Crumbly, sweet, luxurious and beautiful, I'm pretty sure macarons are my favorite thing to bake, but even more, I love experimenting with different flavours. With the recent arrival of some intriguingly flavoured Doisy&Dam chocolates to my doorstep there was no better time to crack out the old whisk and getting experimenting again. The recipe is pretty challenging, exact measurements and timings needed here, but with a little practice they can come out really well and make the perfect gift to give or end of meal accompaniment. Who needs Ladurée?
I took the recipe from the Doisy and Dam blog and have copied it out here for ease. You could use any fillings or essentials that you prefer instead, if you're looking for a less out there flavor and I'm sure the end result would be just as yummy.
To make 21 Macarons:
Ingredients:
92g of ground almonds 84g of icing sugar 70g of castor sugar 2 egg whites, plus a little extra (you can use the pre-separated ones from a carton to make things a bit easier 50g of Doisy & Dam chocolate 50ml of double cream 10g of unsalted butter
Method:
Pulse the ground almonds and icing sugar together until they are combined.
In a large glass or ceramic mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites and pinch of salt using an electric hand whisk until they are foamy. Add a third of the castor sugar and continue whisking on a high speed for a minute. Repeat this until all the sugar is combined and stiff glossy peaks have formed.
Sift in the almond-sugar mixture. Then use a spatula to slowly fold into the egg whites. This will take a while and should not be done too quickly. You will know when it is right when a smooth ribbon forms when lifting the spatula.
In a separate bowl, whisk a small amount of egg white until frothy and then add a desert spoon of this into the macaroon paste and stir to combine.
Fit a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle, and fill with the mixture. Cover a large baking sheet with silicone-lined baking parchment. It helps to achieve an even macaroon if you use a template underneath the baking paper as piping guidelines.
To pipe, hold the bag vertical and apply an even pressure to fill the circle, then gently press down and lift to form your macaroon shell. When all the mixture has been used, lightly tap the baking sheet on the side to remove any air bubbles. If your shells have little peaks, dampen your finger slightly and press down to flatten.
Leave the tray uncovered until the shells are dry to touch, and no mixture is left on your finger. This takes around half an hour although does depend on the humidity. If you are short of time, putting the tray in the fridge speeds them along. This is a CRUCIAL stage so don’t cut any corners or you’ll be very disappointed! Meanwhile preheat the oven to around 190C fan, if you have a hot oven however, then set it slightly lower.
Bake the shells for around 15 minutes, turning every 10 minutes and swapping over trays if you are using different levels in your oven. They are properly baked when the macaroons don’t move when you try to twist them. Side note: This is where I went wrong and crumbled my macaroons so they weren't so pretty looking anymore. Unfortunately, I had to cheat slightly and grab a photo from Pinterest instead - #perfectionistprobs.
Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the tray completely before removing them.
To make the ganache, finely chop the chocolate - here's where the fun with choosing your flavours start - and place in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, gently heat the cream until it’s boiling and then add it to the chocolate. Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine, and while it is still hot, add the butter in small amounts. You should be left with a shiny smooth chocolatey mixture – delish! If you want to get the taste of the flavours of the chocolate across, then add a bit extra of the ingredients, e,g some extra orange zest. Leave this to cool and firm up slightly.
Pipe or spread the chocolate ganache on the base of a macaroon shell, and use another shell to sandwich them together. Refrigerate for 12 hours to let the flavours develop, and bring up to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!
Why not have a go? The Doisy chocolates are super fun to experiment with, and good to eat on their own too (shhh!) Let me know how it goes!
