Hello, I'm here at the Crumbs and Doilies shop in Soho
and today's recipe is going to be very popular with you guys because
I think that this recipe has been requested more times than I can even count.
It is of course for macarons.
And, I used to make macarons all the time, before I discovered cupcakes, and they kind of took over my life.
And, so I haven't made them for years and years and years
so I've brought in Dane from the Crumbs and Doilies team
'cause Dane makes macarons all the time, all the waking hours.
[J:] You probably made them, like, thousands of times? [D:] Yeah thousands. 4:00 in the morning, no sleep.
Macaron life.
So I thought it'd be good to have Dane here because he has made them so many times
He also has plenty of tips for us all so we can make perfect macarons every time.
[J:] So Dane, what is a macaron?
[D:] So macaron is a typical French meringue-based almond cookie
and it's two cookies sandwiched together with a filling; usually ganache or curd or buttercream.
[J:] And they famously have these little feet on the bottom of them
and the texture is really kind of softly chewy with a little bit of crispy bite to it.
It's kind of hard to pin down the texture, but they're really nice.
That's why you obviously want us to make them for you.
So Dane, what do we start with?
So, the first thing we're gonna do is to get our icing sugar and ground almonds
and we're gonna pop them into the food processor.
So we've got 205 grams of icing sugar and 190 grams of ground almonds.
- So why are we doing that?
- So, we need to blitz them in the food processor because sometimes when you buy ground almonds
they aren't fine enough
and sometimes you get bits of almond skin in there so we need to just make sure they're nice and fine.
We're just going to pulse it about 16 times 'cause we don't wanna overmix it
'cause it might release oils of the almonds.
Ready! so this is what it should look like so it's really fine Brett like almost like breadcrumbs like we're finally really winning phone
So Jemma if I could pass this year, and that's it
Yeah, just to get any kind of big nuggets out. I assume yeah
There are quite a few crumbs in there do I want to push them through this little no
We just want to leave those because it might ruin me and appearance at the top of the show never got that all right there
They're in the bin, so we've got our sifted icing sugar and ground almonds now what happens so now
We've got our egg whites, which we're going to add to the place of sugar and almond mixture
Yeah, some people do an aged aged egg whites don't name
So it's like where people
Crack the egg whites a couple of days in advance and let it sit at room temperature
And that's faced to like dive dehydrate them dear laughter
elastic 805 break down the proteins
Do you do that and I don't because I don't have time
Time so you can just use your eggs just at room temperature, that's fine, I work see ya
I mean Danes macarons are perfect every time
I'm not gonna argue with it so how much Jaguars getting up, so we've got 144 grams
Which is split into two batches of 72 grams each, so we'll pop 72 grams into the ice and sugar and almonds
But next we're gonna mix that into a paste and you can be quite vigorous at this stage
But don't overwork it because the oils from the almonds might come out
When I used to make macarons this would be where I put the food colouring this at this point
Yeah, is that should we do. Yeah exactly where I put it all right? I'm gonna put it in an hour
It's not quite mixed with I think when I ever work the post perfect
So it might look like this is quite a lot of blue food coloring, but because we're obviously going to add more ingredients
But being the Italian meringue, it's gonna pale up a little bit
So don't be too careful with the color and also this is paste color
I'm not going to use liquid color because it will change the consistency of the batter. We don't want that looks really white yep Freddy's
Now don't know we're just gonna cover it with something firm so that it doesn't dry out when we go into next bit
We're gonna clear the decks before we do that
So that we can do that girl, okay?
We're just gonna cover it with some cling film mm-hmm, and so it doesn't dry out and then that's ready for the next spot great
Right Dane so our case is chilling out over there
Yep, and now happens, so now we're going to make an Italian meringue using a sugar syrup. You know so here
We've got 190 grams of caster sugar and 60 milliliters of water. We're just gonna go straight into this pan
So artists recently done at an Italian meringue recipe as good as s'mores, Alaska
Which you should definitely check out from just a couple of weeks ago
Macdanne can you just explain a little bit about Italian yeah, so an Italian meringue is type of meringue you can get French meringue
Which is a cold Moran, but this one is very stable in macarons
And so you whip the egg whites and make a sugar syrup?
And then you pour it into the egg whites and which cooks the egg whites and makes it quite a stable
glossy mono
So we're gonna get this sugar syrup to 110 degrees to start with eventually it'll get to 118 degrees
But 110 degrees is a starting point for you to get the egg whites going yeah
So I just have to sit here and wait until this week to the honking turn yes
That was how things are
So eventually we want to get the sugar scepter 118 degrees on a sugar thermometer 116 is soft ball stage
And if you get it over a hundred 18, you won't get that nice chewiness, but we want from the macaron
So it's 110 now. Yeah, so what I'll get the egg whites going in the mixer all right
I'm at the time this reaches 180. This will have reached a kind of coffee consistency, yeah
All right
118 has finally arrived now what okay?
So now we're just going to pour the sugar syrup gently down the side of the bowl
Be careful not to get out in the West because that will just send up all around the sides of the bowl and not only
Out some around
So that's all in now, we'll just leave them going whipping to get to room temperature all right
Brian's been whipping for what five or six minutes. Yeah five six minutes nice and cool nice and cool
It's really glossy and it's not too stiff
But it flops over nicely so next we're going to
Pop a little bit of the meringue into the arms a nice and sugar mixture
Just loosen it up a little bit so that makes it easier to fold the rest in just a small spoonful
So at this stage you can be quite vigorous. You don't need to worry too much about being too gentle
And now Jane you're gonna fold the rest of it in right yes correct switch this around just
Grab the rest of
mm-hmm
And I quite often tell you guys to fold things in you know when we're making
Sort of like sponges and stuff Dane's technique is really perfect. Oh. He just kind of scrapes around the side of the bowl
till it's all in the middle and then cuts through it every now and then and
What this will do is it will prevent knocking all the air out that you just put into your meringue?
And you can also see what a nice color. That's made
It was really strong to start with but now it's got a really lovely pale blue
So how do you know when it's ready? So you don't it's ready if you pick the spatula up and it ribbons off quite nicely
So this is for me in a v-shape like keywords choux pastries
It's not quite ready yet all right, so just keep on going until it ribbons keep on going
Yep, so you want it to ribbon nicely back into the mixture and still see a few of those lines. Okay, so it's ready
That's what we're looking for a nice kind of
Distinct ribboning on the top on the surface that doesn't quite melt into the rest of it, right
Yeah, so usually if you leave at a couple of seconds, and if it's not completely melted in
buddy alright
Right we've had a clean down and now it's time to pipe these things
This is my least favorite bit because I'm not very good at no you'll be fine
alright
I've got a nice big piping bag here
And then also I've got is it's like slightly smaller than one I use for piping cupcakes
It's about a centimeter diameter
And this is quite liquidy butter so I'm gonna turn it up and hold it to you so it's helpful if you have a friend
So piping macarons is definitely my fear and is I think it's your fear as well
And there is a bit of a knack to it, but I found using a template really really helpful
Dayne just does it by I'd like some kind of alien
But I've got these templates which I just printed out and put them underneath the sheet of baking paper
Which is really helpful for me, okay so with your templates. You can make them yourself just print them out
I would make sure that you get a nice spacing between each
Round so about an inch between because when you pop them out
And you'll see what we do next a little tip. They will spread a little bit, okay. Yeah, right?
So so go fast
So as you can see Danes got his piping bag completely vertical with the surface
And he's only piping out as much as it takes to fill that hole and then he does a really snazzy little flicker
I'm not quite sure how you do that and
Why do you do that?
so I just do it because as you can see sometimes if you don't do that you'll get this sort of a
Peak yeah a bit of a peak on it, so you want to make sure it's flat as possible
Okay, cool, so have a go yeah
So this looks really good. I think you've been practicing in secret. I haven't you have and I haven't
I'm like done
They're looking really good. So it's good that you're keeping it nice and vertical you applying a good amount of pressure on there, right
That's all my batter, so now are they ready no
not really quite yet to bake so next we need to tap the
Tray on the surface of the table this just gets rid of any air bubbles that are
Locked in the mixture will come to the surface and make this surface a nice and smooth
And it want a nice smooth macaron surface all right, let's do it
Right so these are flattened out a little bit as well and some of these bubbles have popped but some of them are kind of
Lurking under the surface so I like to get a toothpick in there and give it a little poke
I did not know about this, too
So there's also where some of the bubbles of pops they leave a little crater
You can also use this technique to kind of wiggle them smooth again
All right, so now these are bubble free. Let's put some sprinkles on them to make them look a bit more exciting yes
Is it time to break through so not quite yet, we need to wait for a skin to form on the top of them
What's that so this just helps when they're baking it's kind of a myth
You can do it, or you can't but I always find
It's a bit of an insurance policy so to make sure they always come out with the plastic foot around the bottom
Ah, so I think a skin will form and when it's in the oven it kind of
Rises up as the macaron rises and that's when the little seat kind of push the air out yeah except. That's
Martin Transit right and so probably it depends on the temperature in the air the weather the humidity and
So if you're in a hot climate it could take up to an hour or in England probably about 10 15 minutes
We're air conditioning here, so the air is quite dry so I probably won't take very long no
But I think a rough guideline is probably between 30 and 50 minutes depending such as yeah
There is a there is a tip to check on them at the moment. They are quite. Wet when you touch them
Yeah, when they're ready. They'll be not wet no
These have been sitting around for about half an hour now, and they are completely dry
Yep, so you can skim your finger over the top, and you won't get any wet tacky mixture great
So now is it debated yesterday mate. You've been patiently waiting. Is time. We can bake them cool
So these need to be baked out 165 degrees C for about 12 minutes. Yep, and they're more check them, okay
All right
so they're ready they we tested them for readiness by sort of touching the top and if the top kind of comes away from the
Bottom and they just need a minute or two more right yeah, but these are nice and ready, and they've got this
Distinctive feet that macarons have yeah nice and ruffled yours are probably a bit nicer than mine
and so now
And so now we just want to slide the paper
Off from the baking tray onto the surface this helps them cool down bit quicker and stops the cooking process
All right, these are cooled down there to only take about 15-20 minutes
And now it's time to fill them because traditionally macarons are filled with
Normally, I'm so usually a ganache or curd or buttercream not usually regular American buttercream
Something like Swiss or French and not too sweet
What's your favorite silly mine has to be milk chocolate and passionfruit ganache, which is a classic of PA?
Who is the king of macarons?
Yeah, maybe we will have to get the recipe a few days one day you got it right just for today
We're gonna be using just a whipped white chocolate ganache
And if you want to know how to make that then please click on the link I have done a really good recipe for that
But now it's just one for filling so we flipped over half of our shells
So now we just need to pipe a little blob of ganache onto one of them
Yep
So just put a little bit of ganache in a small piping bag with a round nozzle the same one we used
To pipe out the macarons, and we'll just do a small blog
So as you can see Danes piped enough ganache so that it fills to the edge when he puts the lid on yep
So that is a nice amount of ganache yes
Right that's them all sandwich together. It's a time for me to eat one yet not quite yet
So we want to just leave them in the fridge for one to two days. That would be the perfect ideal
It just Mitchell's the show and you get that nice bite to the shell and chewy inside hmm
That would be the perfect texture of the macaroon
All right, well, I mean I can't wait for two days, so I'm gonna have to have one now
Go on there Nate keep count one is on. Okay good
Yummy right yeah, that's really nice
I know sort of chew in the center, but a little bit of bite on the outside
Yeah, not too chewy. Either like it's not sticking out my teacher anything. This is good
No
Yummy now nothing wrong as we did for you guys well
Thank you so much Dan for sharing your wisdom and also for refreshing my memory, but feel welcome
I am rusty, and I bet you anything that there are tons of people watching right now
Who are mega grateful to you for showing me how to make macarons perfectly?
So thanks Dane you are and if you want to see another master class
With one of the members of the crumbs and doilies team then why not check out our
Sugar pasted cake video that I did with Sally so you know how to sugar paste a cake perfectly and smoothly
And that's a good one otherwise. I will see you next week and in the meantime
I'm gonna be eating a lot of macarons. I'm gonna have another one great