You don’t need to travel very far to have a culinary adventure so I took a local cooking class: Intro to French Macarons – The French Method with Pastry Chef Clémence Gossett @Gourmandise in Santa Monica. And to make it truly an adventure, I took the metro to get there.
Not to be confused with the coconut versions, these tasty treats aren’t too difficult to make, however it does take a lot of practice on piping and folding.
The class was taught by Clémence and it was great that she emphasized learning the technique rather than just reading the recipe. Every step was demonstrated and then followed up with hands-on baking.
First, I whipped up egg whites and sugar to stiff peaks.
Then I put the mixture into a separate bowl and then folded in the sifted almond flour. It was very helpful to learn to skim the edges of the bowl and then cut through the mixture rather than smash the egg whites. Over mixing can cause problems for the batter since the egg whites will deflate.
Once the flour was incorporated, I put batter in a piping bag with a tip – just filling about half way. Then I piped away.
The piping bag should be perpendicular to the pan, and then counting to 3, I stopped squeezing and then swirled the tip away. A video (or practice) might be best to watch this technique since it took me a lot of cookies to get the rhythm down.
Once piped, I let the shells rest for about 20 – 40 minutes and while resting, I made a second batch with matcha green tea flavor.
The matcha green tea powder gave the batter a nice flavor as well as coloring them a lovely green. Once rested, forming a thin skin, the cookies can be baked.
The fillings were next: Sea Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Ganache.
The key tip for the Sea Salted Caramel was to stir as little as possible to avoid recrystallization of the sugar.
Once the fillings were cool enough, I took 2 halves, added just a little filling in the middle and then lightly twisted the two halves lightly.
Bon Appetit!
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