So I decided to have a go myself and when I came across the MACTWEETS blog I thought - hell why not.
Now to enter the Mac Attack challenge I understand that there has to be something NEW about ones macarons. Well these are new to me and I won't provide a recipe as such as I sort of made it up as I went along using the ingerdients I had to hand from my larder and referencing a number of different blogs and foodie sites and I'm sure every MacMaker has their own secret recipe tips and twists. This is more of a pictorial blog of my journey through making Macs for the first time...
I had 4 eggwhites left over from the pasta that I made for dinner last night so I used these as a starting point for my macarons - Some recipes that I have seen say that whites should be left uncovered in the fridge for a week before using, therese were only 24hrs in the fridge and would have to do. them from the fridge and letting them come up to room temperature before whipping them up with a small amount of icing sugar until glossy and stiff
Into a separate bowl I seived ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder.
I then folded the dry mix into the eggwhites and added some vanilla extract.
Being a techy geeky type I used photoshop to make up sheet of 1" (25mm) circles on a 2" (50mm) grid which I printed out a couple of times and stuck together to be the size of my baking tray.
I then laid a sheet of non-stick baking parchment over the layout grid on the baking tray and used the printed circles as a template for piping the macarons out.
After piping out two tarys worth I left them on one side for 30mins while the oven heated (180 degrees C) as I understand that the formation of a skin is very important especially if ones macarons are to have good "feet"!
After baking them in the oven for 15 mins they cane out looking quite good - I think the mix may have been a bit thick as although they did seem to have grown "feet" and puffed up a bit the little "nipple" at the top did not bake out. I transferred them to a baking tray with ease - some recipes suggest putting a bit of water on the hot tray under the baking paper to ease the macs off - this did not seem necessary with the non stick parchment I used.
While the macs were cooling I made a simple butter cream using Stones Green Ginger Wine as a flavouring - I love this stuff and of course chocolate and ginger is always a winner!
After pressing the nipple out of a half shell and piping a good blob of the buttercream on I stuck the other half on and set it out to serve.
I have to say I, and the rest of the family were very happy with the results - a really deep chocolaty almond macaron that was crisp on the outside but chewy in the middle was well balanced by the aromatic green ginger wine butter cream. Although not a strong ginger flavour you got the sense of ginger up through your nose as the alcohol evaporated and mingeld with the unctious chocolate! I could have used a puree of crystaised ginger, and may do in the future, but I guess macarons are a delicate amuse bouche and will defiantly be making them again now I have got the bug and next time will work on nipple less macarons!
