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Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Pot of Gold French Macarons
Hi Bold Bakers! St. Patrick's Day is almost here and I wanted to make something really
special for you so in true Bigger Bolder Baking style, I thought I would show you how to make
gold coin macarons to go into a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Also, today is another
episode of my Chocolicious series over on the Kin Community Channel so after this video,
make sure you head over there and see how to make homemade Bread Pudding for St. Patrick's
Day. So let's get baking!
Now I've shown you how to make macarons before in my Jelly Donut Macarons video but I'm going
to show you again because the technique is the most important part to successful macarons.
So pay close attention to my tips, and you'll have great macarons every time.
So we're going to start in a large bowl. I'm using porcelain but you can use glass or metal.
But don't use plastic because plastic can actually contain grease and we want to make
sure there's no grease in our egg whites.
One of the tips for making successful macarons is to use room temperature egg whites. I actually
age mine for maybe 24-48 hours and it just makes them that much better to whip.
Also make sure there's no egg yolk in your egg whites.
Now whip up your egg whites until they form soft peaks. I'm going to use a hand mixer
but you can use a stand mixer as well.
One restaurant that I worked at in San Francisco actually used to age their egg whites for
up to a week and it just gave the macarons better flavor and they whipped really well.
When your egg whites are nice and frothy and almost at soft peaks, now is a good time to
add in your sugar. Add your sugar bit by bit until it's all incorporated.
Ok. Perfect. This is what your meringue should look like. Nice and stiff. Now to this, we're
going to add in yellow food coloring because remember we're making gold coin macarons.
And I'm also going to add in some lemon zest because it's almost the spring and that's
a really great flavor for this time of year.
And then turn on your beater again and mix in the color and the lemon zest. It's best
if you use gel colors because it's a more concentrated color and you use less.
To this mix, we're going to sieve in our icing sugar and our almond meal. And the reason
we do this is because we want to make sure that the mix is really fine and get out any
lumps that might be in the almonds. If you have any almonds left in your sieve, then
you can save this and use it for a different recipe but don't use it in your macarons because
it's too big and coarse.
Now this is the most important part about macaron making and it's the mixing. So my
tip to you is go slow, concentrate and count your mixes and you shouldn't go wrong.
Just go around the bowl and continuously and gently fold in all of your mix. I like to
go in the same direction. Five. Ten. Fifteen. Ok as you can see, it's really thick and it's
starting to come together. What we're going for is like a thick lava-type batter and you'll
get that around maybe 35-40 mixes. It really depends. I know this is a lot of work for
a little cookie but when you have success, it's all worth it. Twenty eight. You're seeing
it start to loosen up a little bit and get a little bit shiny. Ok. So I'm at 30 mixes.
I'm going to slow down now and concentrate and make sure I don't go over the line of
what I want in my batter. Thirty four. We're almost there. You can see it's a nice and
smooth batter. It's nice and shiny and it's starting to get loose but it's still thick.
Thirty Nine. Forty. And look at that. You can tell when it's done because it falls really
slowly off your spatula and then when it lands in the batter, it takes a little while to
disappear. This took me forty stirs. The last time it took me thirty seven. Just keep a
close eye on it and you know what, practice makes perfect. You never get it right the
first time and if you do then well done.
Now we're going to transfer this batter into a piping bag with a nozzle of 1/2 inch wide.
I like to use this template so I can get a good shape on my macarons and I'm going to
put a link in the description box below so you guys can have it too. When baking your
macarons, make sure you use a good quality, thick baking pan so they don't overcook on
the bottom. Then line this with some parchment paper. And then place your stencil underneath
the parchment paper so you can pipe directly on it.
And then slowly pipe on your macarons. Pipe smaller than the circles so you give it room
to spread. I might have piped mine a little too big but they should be ok.
When your macarons are piped, here's a trick that always forget and it's banging your tray
against the countertop to get out any air bubbles. Just give it one or two quick bangs.
Our next important step is letting the macarons dry out at room temperature for around 30-40 minutes
until the top of them kind of dries out and doing this will create those
lovely little feet that they have on beautiful macarons. You want to be careful that you
don't leave these to rest in a humid room because macarons do not like humidity so put
them in another room if you have to.
It's been around 40 minutes and our macarons are nice and dry to the touch so now it's
time for the oven.
Before baking your macarons, pipe a dollar sign, Euro symbol or whatever you like on
top to make these gold coins even better.
Bake your macarons at 300 degrees F for around 15-20 minutes or until they dry out.
If you're enjoying this recipe, then don't forget to subscribe to my channel for a new
video every Thursday.
Our macarons are out of the oven and they look amazing. I have to admit, I was a little
bit worried and thought I ruined them but I looked in the oven and they were lovely
and puffy and they have their little feet. Also our dollar signs came out awesome. I'm
so happy with that.
So we're going to let these guys go totally cold and then we're going to get ready to
decorate them.
To make the macarons look like real gold coins, I'm actually going to dust them in an edible
gold powder. It just gives them a beautiful shiny effect.
Dip your brush in a little bit of water. Make sure it doesn't get too wet. Then dip it in
your gold powder. And then generously dust all over your macaron. To make them really
gold, let this layer dry and then go back and do another layer on top. Look at that,
it's well worthwhile doing this step.
I know what you're thinking that I should have made something green for St. Patrick's
Day but you know what, in Ireland we don't eat anything green for St. Patrick's Day and
I think these are really cute and such a fun idea. Now here's my favorite part, where we
get to transform this little cookie into a beautiful St. Patrick's Day treat.
I'm going to fill mine with some lemon curd and I made this in a previous video for lemon
meringue pie. It's really easy to make and it's delicious.
And I'm also going to add some mascarpone cheese. These two really complement each other
and I think it's going to go lovely with the lemon macaron.
To fill your macaron, pipe a line of mascarpone around the edges. If you don't like mascarpone,
you can always use buttercream.
And then for that extra lemon zing, pipe in your homemade lemon curd in the middle. And
then place on your top and you have your first gold coin macaron.
Now continue filling your other macarons. These may not be traditional Irish treats
but they sure are BIG & BOLD!
In Ireland there's a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow and maybe even a leprechaun.
I hope you're lucky enough to try these gold coins and have a great St. Patrick's Day.
Mmm.
Make sure you head over to the Kin Community Channel and see how to make White Chocolate
and Raspberry Bread Pudding. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you back here
again next Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.