yesterday I made an entry on how to make french macaroons. As I had to go our for dinner with my husband, I didn’t have time to make any filling and thereby finish the macaroons.

As I wrote yesterday, you can store the baked non-filled macaroons in an airtight container, and only fill the once you are going to serve now. Then you might think ‘why not just make the amount needed?’ – Well, for me it has to do with health related problems (I make large portions on a good day, so I can still serve delicious home made petit fours on less good days), but also because it is easier to work with this amount of cooked sugar. If you reduce the recipe, you might discover how easy the sugar gets burned trying to reach the right temperature, so be careful.

The measures for the filling are for all 60 macaroons, so remember to downsize the portion, if you are not serving all 60 macaroons 😉 If you choose to make all 60 at one time, they can be refrigerated for up to one week and still have the same crispy surface and a chewy centre.

 

Ingredients (60 macaroons)

200 gram almonds, blanched

200 gram confectioners sugar

200 gram granulated sugar

2 x 80 gram egg whites

80 ml water

1/2 tsp. freeze dried raspberries

 

Ganache

100 gram good white chocolate (I have used Amedei Toscano White)

50 ml cream

75 gram raspberries, frozen

 

Blend the almonds into fine almond flour in a hand blender or food processor. Then add confections sugar and blend again for at least 20-30 seconds. Shift into a mixing bowl. If there are anything left in the strainer, blend it further and shift again.

Take half of the egg whites and mix them into the blended almonds. mix until well combined and even.

In another bowl whisk the other half of the egg whites until they make soft peaks. Find a saucepan and add granulated sugar and water. Heat until the syrup reaches 230F, stir once in a while (use a digital thermometer). Pour the heated syrup slowly into the egg whites while whisking on medium-low speed. Be careful not to get burned on the sugar – it hurts like hell! When all the syrup has been added, turn up the volume of you mixer and whisk until the meringue has reached room temperature. It take about 10 minutes.

When your meringue has reached room temperature, add half to the almond mixture and mix well until combined. Then add the rest of the meringue and fold around – do not whisk, as this will ruin the batter! Fold until the batter is evenly combined and smooth.

Now it gets a bit tricky – the texture of the batter needs to soft, but not to soft. It still needs to keep the round shape when added to the baking paper, but it should be soft enough to prevent the macaroons from getting small tops. Did that make sense?

Transfer the batter to a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, and pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on a baking tray with baking paper.  Turn the baking tray into the table top 8-10 times, to remove air bubbles from the macaroons.

Let the macaroons dry at room temperature for an hour. Bake at 300F for 13 minutes. Transfer the baking paper with the baked macaroons to a wire rack and let cool completely before filling or storing them.

 

Ganache

Chop the white chocolate finely and add to a heat proof bowl. In a saucepan mix together frozen raspberries and cream. Heat slowly until the raspberries are thawed, then turn up the heat until the cream begins to bubble. Whisk to release the raspberry juice into the cream. When the cream has a beautiful and even color, pour through a strainer over the chopped white chocolate.

Let rest for about 30 seconds before stirring to combine the raspberry cream and the chocolate into a creamy ganache. Set a side for 5-10 minutes or until the ganache has thickened. Fill the ganache in a pastry bag and fill one half of the macaroon and top with the other half.

Sprinkle the top of the macaroons with freeze dried raspberry and fridge for at least 20-30 minutes before serving. This way the ganache will thicken a bit more and give the macaroon a lovely consistency 🙂

Bon Appétit!