I Say Macaroon, You Say Macaron

No matter how you say it, macaroons are taking over the nation one sweet tooth at a time. The perfectly chewy, crunchy texture with a sweet but light flavor is to die for! Even better, they look so pretty in their round and colorful shape. Ok, I’m done fantasizing over these decadently delicious cookies and ready to share how you can make some yourself!

Warning, these aren’t your average chocolate chip cookie recipe that you throw everything together and pop in the oven. These little cookies call for a little more work, but trust me it’s worth it. Plus, thanks to CourseHorse Chicago and Chef Jerry Korab from Give Me Some Sugar, Chicago’s premier cake decorating studio, I’m going to talk you through baking with all the tips and tricks I learned during Macaron 101 baking class.

To start off you need to learn to speak French…joking, but you should know some macaroon terms. Chef Jerry taught us two important macaroon baking terms:

1. Macaronnage- this part of the process where you release the air from your batter
2. Pied- the pretty feet that create the bottom edge of your cookie
3. Shell- the cookie part of the macaroon aka the macaroon without the filling

Now that you speak French, let’s get started in the kitchen. You are going to need a few fancy tools for this recipe.

Tools Needed:

-kitchen scale
-kitchen aid mixer (or handheld, but don’t say I didn’t warn you)
-piping bag
–Wilton size 2A tip
–plastic bowl scraper
-sil-pat baking sheets

Now that you have your tools ready, let’s get started on the shells. This recipe makes about 30-35 macaroons (two shells per cookie).

French Macaron Recipe

(via Cheff Jerry from Give Me Some Sugar)

Ingredients

150g egg whites (tip: crack these ahead of time and store in a bowl in your refrigerator for a few days before baking. Pull them out and bring them to room temperature a few hours before baking)
100g granulated sugar
180g blanched almond flour (tip: the blanched almond flour makes for the best results, make sure it’s extra fine with no almond chunks)
270g organic powder sugar (tip: we aren’t using organic to try and make this healthy, these are cookies after all, the organic sugar has less processed ingredients resulting in a less gummy texture)
optional: powder food color (tip: do not use gel or liquid, it will off set the balance of ingredients)

Instructions

1. Sift the almond flour and the powder sugar together in a large bowl. Use a fork to combine and set aside.

2. Whip the egg whites with your whisk attachment in your mixer on medium speed until foamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar while the mixer is running. Turn the mixer up to high to whip until firm and glossy peaks appear. Optional: add powder food coloring right before peaks appear.

3. Incorporate the beaten egg whites into the flour mixture with a spatula gently until mixed well.

4. Time to macaronnage! Using the plastic scraper, press down on the mixture moving it back and forth throughout the bowl to press out the air of the egg whites. (Tip: do not do this longer than 3-4 mins, as soon as the batter looks like flowing lava pouring off your scraper, it is done).

5. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe onto the sil-pat lined sheet pans. Pipe a few round circles by holding the tip steady and squeezing until you have about a 3 inch circle. After piping a few, use your thumbs to hold down the edges of the sil-pat while you hit the pan against a flat surface to flatten the cookie and release the bubbles.

6. After all cookies are piped and flattened, let rest for 30-45 minutes until when touched they feel dry on top. (Tip: When they are completely dry and ready, a skin will form over the top of the cookie. You can rub it without any of the batter getting on your fingers)

7. Bake in the over at 310-315 (non-convection oven) for 8-13 minutes. Check them after 8 minutes, by touching the top of the shell and gently moving your finger side to side. If the cookie wobbles, put back in the oven for another minute or two, until firm.

8. When done, set aside and let cool completely before removing from pan.

Next step, buttercream, but not just any buttercream…

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

5 large egg whites

pinch of cream of tartar

4 sticks unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 1/3 cup water to a boil. Boil until syrup reaches soft-ball stage (if you have a candy thermometer, this is 238 degrees F)

2. In your electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low until foamy.

3. Add cream of tartar and beat on medium high until stiff but not dry (this can take a few minutes)

4. While mixer is still running, pour syrup slowly into the egg whites and beat on high speed until steam is no longer visible, about 3 minutes. (Tip: mixture must be 100% cool before moving on to next step or butter will melt)

5. Beat in butter, few chunks at a time.

6. Add vanilla and beat until smooth. (Tip: if it looks curdled, keep beating and it will smooth out)

7. Optional: feel free to add flavor to the buttercream, anything you can think of! A few we added were: pumpkin butter, lemon curd, peanut butter and salted caramel)

Ta-da, you did it! See that wasn’t so bad and now you have delicious and impressive macaroons to enjoy:)