The patissiers of Barcelona's Casa Leopoldo, Rocío Parejo and Eddi Artega today offer one of our most requested dessert recipes: macarons. With the method to make them chef Romain Fornell is going to show us you'll see they're a lot easier than you might imagine!
Macarons (not to be confused with macaroons) are a traditional French sweet treat, a type of biscuit filled with cream, made from egg whites, almonds and icing sugar. They stand out for their original colours: the classic brown, or red, green, yellow, whatever shade of food colouring happens to take your fancy.
They are a very sophisticated dessert, a classic of French patisserie. In France you see them regularly in the windows of bakeries and even specialised shops.
The term macaron comes from the word maccarone from Sicilian Italian, which in the 15th century designated a kind pasty food.
Ingredients:
- 45 ml/1.6 fl oz natural egg white
- 125 g/4.4 oz sugar
- 60 ml/2.1 fl oz water
- 45 ml/1.6 fl oz pasteurised egg white
- 10 g/0.4 oz cocoa powder (sieved)
- 250 g/8.8 oz ground almonds (sieved)
- 250 g/8.8 oz icing sugar (sieved)
Recipe:
- Mix the pasteurised egg white with the cocoa powder until smooth
- Put the natural egg white in a bowl and whisk at medium speed
- Meanwhile, heat the water and sugar
- Wait until all bubbles in the syrup disappear then add it to the whisking egg
- Whisk for about another minute until the eggs shine
- Add the ground almonds, icing sugar and chocolate and egg mixture and mix with the paddle
- Add half the mixture to a piping bag
- Pipe separated circles of mixtures, the size you want, onto greaseproof paper on a baking tray
- Cook at 150°C/300°F for around 10 minutes then leave to cool
- Finally, take two of similar sizes and sandwich them, filled with jam or cream