Madness Free Macaroons

Here is the very simple and easy to follow recipe for the very successful macaroons me and rachel made a few weeks back. In the next post below is a bit more detail and tips about colors and flavors and lots more pictures!

Makes 16

75g ground almonds

115g icing sugar

2 large egg whites- left to sit for a few hours at room temp. V important.

50g caster sugar

1.2tsp vanilla extract

food colouring

Filling:

115g soft cheese

1tbsp icing sugar

flavours/colours of your choice

• Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and process for 15 seconds.
• Sift mixture into a bowl.
• Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
• Place egg whites in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks are formed.
• Gradually whisk in the caster sugar to make a firm and glossy meringue.
• Whisk in vanilla extract and your chosen food colouring.

If the food colour makes the mixture slightly runny continue to whisk until you have a very thick and stiff meringue mixture- this is so important to make the macaroons thick and fluffy and not leak all over the baking sheet!!

• Using a spatula carefully fold in the blitzed almond mixture one third at a time.

Fold the mixture until its a shiny and thick ribbon like batter then pour mixture into a piping bag. Use a sandwich bag and cut off the corner if you don't have a piping bag. Insert a small nozzle. Our mixture was luckily so thick we didn't need a nozzle fitted and the bag just helped control the amount we put onto the baking paper.

• Pipe the small rounds onto the baking sheets spacing well. You want them to be thick with little peaks.
• Tap the baking sheets firmly onto the counter to get rid of any bubbles and the peaks.

This action helps create the 'frilly foot'- which is the airy chewy level beneath the hard shell of the top!

• NOW LEAVE AT ROOM TEMP FOR 30 MINUTES. This is so important as this is when the macaroons form the hard shell/skin on the top! Check this after 30 minutes very carefully by pressing the top. If its slightly firm and shiny and doesn't stick then they are ready to go in the oven.
• Place in pre heated oven at 160c with NO FAN.
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes.

If after this time the bottoms are still soft and sticking leave for a few more mins with the oven door open!
Cool for 10 minutes or until they are cool and formed enough to peel of the baking paper.
If they are sticking place in the freezer for 5 minutes and they should come away easily.
Leave to cool on a wire rack completely.
Fill with your desired filling and enjoy!

Taken from the easy to follow recipe book Macaroons
Macaroons: 30 perfect bite sized treats

Macaroon Madness Continued

I am going to admit, hands down, i have no idea how to correctly spell Macaroon/Macaron?! My spell check just tried to make it macaroni. No almonds in that pasta based dish.

Anyway if you want to confuse yourself and question the spelling even more then try making the damn things. After successfully creating these pesky little treats you can call them maccas for all i bloody care. Im just so happy it worked!

Here are the pics from our successful baking session- as you can see you don't have to follow the colors exactly as the recipes suggest- its a great opportunity to experiment- for the below we used violet grape, tangerine and mulberry food colouring paste, which is stronger and less runny than cheap liquid ones so much safer for mixing into delicate mixtures such as this!

You can also experiment with fillings as much as you like also, for example the chocolate rum ganache for the pink ones didn't set right in the fridge so we used a chocolate cream cheese filling instead! Or you could always use whipped cream or a plain buttercream/frosting and add flavours such as peppermint or lavender and dye your macaroons accordingly!
You can also see from the pics the importance of how thick the mixture is (the purple is thicker therefore made much smaller, puffier macaroons) and the spacing you should allow for them to cook!

We made ginger, blueberry cheescake and chocolate rum flavours-

Macaroons at the Market

SO me and Rachel have been uber lazy with this AGAIN. Many aplogies to anyone who bothers reading us waffling on about er, waffles! As usual, since my last post, i have probably eaten 1000000 cakes and stuffed my face at a million brunch places, sadly i have not been able to blog about them straight away as i've had to save them for my next regional special feature for Grazia Magazine! Basically at Grazia magazine we ask the locals of a certain area to recommend thier fave places to eat, drink, shop etc on twitter and facebook, myself, or whoever is writing the feature, collates the recommendations and goes off to visit them and take photos, sample the places, write up the review etc. Its then featured in a roundup of the top 10 places of that area. So far i've worked on the Newcastle and Exeter ones and jumped at the chance to do the London one, especially the North London one! I could never live anywhere else in London but the north. Tis where my london roots lie! Obviously i could rant on and on about how much character and gems it has compared to the rest of London although i shall save that for another time...

Anyway. Now the issue of Grazia is out in the shops i can post up my pictures from a few of the places i visited that are related to this blog! First up is a small but tasty stall in Harringay market called Makaroon. Serving up classic macaroons with a modern twist with flavours such as peppermint, banoffee and chocolate orange. Its run by duo ellie and chris and i hunted them down in Harringay market one freeeezing sunday afternoon to take some photos and sample the treats! They're sooo soo moreish. We bought a box of 5 and scoffed it in 5 seconds. No. Lie.
Im so glad i featured this stall in the feature, one of the things i love most about doing the regional specials is really finding the gems or small businesses of an area and giving them exposure through the magazine, or just seeking these places out in general and been able to photograph them!
I try to avoid chains as much as i can in the regional specials and really feel i found a proper little gem here!
You have 4 days left to buy this issue of Grazia where you can see Makaroon featured and read about the rest of my roundup of North Londons best gems voted for by the locals! (30 words max pretty much per place. Torrrture for a waffler like me. And sadly only a vague review of each place) theres also an interview in the right hand side column with fashion blogger Lily Pebbles from What I Heart Today .
Oh and it won best overall market stall in London as voted for by thier fans and followers on the online poll on Grazia daily! Need i say more!

Forget Laduree and go local!!

Holly x

Makaroon's twitter
Harringay Market