S'more Macarons

Happy Fourth of July! I figured it would be fun to share these S'more Macarons with you today, since this particular holiday is a perfect barbecue holiday. And what better treat to top off a barbecue with than a s'more? You know what I'm talking about. Just before you retire the grill after an evening of cooking up burgers and hot dogs, you toast up a bunch of marshmallows and smash them between some graham crackers and chocolate. Mmm!



Now, I have a confession to make here. These macarons did not come easily for me. I managed to get them to turn out looking relatively pretty in the end, and they tasted really, really awesome! But for some reason I have not been able to make them as well as I did the very first time, which was about a year ago. Maybe it was beginners' luck; maybe I got overly confident after that and just assumed that I'd always be able to turn out lovely-looking macarons thereafter. I don't know, but I definitely have not duplicated my first success with them.



Last week, I made the above macarons; what a disaster those were! I think my problem was the almond flour I used. I had been storing it in the freezer (I'm not sure I should have been doing that in the first place), and recently our freezer had been left open too long one day and things started thawing out. I believe that some moisture may have gotten into the almond flour bag, and the excess moisture created a problem when I was making the macarons. The batter was incredibly runny; the macarons almost immediately began running into each other on the baking sheets! I decided to bake them anyway (because, really, why not?) and they still tasted okay. I knew that I needed to try again, though. My confidence was low, and I wanted another chance to redeem myself!



This time around, they turned out a lot better. Granted, the macarons were just a little bit too big, and the feet on the bottom of each shell ended up being pretty imperfect. They formed out on the sides, rather than underneath the shell. But the cookies taste wonderful, and the filling definitely works great and reminds you of a real s'more. I simply took some marshmallow fluff straight out of the jar, put a scoop on one macaron shell, then slapped some dark chocolate that had been melted down with butter on another macaron shell. Finally, I sandwiched the fluff half and the chocolate half, then put them in the fridge to help them set and the chcolate to harden back up. They're wonderfully soft and dreamy, but then the outer shell of the macaron gives it that little bit of crispiness that's such a great texture contrast. It may not be the traditional graham cracker/Hershey's combo you're used to, but it's a really fun spin on the old standard!





S'more Macarons
adapted from Tartelette
makes about 32 shells (for 16 sandwich cookies)

Ingredients
90 g. (about 3) egg whites, aged for at least 24 hours
110 g. blanched almond flour
200 g. confectioners' sugar, sifted
30 g. granulated sugar

Directions
1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites until foamy. Slowly drizzle in the granulated sugar, then continue whipping the egg whites until you have achieved medium (floppy) peaks.

2. Meanwhile, sift together the almond flour and the confectioners' sugar, making sure to discard any larger bits of almond you may find. Add the almond flour mixture to the meringue. Begin folding the almond flour into the meringue quickly, taking care to slow down as the mass begins to come together. Continue to mix just until the mixture becomes uniform and slightly runny. When you lift up your spatula and allow a few drops to drip back into the bowl, it should run back into the mixture by the count of 5. The whole mixing stage should not exceed 50 strokes.

3. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Transfer the batter to a large pastry bag fitted with a large, plain tip. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as possible, then begin piping your macaron shells. Pipe small rounds (about 1.5 inches in diameter) onto the baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

4. Give each baking sheet a firm rap on the counter, to release any air bubbles. When the bubbles rise to the surface, you may pop them with a toothpick. Allow the unbaked macaron shells to sit on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, to harden their outer shells.

5. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Bake each sheet, one at a time, for about 10-12 minutes, depending on their size. Allow them to cool on a rack before attempting to remove the shells from the parchment. Once they are cool, you may fill them.


S'more Filling

Ingredients
1 jar marshmallow fluff (you do not need the entire jar)
1.5 oz. dark chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. light corn syrup
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions
1. In a small saucepan, melt together the chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter over low heat. Once melted, stir and allow to cool slightly before using.

2. To assemble the S'more Macarons, scoop about a teaspoon of marshmallow fluff onto one macaron shell. On a second shell, spread the chocolate mixture. Sandwich the two halves together, then repeat with the remaining shells. Refrigerate the macarons for at least 30 minutes to set them before serving. Leftover macarons can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Absinthe Macarons

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to make something green. Call me crazy, but I didn't really care what it was I made. It could have been just about anything, as long as it was bright green and festive-looking. I wanted to show my Irish spirit! And since I have been wanting to give macarons a second go (I attempted them for the first time back in July, with great success), I decided to kill two birds with one stone recently and make green macarons.



My husband is a fan of absinthe, or green fairy. It's a French liqueur, strong in fragrance and potent in its licorice-like flavor, known for supposedly causing hallucinations in people (such as artists) to enhance creativity. I don't care for it at all myself, but the hubby definitely has acquired a taste for it. He made a not-so-subtle request not long ago, telling me he would like me to create a dessert for him that incorporated absinthe as an ingredient. He did a bit of Internet research and found that somebody had made Absinthe Macarons.

The blog post he found about this, on Baker of Brighton, describes absinthe well and gives a bit of history on it. The recipe follows at the end of her post. I think she created the macaron recipe herself, and it's a great recipe. She utilizes ground anise seed in her macaron shells, for the abinsthe flavor (since both absinthe and anise have that distinctive licorice flavor). Then, she uses matcha powder (green tea powder) for the green absinthe color. For the filling, she whips up an absinthe swiss meringue buttercream, tinted green with food coloring.



I was very happy with the way my first tray of macaron shells turned out. I did everything exactly as I had before (with the exception of using pre-ground almond flour I bought from the store, rather than grinding my own almonds like I did last time). I folded my ingredients carefully and got the proper consistency. I allowed my shells to sit, unbaked, for over an hour to help develop their firm exterior. When I removed them from the oven, they looked gorgeous and I was thrilled with them. The problems really began when I baked my second full baking sheet. With those, the baking sheet was much larger and could hold many shells. I piped about 2 dozen macarons onto that sheet. When I went to check on them in the oven, they seemed to be taking a lot longer to bake. I was nervous and did not want to overbake, so I ended up taking them out of the oven too soon.

About 15 minutes later, I attempted to peel them off the parchment, and disaster struck. They wouldn't budge. The bottom part, or belly, of the shell was firmly stuck on the parchment. When I went to remove each one, the top of the shell would crack and basically crumble apart. They were so fragile, so delicate, that there really wasn't anything I could think to do to save them. In the end, I managed to salvage nearly 2 dozen shells total, which allowed me to make a dozen sandwich cookies. Not a total failure, but it left a lot to be desired. Fortunately, we didn't really want a huge batch of these lying around because Andy is the only one who would be eating them.

There's a few things I think I may have done wrong. The first and biggest is overloading the baking sheet. I read somewhere that this can create too much humidity in the oven. It could have been avoided by leaving the oven cracked while they baked, but I didn't know that beforehand. The next problem was that I tried to remove them from the parchment without giving them time to really, fully dry out. Because they were underbaked, it would have been helpful to leave them sitting out, undisturbed, overnight and then attempt to peel them from the parchment the next day. And finally, raising the oven's temperature a few degrees or allowing them to bake a few minutes longer might have salvaged things, too.



Now that I've troubleshooted (or is it troubleshot? I never know) what may have gone wrong, I'm eager to try again. I hope the third time I make macarons is a charm! But at least this time I did manage to put together enough macarons to make Andy happy. He loved them. He couldn't believe how much they really did taste like his favorite liqueur. The absinthe buttercream was pretty amazing, even if I did put a smidge too much green food coloring into it. It's justified, though. You can never have too much green on St. Patty's!

I like to use Tartelette's guide to macarons, which can be found here. The Baker of Brighton's take on Absinthe Macarons can be found here.

Macarons: Victory is Mine!

Okay, confession time. Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of the French macaron. I had never even lain eyes on these fancy little confections. But being the avid reader of food blogs that I am, they couldn't escape my notice forever. Finally, I began to see the macaron popping up all over the place. It started slowly at first. Then, all of a sudden, they were everywhere! They were even in the advertisements that would appear on the sides of my computer screen. Suddenly, I wanted to know more about these cookies. What was their story?

A little bit of research told me a few things. First, I learned that macarons were sandwich cookies. The fillings could be just about anything you could think of. Each side, or shell, of the sandwich were delicate little cookies made by whipping egg whites to stiff peaks, folding some ground almonds and powdered sugar into them, and piping this mixture from a pastry bag out onto a cookie sheet in small circles. Then they are set out to rest for a while to dry out, and finally baked in an oven on a low-ish heat.

Next, I learned that although the above instructions sound easy enough to carry out, these macarons were actually temperamental little devils. I discovered horror story after horror story from people on the Interwebs who had failed, flopped, or otherwise been extremely disappointed with the final result of all their labor in the kitchen.

It turns out that the folding of the ingredients is a very tricky and exacting step in the process. Just one fold too many, and you can ruin your entire batch of macarons. Too few folds, and your under-mixed concoction can yield disaster, as well. Also crucial, gross as it may seem, is to age your egg whites before using them. A good thing to do is to separate your eggs, yolks from whites, and leave your egg whites sitting out of the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours, or as long as 48 hours. Bizarre, but I figured if it was going to increase my chances of producing a good macaron, I was willing to try it!

So obviously by now, you have probably figured out that I decided to try my own hand at making macarons. It sounded so complicated, so potentially doomed to fail, that I just knew I had to do it. I loved this idea of a challenge, to maybe accomplish something in the kitchen that not everybody can. I was pretty much banking on a failure my first time, but I knew I'd have fun trying!

I did my research, and then I set out to do everything meticulously, carefully, so that I wouldn't miss anything or do anything to mess myself up. The egg whites were nice and old. My almonds had been ground with my powdered sugar, sifted to remove any larger pieces of nut, and then weighed and measured right up to the gram. I set up a pastry bag with a small round tip, took a deep breath, and began to whip my whites.

I knew that, at the very least, my macarons wouldn't look absolutely perfect. I was unable to find blanched almonds, which have the skin removed from them and have a nice, uniform color. Mine had skin and that would lend a speckled effect to my shells. But it wouldn't affect the taste any and I thought maybe it would add character to mine.

As I rolled along in my preparations, I became increasingly confident. Everything seemed to be going exactly as I would have hoped. When I folded my mixture (nervously, I might add), I stopped right when it appeared to be flowing in nature, but would smooth out if you were to drizzle some from your spatula back into the bowl. I actually had to roast some veggies right after I was finished piping my macaron circles, so the macarons had the opportunity to rest at room temperature for about 90 minutes before I could get them into the oven. I worried a bit that it was too long of a resting period, but I figured it would be okay since I had read somewhere that they could rest from 1 to 2 hours.

I set my oven timer for 10 minutes, slid my first batch in, and held my breath. The moment of truth, I've heard, comes at about 5 minutes in the oven. At that point, your macarons should just start developing their "feet," that little shelf they stand on once they're baked. They rise just so, and their feet form underneath them, and they begin to look just as they should. And when I checked mine, lo and behold, the feet were there! I was very ecstatic at that point, but I knew they weren't finished baking and I didn't want to count my chickens (my macarons) before they were hatched (...or baked?).

As you can see, they did turn out great! They came out all cute and "foot"-ed, and they came off the parchment paper I had baked them on incredibly easily. The bottoms even looked perfect; they weren't hollow or cracking or anything. I do acknowledge that I need lots of practice with piping these though. The tops aren't perfectly smooth, as they should be. That could either be a result of my batter being slightly underbeaten (thus not allowing the tops to smooth out or settle on their own) or my own shoddy piping work. Either way, this was my very first attempt at macarons and my results far exceeded my expectations! They turned out delicious, with a nice delicate crunch on the outside and a soft, pillowy inside. And they're cute, too!

After some debate, Andy and I decided that for a filling, a lavender-infused white chocolate ganache would be divine. I have to say, the white chocolate may not have been the best choice. I would have liked something maybe less sweet, to complement the light sweetness of the macaron shells. A bittersweet chocolate would have worked beautifully. Overall, though, I am very proud of my maiden voyage into the world of macarons, and I hope to be able to duplicate these results much more in the future!

I couldn't have done it without reading this. It's an article detailing how to make macarons, complete with pictures and step by step instructions. It was written by a seeming macaron expert by the name of Helen for a magazine a few years back. The fabulous blog Tartelette, written by Helen, is a great resource as well. The lady knows her macarons!

I used her basic macaron recipe, which is in her article, with the exception of adding a scant 1/8 tsp. of cream of tartar to my egg whites. My white chocolate ganache recipe came from her article, as well. I just added 1/2 tsp. dried lavender to my cream, heated the cream just to boiling, and then strained out the lavender right before pouring it over the chocolate. It couldn't have been simpler. I can't wait to try out some more flavor combinations!