Since trying these tasty little delicacies in a Ladurée shop in Paris, it has always been a wish of mine to bake them myself. The soft crunch of the shell, the slightly gooey but fluffy interior and a delicious filling all add up to a little piece of heaven, so as I had some time off over Easter I decided to give them a go. My uncle had bought me the Ladurée recipe book one Christmas, and armed with that recipe, I thought what could possibly go wrong!
I started by drawing out my macaroon sizes using the smallest cutter I had. Draw on the back of the greaseproof paper then your macaroons won't taste like pencil lead!
The first step is to blitz group almonds and icing sugar in a food processor until they form a fine powder. I didn't know icing sugar could get any finer but apparently so!
The next step is then to sieve the mixture to get rid of any large lumps of almond that may remain. Once you have done that your icing sugar and almond mixture is ready, called a 'tant pour tant' apparently (Answers on a postcard as to why please!)
The next part needs to be done quickly, so whisk the egg whits until they're frothy, then gradually mix in the granulated sugar for a minute after each addition. Fold in your sugar and almond mixture and you're ready to pipe! Make sure you have a big enough piping bag to fit all of the mixture at once or use two. I was slightly over zealous and tried to fit all the mixture in one and some of it rather oozed over my hand (and a little on the floor but we'll skim over that...!)
I bought a macaroon mould from Lakeland a little while ago, so I decided to test it alongside my greaseproof paper piped ones. I was very proud of the consistency as it was thick enough to hold its shape and was lovely and glossy. I think the greaseproof paper ones may have been a little large, but who doesn't like large ones of anything baked!
The macaroons were rising nicely in the oven and developed 'feet' as described which I was very proud of. The macaroons on the silicone tray looked lovely and glossy, however unfortunately the ones on the greaseproof paper did crack, but I was prepared to let that go being my first attempt.
I took them out of the oven after their allotted time and left them to cool on the rack. I poured a little water under the greaseproof paper onto the hot baking tray as apparently the steam helps the macaroons lift off from the paper more easily.
And that's when I stopped taking pictures...!
I don't think I baked the macaroons for long enough as all of them were very gooey and refused to come away from the silicone or the greaseproof paper! In fact I had to abandon all hopes of those beautiful little domes and had to resort to scraping them away with a palette knife, they were not pretty. They are current residing in a box in the kitchen to be snacked on when fancied. They may not be pretty but they're definitely delicious! I shall be trying these again, so keep your eyes peeled for more attempts in the future that will hopefully look better.
