Cooking for Seven

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Macarons are French cookies made with egg whites, almond flour, and sugar and sandwiched with a delicious filling.

For this challenge, we were encouraged to create whatever flavor of macarons we wished. I decided to make chocolate flavored cookies filled with coffee meringue buttercream. It was certainly a winning combination.

“You never make enough of those things,” my sister chided.

I suspect that I did not make my macarons properly. There was no almond flour in the house, so I attempted to grind the almonds with the powdered sugar. It worked fairly well, but I just couldn’t get the almonds ground fine enough. Also, almond flour is dryer than ground almonds, so the cookies were a bit dense. However, the flavor was wonderful.

These cookies were surprisingly easy to create. Next time I will either grind the almonds more or break down and buy some almond flour. I also think I could make these healthier by using raw sugar that has been processed in a blender or food processor.

Here is a very nice video showing how French Macarons are made.

French Macarons

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Ingredients

For the Macarons:

• 2 ¼ cups Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar (225 g, 8 oz.)
• 2 cups Almond flour (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons Granulated sugar (25 g , .88 oz.)
• 5 Egg whites at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder, optional for chocolate macarons

For the Meringue Buttercream:

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup demerara or white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 2 teaspoons of coffee extract, espresso, or flavoring of choice

Directions:

For the Macarons:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder (if using), and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip. You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or until lightly colored.
7.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack before filling. When the macarons are completely cool, spread with filling of choice and serve.

For the Meringue Buttercream:

1. Place the egg whites, sugar, and salt in a medium heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until the egg whites are hot (approximately 140° F) and the sugar is dissolved, 3-4 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and whip with a hand mixer until thick and cooled, approximately 5 minutes. Beat in the butter and flavoring and continue beating until smooth and spreadable. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Return buttercream to room temperature and beat with a hand mixer before using.

Yield: 10 dozen.