Rachael from the Pizzarosa and Korena from Korena In The Kitchen challenged The Daring Bakers to bake macarons. I was so excited to take part in this month’s challenge because I’ve never made macarons before. I went out and bought myself a macaron silicone mat, and I scoured pastry cookbooks at my local library to find the perfect recipe. I stumbled upon William Leaman’s vanilla bean macarons with milk chocolate ganache in Mitch Stamm’s book The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice, and knew I had to try it. Macarons can be made either using a French meringue (sugar is gradually beaten into whipping egg whites), or an Italian meringue. This particular macaron uses an Italian meringue, which means hot sugar syrup is slowly poured into whipping egg whites.
Oh, and I made a delicious milk chocolate ganache from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking. You can see a step by step guide on how to make chocolate ganache here. I suggest you make the ganache first that way it will be the perfect piping consistency when ready to assemble.
Okay, let’s do this step by step. First, mix together the almond flour, powdered sugar, and the scraped vanilla beans. Next, sift this dry mixture into a larger bowl.
Mix 3 large egg whites into the dry mixture until a thick paste forms. Stir in 1/8th teaspoon of salt, and then set aside.
In a saucepan, heat water and granulated sugar together until it reaches 246 degrees F. Using a pastry brush, brush down the sides of the saucepan with water to prevent crystallization.
Slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into a standing mixer bowl containing 4 large egg whites. Mix slowly while you pour in.
Once the syrup is in the bowl, increase the speed to medium-high, and whisk until the meringue is glossy white with peaks.
In thirds, fold the meringue into the dry mixture.
Once it is all folded it will look like this. Now it is ready to be piped out.
Once piped, allow the macarons to sit for 30 minutes to an hour. This dries them out to help develop a crispy crust.
Bake for about 10 minutes in a 375 degree F oven that has been turned down to 325 degrees F as soon as the macarons go in.
Cool on the mat and then gently remove the macarons. Pipe in milk chocolate ganache, and enjoy!
- 3 cups minus 1 TBS and 1 tsp. (300 g) Almond Flour
- 2 and 1/2 cups plus 1 TBS and 3/4 tsp. (300 g) Powdered Sugar
- 3 Vanilla Beans, scraped
- 1/8 tsp. Salt
- 7 Egg Whites, divided (3 and 4)
- 1 and 1/3 cup (300 g) Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 cup plus 1 TBS Water
- 8 oz. (227 g) Milk chocolate, chopped
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 TBS Light Corn Syrup
- Line two large baking sheets with macaron silicone mats.
- Stir together the almond flour, powdered sugar, and scraped vanilla beans. Sift this almond mixture into a large bowl. Mix in 3 egg whites until dry mixture forms a thick paste. Finally, mix in the salt. Set aside.
- In a bowl attached to a standing mixer, whisk 4 egg whites until frothy. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat the water and granulated sugar to create the sugar syrup. Using a pastry brush, wet the insides of the saucepan to prevent crystallization. Have your candy thermometer nearby. The syrup is ready when it reaches 246 degrees F.
- While the 4 egg whites are whisking on low speed, slowly pour in the sugar syrup. Be sure not to get the syrup on the inside of the bowl, or on the whisk. Once the syrup is all in, increase the speed to medium-high. The meringue is ready when it is white, glossy, and holds medium peaks.
- Fold a third of the meringue into the almond/powdered sugar mixture until incorporated. Fold in another third of the meringue until incorporated, and finally fold in the last third until incorporated. Keep folding until the mixture appears smoother, shinier, and falls evenly off of the rubber spatula or mixing spoon.
- Spoon the macaron batter into a large pastry bag fitted with a medium plain, round tip. Twist the open end of the bag tightly to seal.
- Using medium pressure, pipe 2-inch rounds onto the mat.
- Set aside at room temperature until the surface dries. It's ready when no longer sticky, about 30 to 60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Once heated, place the macacrons in the oven, and then bring the temperature down to 325 degrees F. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. The macarons are ready when they are firm and dry, and have "feet". If baking one sheet at a time, then bring the temperature up to 375 degrees F. before placing the second batch in, and then lower the temp once again to 325 degrees F.
- Cool completely before removing from the baking mats.
- Put the chopped milk chocolate in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a saucepan, heat the cream and corn syrup to boiling. Boiling is the cream rising up the sides of the pan.
- Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate, and let sit for one minute. Finally, slowly stir the chocolate mixture until completely smooth. This should take about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Invert half of the macarons onto a large platter. Gently make a depression in the center of the inverted macarons with your thumb. Pipe the ganache onto the inverted macarons. The cooled ganache should be soft enough to pipe, but not too soft to go over the edge.
- Place the remaining macarons on top of the ganache and gently press.
- Standing mixer with whisk attachment
- Macaron silicone mat
- Candy thermometer
- Saucepan
- Pastry brush
- 2 large piping bags
- Medium plain round tip (to pipe out the macaron batter)
- #12 piping tip (to pipe the ganache)
