How to make French macarons

It’s small, colorful, crunchy, chewy, French, and it’s taken the world by storm. A macaron is a sweet meringue basedconfectionery, made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling, sandwiched between two cookies. Its name derives from the Italian word maccarone or maccherone.

Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to the new (truffle, green matcha tea). The fillings can range from jams, ganache, or buttercream. Since the English word macaroon can also refer to the coconut macaroon, many have adopted the French spelling of macaron to distinguish the two items in the English language.

The macaron’s origin isn’t clear, but it may have been brought to France from Italy as early as 1533 by Catherine di Medici and her pastry chefs. Macarons gained fame in 1792 when two Carmelite nuns seeking asylum in Nancy during the French Revolution baked and sold macarons in order to support themselves, thus becoming known as "the macaron sisters." The macarons they made were a simple combination of ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar, without filling.

It wasn’t until the 1900s that Pierre Desfontaines of Parisian pastry shop and café Ladurée decided to take two cookies and fill them with ganache. Today Ladurée continues to be one of the first stops for macaron-crazed fans in Paris. No longer a humble almond cookie, the macaron turned into a versatilely flavored treat with a thin, light crust briefly giving way to a layer of moist almond meringue following by a center of silky smooth filling. 

Chocolate Ganache Macarons

Macaron shell ingredients (makes around 25 -30 macarons):

– 2 cups powdered sugar
– 1 cup ground almond
– 3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
– 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
– 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
– a pinch cream of tartar
– 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Ingredients for the ganache filling:

–          4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
–          1/2 cup heavy cream
–          2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes

Preparation:

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Fit a large pastry bag with a 1-1,2 cm plain tip; set aside.

Place the powdered sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment and pulse several times to aerate. Process until fine and combined, about 30 seconds. Sift through a flour sifter into a large bowl; set aside.

Make a meringue by placing the egg whites in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until opaque and foamy, about 30 seconds. Add the cream of tartar, increase the speed to medium high, and beat until the egg whites are white in colour and hold the line of the whisk, about 1 minute. Continue to beat, slowly adding the granulated sugar, until the sugar is combined, the peaks are stiff, and the whites are shiny, about 1 minute more. Do not over whip!

Transfer the meringue to a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the dry mixture into the egg whites in four batches until the dry ingredients are just combined. (The meringue will deflate.) With the

final addition, stop folding when there are no traces of egg whites, the mixture runs like slow-moving lava, and it looks like cake batter. (Do not over mix.)

Transfer the batter to the pastry bag. Pipe out 3-cm rounds about 3 cm apart onto the baking sheets, about 25 per sheet. Pick up the baking sheets and bang them against the work surface to help create the macaron base. Let the rounds sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to dry the tops and ensure even cooking.

Heat the oven to 180 °C and arrange a rack in the middle. Bake the macarons one sheet at a time for 7 minutes. Rotate the sheet and cook for 7 minutes more. Transfer the sheet to a rack to cool completely.

Make the ganache filling. Place the chopped chocolate in a large bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to boil. Stir it into the chocolate without creating bubbles. Let sit for 1 minute. Add the butter and stir until smooth. Chill in the refrigerator until thickened but still spreadable, about 30 minutes.

Pair macarons of similar size. Remove the ganache from the refrigerator. Scoop the ganache to about the size of a cherry (about 1 teaspoon) onto the centre of a macaron half. Top with another half and press gently so that it looks like a mini hamburger.. Refrigerate, covered, at least 24 hours before serving. 

crunchy – ropogós
chewy – rágós
to take the world – meghódítja a világot
meringue – habcsók, sült tojáshab
confectionery – cukrászsütemény
icing sugar – finom porcukor
granulated sugar – kristálycukor
ground almond – őrölt mandala
food coloring – ételszínezék
mildly – lágyan
moist – nedves
to melt – olvad, olvaszt
commonly – általában, rendszerint
buttercream – vajkrém
to derive – ered (valahonnan)
wide variety of flavors – ízek széles skálája
ganache – főzött csokoládékrém
to refer to – valamire vonatkozik
to distinguish – megkülönböztet
origin – eredet
pastry chef – cukrász
to gain fame – hírnevet szerez
Carmelite nun – karmelita nővér
to seek asylum – menedéket keresni
in order to – azért, hogy …
to support – támogat
…-crazed fan – … őrült rajongó
no longer  – már nem
humble – szerény
versatilely – sokoldalúan
crust – kéreg
silky smooth – selymesen sima
powdered sugar – porcukor
ground almond – őrölt mandula
unsweetened – édesítetlen
cream of tartar – tisztított borkő
bittersweet chocolate – keserű csokoládé
finely chopped – finomra vágott
baking sheet – sütőlap
parchment paper – sütőpapír
to set aside – félretesz
pastry bag – nyomózsák
blade – penge
to pulse – váltakozó fokozaton megy (konyhai gép)
to aerate – szellőztet
to sift – szitál
whisk – habverő
opaque – átlátszatlan
foamy – habos
to increase – novel
peak – csúcs
stiff – feszes, kemény
shiny – fényes
rubber spatula – gumi/szilikon spatula
to fold – belehajtogat/belekever
batch – halom, rakás
to deflate – leenged, lelohad
batter – nyers sütemény tészta
to bang – ütöget
work surface – munkalap/munkafelület
to arrange – elrendez
to rotate – forgat
to stir – kever
to chill – lehűt
thickened – besűrösödött
separable – elválasztható
to remove – eltávolít