Welcome to How To Cook That
I am Ann Reardon
Today we are making a super indulgent macaron tower dessert which you can decorate to look
like a christmas tree, use as a centre piece on any dessert table or make it and give them
away as gifts.
Firstly we are going to make our brandy ganache.
Measure out your cream, brandy and vanilla and put it into a heat proof jug and bring
it up to the boil.
If you want the brandy flavour but not the alcohol content then let it boil for a bit
longer.
Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate and leave it to sit for a couple of minutes.
Then stir it through.
All of the recipe quantities are listed on the website howtocookthat.net I will put a
link in the description below this video.
You can of course use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead you can leave out the brandy
and use something different to flavour the cream, you could try come spices like cinnamon
or nutmeg or for other ideas go through to the chocloate truffles recipe and it shows
you how to flavour the ganache in all different ways there.
If you still have lumps of chocolate you can microwave it in 10 seconds and make sure you
don't overheat it or it will split and the oil will seperate.
Just do 10 seconds and stir it and then another ten seconds until all the lumps are gone.
Once it is nice and smooth leave it at room temperature overnight to firm up.
To make the mini macaron shells measure and sift your almond meal and icing sugar together
first before you start whipping you egg whites, you don't want to leave whipped egg whites
sitting there you need to use them straight away once you've whipped them.
Add your sugar to the egg whites and beat with electric mixers until they are firm enough
to turn the bowl upside down then beat it for 2 minutes more.
Add in your almond meal and your icing sugar mixture and begin to fold it in using a spatula.
Making sure that you get all the way to the bottom of the bowl and around all of the edges.
While you are folding stop a few times and scrape off the spatula and sides of the bowl
to make sure everything is evenly mixed.
Continue folding and drop some down from the spatula every now and then to see what it
looks like.
And keep folding until when you drop some it slowly starts to mold back down into the
rest of it.
Put a piping bag I like to put my bag over a vase and make sure that the tip is facing
sideways so that it doesn't all just pour out the bottom.
Add the mixture into the bag and then
Twist the top to seal it and pipe out macarons onto non-stick baking paper in the size of
the piping template that I have given you.
You can download that for free off the website.
Once they are piped slide the baking paper carefully onto a baking tray and bang it on
the bench a few times on each side.
Then place them straight into the oven on a middle shelf.
You will have more mixture in the bag, so pipe that straight away and bang that on the
bench and then just leave it on the bench top while you wait for the other tray to cook.
And they are ready once you can just gently push down on the top of them and they don't
squash right down try not to open your oven too many times while they are cooking or you
will drop the oven temperature and that will make the inside of them drop down and you
will end up with hollow macarons.
Once they are ready pull them out and leave them to cool.
The next day you ganache should be soft but firm.
Whip it using electric mixers.
Using a star shaped piping tip pipe on top of each shell squeeze and then pull up to
make a tall peak of ganache.
Repeat that on all of them and then place them in the freezer for 20 minutes or the
fridge for an hour.
Dip each one into chocolate make sure you cover the ganache and just around the top
rim of the macaron.
The great thing about this is if you haven't yet mastered making them and you have a few
cracked ones no one will ever know.
And by putting the ganache on top instead of in the middle of two macarons we only need
half the number of them to make the tower.
Make a cone shape out of cardboard and then wrap it loosely in baking paper.
I placed on piece of tape at the start wrapped it around and then tucked the extra into the
cone.
Take your chocolate coated macarons and dip the base of them this time and the lower sides
of each one into the chocolate and starting at the bottom of the cone place them all the
way around the edge.
You want to add enough chocolate to the base and sides so that the tower can hold itself
together so each one that you add should be joined to the previous ones using some melted
chocolate.
Once you've got all the way up to the top let it set and then pull the cardboard and
baking paper carefully out of the middle.
Add one more to the very top and then decorate it to match you party theme.
I am using fresh red raspberries and pistachio nuts to give a bit of a Christmas feel.
Thanks for watching
Subscribe to how to cook that for more cakes chocolate and desserts I hope you have a fabulous
week and I'll see you on Friday.
[music The Boat Song by youtube.com/setsailtv used with permission]