Pistachio Macarons with Raspberry Buttercream

Yesterday my Mum and I went on a macaron making course at the Waitrose Cookery School to see if we could do better than the not quite right macarons of Daring Cooks! It was fantastic, the whole experience was really good, the staff were brilliant and the macarons worked and were delicious! I feel really pleased with myself and I feel as if I've learnt a new technique that I could use again and again.

Pistachio Macarons with Raspberry Buttercream (from Waitrose Cookery School)
(Makes 20 large macarons)

For the Italian meringue
275g caster sugar
1/2 tbsp green food colouring
59g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

For the paste
275g ground almonds
275g icing sugar
95g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

For the buttercream
120g raspberry coulis
45g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
200g unsalted butter, diced and chilled

50g peeled chopped pistachio nuts

Weigh out the ingredients and preheat the oven to 140C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper cut to fit.

To make the Italian meringue; place the sugar and 100ml cold water into a small saucepan and stir to dissolve. Add the green food colouring and place over a medium to high heat with a sugar thermometer inside.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a food mixer, set with the whisk attachment.

When the sugar syrup reaches 110C start whisking the egg whites on medium speed. Once the termperature has reached 114C, turn the mixer onto full speed, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl into the egg whites, mix for about 5 mins, until the mixture is whipped and glossy.

Meanwhile make the paste. In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds and icing sugar. Add the egg whites and mix with a wooden spoon until you have a stiff paste.

When the meringue is ready (with soft peaks) gently combine it with the paste in three stages. For the first addition of the meringue to the paste mix vigorously, with a wooden spoon, to ensure there are no lumps. For the second addition,  use a spatula to fold the meringue in gently. The final addition must be extremely gentle.

The macaron mix is now ready to be piped. Using a spatula, half-fill a piping-bag and pipe a little of the mixture into each corner of the baking trays in order to stick the parchment paper down. Then pipe circles in straight lines going from left to right, leaving a 2cm gap between wach macaron. Sprinkle over the pistachios.

Cook for 17-19 mins in the preheated oven, opening the door halfway through to release steam, then remove the trays and leave to cool.

Meanwhile make the raspberry buttercream. Place the raspberry coulis in a small saucepan and heat over a medium heat.

Place the caster sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk together.

When the coulis begins to boil, add about half into the egg mix and whisk together. Transfer back to the pan with the rest of coulis and continue to stir over a low heat. When the mixture coats the back of a spatula, remove from the heat and pour into a food mixer with the whisk attachment on a medium speed.

After 2 mins, gradually add the diced butter piece by piece. When all of the butter has been added, continue to whisk for a further couple of mins or until it become thick smooth and shiny.

Use a spatula to transfer the mixture into a piping bag ready to pipe on the macarons.

To assemble, arrange the macaron shells in columns, matching the size of the shells. On alternate columns pipe the buttercream in the centre of each shell, then sandwich together.

Daring Cooks October 2013: French Macarons

In a "celebration" of past Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

The third challenge I tried was a Daring Bakers challenge again. This one wasn't anywhere near as successful as the previous two and shows that whilst I can cook I am not really a baker! I went home for the weekend at the end of September and with help from my Mum we tried to make French Macarons. They are one of her favourite cakes and she has always wanted to make them. We did use a different recipe to that in the challenge as we couldn't find almond flour anywhere and used ground almonds instead. As we had never made them before and didn't really know what we were doing these didn't turn out quite as intended! Instead of lovely round individual macarons we ended up with a sheet of ground almond meringue. It also helps of you can tell the difference between fahrenheit and centigrade on the thermometer!! They tasted fine but spread out way too much in the baking. We have booked ourselves on a macaron making course in January to see if we can learn how to make them properly!

Salted caramel Macaroons

200g ground almonds
200g icing sugar
80ml water
200g caster sugar
2x80g egg white     
2 drops food yellow food colouring and coffee extract
For the salted caramel
250g icing sugar
80ml water
120g full fat creme fraiche
200g salted butter

The day before prepare the caramel. Over a low heat dissolve the sugar in water. Without mixing them too much, watch the sugar until it turns a light brown colour. Add the creme fraiche little by little mixing with a spatula to stop the caramel cooking. Once the creme  fraiche is well mixed use a thermometer to monitor the temperature. As soon as the caramel  reaches 108 c remove from heat add the butter. Mix or whisk until caramel is smooth. Put in a bowl and leave in fridge.      

Mix then sieve together the ground almonds and icing sugar set aside.    

In a saucepan bring the water and caster sugar to the boil. Without mixing make sure the temperature does not exceed 110C.

  














Whisk half the egg whites to soft peaks increasing the speed of the whisk once the temperature of the syrup passes 100C. Once the syrup reaches 110C take it off the heat and pour in a thin stream on to the whisked egg whites. Beat the meringue mix until it has almost cooled.   

Meanwhile mix the unbeaten egg white with the almond base to get a thick paste. Add coffee extract and food colouring to get a pale caramel colour.   

With a spatula mix around a third of the meringue with the almond paste to loosen it a little then add rest of meringue and fold it carefully.    

Fill a piping bag with the macaroon mix. Stick a sheet of greaseproof paper to a baking tray. Make small evenly shaped and sized balls at regular intervals across the tray. Leave to dry at room temperature for an hour. 

Preheat oven to 145C fan 125C. Cook the macaroons for 13mins. Immediately on taking them out of the oven slide the greaseproof paper and shells on to a moistened work top . This will help the shells detach from the greaseproof paper more easily.       

With a piping bag fill half shells with caramel them sandwich together with the remaining shells.