Blueberry Macarons

Blueberry macarons. Tasty tasty blueberry macarons.

If there is one thing that I learned at the 2010 Food Bloggers Conference, it is that you should always start your posts with a sentence relevant to the subject matter. Fortunately I learned more than one thing, and you can too! Colleen aka browniegirl has taken the momentous task upon herself again this year to organize the 2011 Food Bloggers Indaba! Please go check it out if you have a blog, or intend to start one, or if you just want to go have a ball for a day!

Now back another subject matter.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax,
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."

From The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll

For me, the time has come for many things...


The time for my student days has almost come to an end, only one presentation stands between me and the end of my degree. So instead of working on the presentation I am blogging, hellooooo procrastination!

I kid, the time is long overdue for posting again for me too. I have so many photos that are just sitting patiently on my harddrive just waiting to be published, bad blogger! The time has definitely come for more blogging.

The time has also come for me to change my blog's theme. It's a bit of a work in progress at the moment, so expect more changes in the future!

And now, the time has come for me to share the macaron recipe that I have been using!


Macarons
Source: Daydreamer Desserts
Makes about two baking trays

• 90 grams egg whites (aged for 2 days)
  
• 200g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
  
• 110g finely ground almonds
  
• 25g granulated sugar
  

1. The first and most important step: Weigh out all your ingredients before starting and line two baking trays with baking sheets! (don't use tinfoil, just trust me on that one) Also prepare a pastry bag with a round nozzle (approximately 1cm in diameter). This is just going to make your life much easier later...
   
2. Sift the powdered sugar and ground almonds together and set aside. I don't own a sieve so I just use a fork to mix everything together well, making sure there are no lumps in the mixture.
   
3. Place your egg whites in the most pristine clean mixing bowl you can find. (*cough* you can trust me on that one as well...) Beat the egg whites until foamy but not yet resembling anything stiff.
   
4. Slowly add the granulated sugar while beating and mix until the texture resembles that of shaving cream. (Be careful not to over beat!)
   
5. Add all of the powdered sugar/almond mixture to the egg whites in one go. Use a spatula to fold everything together. A good rule of thumb not to over mix is to not use more than 50 strokes to incorporate everything. The end result has been described as having the consistency of "thick pancake batter", I think foamy/runny mousse also describes it well.
   
6. Spoon the batter into the pastry bag and pipe round on to the baking trays prepared earlier. I prefer my macarons smaller, so I pipe my round to be about 2cm in diameter.
   
7. Now, mac batter has so stand outside a bit before baking in order for the finished product to have nice little feet. Some recipes recommend letting the batter rest for about an hour, but since that depends heavily on how the weather is, I leave mine until the tops aren't sticky to the touch anymore.
   
8. After resting, bake the macarons in a preheated oven at 140 degrees C for about 15 minutes. This part is also a bit tricky. I recommend watching your oven temperature like a hawk (mine varies with about 20 degrees within the heating cycle, so lots of opening and closing of the oven door for me). If the oven is too warm the tops of the macs will crack, too cool and they won't rise sufficiently. I'd recommend just getting a chair and sitting in front of the oven while they bake!
   
9. Once they are done, leave them to cool a bit before removing them from the baking sheet. Let them cool then sandwich together with the filling of your choice!
   

Notes

• To age the egg whites, place them in a bowl, cover them then either leave them outside for a day or refrigerate for two days. I'm too lazy to do this so I heat the egg whites in the microwave for 10 seconds on medium then mix. I repeat this until white flecks just start appearing in the egg whites. (Be careful, egg whites cook pretty quickly!)
  
• Instead of trying to get exactly 90 grams of egg whites, I break 2 or 3 eggs and weigh the resulting egg whites. I then just adjust the rest of the ingredients according to the egg whites weight.
  
• An accurate scale (digital) is pretty important for this recipe, get one!
  

Chocolate Ganache

• 85 grams chocolate, broken into pieces
  
• 60ml cream
  

1. Heat the cream until just before boiling point. (I do this in the microwave)
   
2. Add the chocolate to the hot cream, leave for about 2 minutes until melted.
   
3. Stir the mixture until mixed well, put into the refrigerator until set. (about 1 hour)
   
4. When cooled, beat the mixture a bit before using.
   

Notes

• For the blueberry filling I used white chocolate and added some cooked, squashed blueberries to the mix.
  
• I like adding a drop of jam in the centre of the macarons, makes for interesting eating!
  

Category: blueberry , macarons