium speed.
- Gradually add caster sugar while beating the egg whites until medium peaks and glossy.
- Gently fold in the sifted ingredients in two batches.
- Pipe them on baking sheets. I made mine about 3-4 cms in diameter.
- Let it rest for about 20 minutes while pre-heating oven to 170Celcius.
- Bake for about 13 minutes depending on oven.
- Cool down before sandwiching with chocolate ganache.
I read that after piping, you have to drop the tray onto the bench to get rid of any trapped air. I did that, but I don't think it got rid of any trapped air. Time to prepare the ganache.
100 grams dark chocolate
50mls thickened cream
Heat up the cream in a double boil. When it is hot enough to melt the chocolate, take it of the double boil and pour in the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted. Put it in the refrigerator until thickened before using it to sandwich two macarons together.
The macarons tasted so good and I now understand what all the fuzz is about. As I do not have very sweet tooth, I still found this a bit sweet eventhough I have reduced the sugar. Next time, I'll reduce the icing sugar to 120 grams instead. And my macarons did have feet.