Saturday, October 9, 2010

French Macarons

French Macrons are quickly becoming the next greatest thing to have at weddings and parties. They are sweet and elegant for such the affair. My friend Tiffany told me about a class at Sur la Table all on making these elegant sweets so, of course I had to sign up. We learned the 'dos and don'ts' of making these dainty cookies and surprisingly found them not so complicated to make. These are pictures from our class. Enjoy and Bon Appetit!

Coconut Rum Macarons
Step 1 - Beginning to whisk the eggs to their
stiff peaks consistency.

Step 2 - Gently fold in sugar and almond meal
being careful to keep the batter light and fluffy.

Step 3 - Folding until it becomes like the
consistency of 'magma'.

Step 4 - Pipe batter from a pastry bag onto
parchment lined baking sheets. We used a
template underneath to practice just the perfect
sizing.

Step 5 - Let the macarons stand for 15 minutes
before baking.

Step 6 - Beginning the Rum Cream filling
- heat and whisk egg whites and sugar to 141 degrees.

I'm using the infrared thermometer to check
periodically.

Step 7 - Take egg whites off heat and whisk on
high till stiff peaks. Then gradually add the butter.

Step 8 - Mix in flavoring (we used rum for ours,
but you can try almost anything).

Step 9 - Bake macarons for about 8 minutes
in a double pan until the top has 'popped'.

Step 10 - Now they are ready to be filled!
In this pic my friend Tiffany trying her
hand at the piping.


Here are a few pics of our classes finished products.
We made Coconut Rum, Green Tea, Chocolate Cream
and Raspberry.



Happy with our sweet and dainty
macarons :)

They can make cute favors for a wedding or party.
Package them in clear plastic bags and tie with
a fun ribbon.