Macaron Masterclass - How to Make Perfect Macarons | Cupcake Jemma

Hello, I'm here at the Crumbs and Doilies shop in Soho and today's recipe is gonna 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. So I haven't made them for years and years and years. So I've brought in Dane from the Crumbs and Doilies team because Dane makes macarons all the time, all the waking hours. Yeah, you've probably made them like thousands. Yeah, thousands, four 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'll have plenty of tips for us all so we can make perfect macarons every time. So Dane, what is a macaron? So a 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. 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, really nice. That's why you obviously want us to make them. So Dane, what do we start with? So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to get our icing sugar and ground almonds and we're going to 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 it can get bits of almond skin in there so we just need to make sure they're nice and fine. So we're just going to pulse it about 16 times because we don't want to over mix it because it might release oils from the almonds. Ready, so this is what it should look like. So it's really fine bread, almost like breadcrumbs, like really super fine ones. Really, really fine. So Gemma, if I can pass this to you and ask you to sift this for me. Yeah, just to get any kind of big nuggets out I assume. So there are quite a few crumbs in there, do I want to push them through the sieve or? No, we just want to leave those because it might ruin the appearance of the top of the shell. Nobody wants that, all right, they'll go 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 icing sugar and almond mixture. Yeah, some people do aged egg whites, don't they, when you make macarons. 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 supposed to like dehydrate them, de-elasticate, elastify? Break down the proteins in the egg whites so it works a bit better. And do you do that? I don't because I don't have time. Nobody's got time for that. No one has time, so you can just use your eggs just at room temperature, that's perfectly fine. That works for you. I mean Jane's macarons are perfect every time so I'm not going to argue with her. So how much egg whites do we have? So we've got 144 grams which are split into two batches of 72 grams each. So we'll pop 72 grams into the icing sugar and almonds. Next we're going to mix that into a paste. You can be quite vigorous at this stage but don't overwork it because the oils from the almonds might come out. So when I used to make macarons this would be where I put the food colouring at this point. Yeah. Is that, should we do that? Yeah, exactly where I put it too. All right, I'm going to put it in now where it's not quite mixed because I don't want to overwork the paste. Perfect. So it might look like this is quite a lot of blue food colouring but because we're obviously going to add more ingredients, being the Italian meringue, it is going to pale up a little bit so don't be too careful with the colour. And also this is paste colour, we're not going to use liquid colour because it will change the consistency of the batter. We don't want that. All right, that looks ready right? Yep, ready. So now Gemma we're just going to cover it with some cling film so that it doesn't dry out when we get on to the next bit. And we're going to clear the decks before we do that. How's the new bank going? It's all right, we can do that again. Okay. We're just going to cover it with some cling film so it doesn't dry out and then that's ready for the next part. Great. Right Dane, so our paste is chilling out over there and now what happens? So now we're going to make an Italian meringue using a sugar syrup. So here we've got 190 grams of caster sugar and 60 millilitres of water which is going to go straight into this pan. So I've just recently done an Italian meringue recipe for the S'mores Alaska which you should definitely check out from just a couple of weeks ago. Dane, can you just explain a little bit about Italian meringue? Yeah, so an Italian meringue is a type of meringue, you can get French meringue which is a cold meringue but this one is very stable in macarons. So you whip the egg whites and make a sugar syrup and then you pour it into the egg whites which cooks the egg whites and makes it quite a stable glossy meringue. So we're going to 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 us to get the egg whites going. Yes. So we'll just have to sit here and wait until this reaches 110. Yes. This laser tells us how hot things are. So eventually we want to get the sugar syrup to 118 degrees. On a sugar thermometer 116 is softball stage and if you get it over 118 you won't get that nice chewiness that we want from a macaron. So it's 110 now. Yeah. Now what? I'll get the egg whites going in the mixer. All right and by the time this reaches 118 this will have reached a kind of frothy 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 it on the whisk because it will just end up all around the sides of the bowl and not on the actual meringue. So that's all in, now we'll just leave the meringue whipping to get to room temperature. All right. Meringue's been whipping for what, five or six minutes? Yeah, five, six minutes. It's nice and cool. Nice and cool and 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 almonds and icing sugar mixture just to loosen it up a little bit so it 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 Dane, you're going to fold the rest of it in, right? Yes, correct. So switch this around and just grab the rest of our meringue and just pop it all in. And I quite often tell you guys to fold things in, you know, when we're making sort of light sponges and stuff. Dane's technique is really perfect, 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'll prevent knocking all the air out that you just put into your meringue. And you can also see what a nice colour that's made, it was really strong to start with but now it's been a really lovely pale blue. So how do you know when it's ready? So you know when it's ready if you pick the spatula up and it ribbons off quite nicely. So this is forming a V shape like you would choux pastries, it's not quite ready yet. Right, so just keep on going until it ribbons? Keep on going, yeah, so you want it to ribbon nicely back into the mixture and still see a few of those lines. Okay, all right, so it's ready, that's what we're looking for, a nice kind of distinct ribboning on the top of the surface that doesn't quite melt into the rest of it, right? Yeah, so usually if you leave it a couple of seconds and if it's not completely melted in, then you know it's ready. All right. Right, we've had a clean down and now it's time to pipe these things. This is my least favourite bit because I'm not very good at it. No, you'll be fine. All right, if you say so. So I've got a nice big piping bag here and the nozzle I've got is, it's like slightly smaller than the one I use for piping cupcakes, so it's about a centimetre diameter and this is quite liquidy batter so I'm going to turn it up and hold it for you. So it's helpful if you have a friend. Yeah. So piping macarons is definitely my fear and 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. Dane just does it by eye because he's like some kind of alien but I've got these templates which I just printed out and put them underneath a 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 pipe them out and you'll see what we do next, a little tip, they will spread a little bit. Okay, right. So, shall I go first? So as you can see, Dane's 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 this really snazzy little flick off which I'm not quite sure how you do that. 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 it to make sure it's as flat as possible. Okay, cool. Shall I have a go? Yeah, go for it. So this looks really good. I think you've been practising in secret. I haven't. You have. I haven't. I might have done. They're looking really good so it's good that you're keeping it nice and vertical and applying a good amount of pressure on there. Right, that's all my batter so now are they ready? No, they're not ready 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 that will come to the surface and make the surface nice and smooth when it bakes. Want a nice smooth macaron surface. Right, let's do it. Right, so these have 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 tip. So there's also where some of the bubbles have popped they leave a little crater you can also use this technique to kind of wiggle them smooth again. 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 bake them? So not quite yet, we need to wait for a skin to form on the top of them. What's that for? 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 classic foot around the bottom. Ah, so I think a skin will form and then when it's in the oven it kind of rises up as the macaron rises and that's when the little feet kind of push the air out? Yeah, exactly. Ah, smart, and how long does it take? Um, so probably it depends on the temperature in the air the weather, the humidity so if you're in a hot climate it could take up to an hour or in England probably about 10-15 minutes maybe. We're air conditioned in here so the air is quite dry so it probably won't take very long. No. But I think a rough guideline is probably between 30 and 50 minutes depending there is a tip to checking them. At the moment they are quite wet when you touch them 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 time to bake this? Yes Gemma, you've been patiently waiting, it's time we can bake them. Cool, let's go. So these need to be baked at 165 degrees C for about, what, 12 minutes? Yep, and then we'll check them. Okay, right, so they're ready. We tested them for readiness by sort of touching the top and if the top kind of comes away from the bottom then they just need a minute or two more, right? Yeah. But these are nice and ready and they've got those distinctive feet that macarons have. Yep, nice and ruffled. Yours are probably a bit nicer than mine. Um, so now what? And so now we just want to slide the paper off from the baking tray onto the surface. It just helps them cool down a bit quicker and stops the cooking process. Right, these are cooled down now, only took about 15-20 minutes and now it's time to fill them because traditionally macarons are filled. Yep. What, with normally? So usually a ganache or curd or buttercream, not usually regular American buttercream, something like Swiss or French because it's not too sweet. And what's your favourite filling? Mine has to be milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache which is a classic of Pierre Hermé who is the king of macarons. Yeah. Maybe we'll have to get the recipe off you, Dane. One day you'll get it. Great! Just for today we're going to 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 time for the filling. So we've 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 blob. So as you can see, Dane's piped enough ganache so that it fills to the edge when he puts the lid on. Yeah. So that is a nice amount of ganache. Yes, should be good. Let's do the rest of them. Okay. All right, that's them all sandwiched together. Is it 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 situation. Why, Dane? Why? It just matures the shell and you get that nice bite to the shell and chewy inside. That would be the perfect texture of a macaron. All right, well, I mean, I can't wait for two days, so I'm going to have to have one now. Is it allowed? Am I allowed? Just a little sneaky. I want one as well. Okay, good. Yummy, right? Yeah, that's really nice. A nice little chew in the centre but a little bit of bite on the outside. Yeah, not too chewy either. Like it's not sticking to my teeth or anything. This is good. Yum, we nailed macarons. We did. For you guys. Well, thank you so much, Dane, for sharing your macaroni wisdom and also for refreshing my memory. You're 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 them how to make macarons perfectly. So thanks, Dane. You're welcome. And if you want to see another Masterclass with one of the members of the Crumbs & Doilies team, 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. That's a good one. Otherwise, I will see you next week and in the meantime, I'm going to be eating a lot of macarons. I'm going to have another one. Great.