Still more than concerned about Japan. And getting a fundraiser together at Uni (where I study Japanese, mind you) is much more difficult than it should be...
Anyways, distraction.
I had some nice, very inspring talks with my friend Conny from over at Little Design Café lately and among all the craft-talk I mentioned how Macarons weren`t difficult to make and so I said I´d post about it here.
So here´s Chocolate Macarons. Careful: Pretty Chocolaty!
Ingrediences:
120g Powdered Almonds
2 Eggwhites
A pinch of salt
150g Powdered Sugar
2 TS Dutch processed Coacoa
For the Filling:
120g Dark Chocolate
200ml Whipped Cream
Now, doesn´t that list already look like it´s not that hard?
First make sure the almonds are ground to a very fine flour. Sift the almond flour into a bowl.
In another bowl beat the eggwhites with the salt until almost stiff. Add the powdered sugar gradually and keep beating until the egg is really stiff.
With a wire whisk carefully mix in the almonds.
Add the coacoa.
Batter ready. Don´t despair if the egg looses half it´s carefully made stiffness when you add the almonds. It just happens. I was all "Oh nooooo, what now" when this happened to me but it´s natural. Chemistry I guess.
Now preheat the oven at 80°C/32°F.
Fill the batter into an icing bag. Pipe it onto a slighty buttered baking sheet (I used baking paper because I´m lazy...). It has to be even drops, not too high, try not to make points, about as wide as... well, actually as you want them. Just not too big, keep them bite size. Make sure they all are about the same size because they´ll need to fit together. Bake them for 15-20 minutes. They need to be dry on the upside so: touch them!
Once they are dry turn up the heat to 180°C/176°F and bake them for another 6-10 minutes.
Done. Let them cool. They need to be completely cool when you fill them so... Go read a book or something!
Then you prepare the filling.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
Boil up the cream and dissolve the chocolate in it.
Let it cool. (I know, boring, right?)
Cooled it should be a muddy paste, not exactly good looking but very chocolaty.
Whip it (with a handmixer or something) until it stiffens. This can take a little longer that whipping up just the cream.
Now pipe a bit of the filling onto the bottom of one half of the meringue thingies we baked. Put other half on top and gently push together until the filling almost comes out at the sides.
You might need one or two tries to really get how much filling is enough but hey, you can just sample the ones that you feel are not pretty enough to give to others.... And look at how beautiful they look once you got the hang of it. So professional. With so little effort.
They keep for 2-3 days in the fridge once they´re filled but you can also put them in the freezer and produce them whenever you have guests over. Hehehehe...
Yay! Macarons are easy. Don´t be intimidated.
Oh, and I added coconut to mine. Not the best idea so I left it out in the list. Kinda... too... I don´t know.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 17, 2011
and is filed under
baking,
macarons,
sweets
.
You can leave a response
and follow any responses to this entry through the
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.
Posts
Ich mag Makaroni!
Das neue Design ist sehr schick