Chocolate & Passion Fruit Sorbet Macarons
Makes around 40 macaron shells
Macaron shells:
100g aged egg whites (see below)
10g dried egg white
120g almond flour
200g icing sugar
25g granulated sugar
25g cocoa powder
Method:
1. Separate your egg whites and keep them in bowl covered with a plate or some kitchen paper at room temperature for at least 48 hours. If you would like to age them for longer, place them in the fridge. Sift ground almonds and powdered sugar together.
2. Whip the aged and dried egg whites with a mixer until stiff peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and keep mixing until it is all incorporated and the mixture turns glossy. Do not over mix the egg whites at this stage otherwise the macs turn out too dry.
3. Add the cocoa powder, ground almond and icing sugar to the egg whites and incorporate them into the mix.
4. Place a teaspoon of the batter onto a plate. If the top smooths out slowly, leaving a flat surface, then your batter is ready. If there are still peaks or ridges on the surface, give your batter a few more turns.
5. Place your batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain small tip. Pipe roughly 4cm rounds. Preheat your oven to roughly 150˚C. Leave the macarons out at room temperature for a minimum of 45 minutes until their outer surface forms a skin. Then bake for 15-20 minutes. You might have to turn the trays around or place them on a lower shelf half way through the baking process, depending on your oven. Another trick that worked for me was preheating the oven to 200˚C, then turning the temperature down to 135˚C, then baking the macarons for roughly 10 minutes. It's all about experimenting!
6. Remove from the oven and allow the macs to cool thoroughly before attempting to remove them. If you used a silicone sheet, they should lift off easily. If you used baking paper, the macs might stick to it, so just dab a few drops of water under the baking paper, then lift them off.
Passion Fruit Sorbet:
150g caster sugar
200ml water
200ml fresh passion fruit juice (you can substitute this for any other fruit juice)
a good pinch of turmeric for colour (or a drop of food colouring of your choice)
1. Heat the caster sugar with the water in a saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Stir the mixture until all the sugar has dissolved.
3. Turn up the heat and allow to boil for a few minutes until the mixture has reached a syrupy consistency. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Once cool, stir in the passion fruit juice and turmeric.
5. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions. Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can place the mixture in a bowl and place the bowl in the freezer for about an hour. Remove from the freezer and whisk. Place bowl back into the freezer for another hour and repeat the above steps two or three times until you achieve a smooth sorbet consistency. Then place in the freezer and allow to harden.
6. Place 1 tablespoon of sorbet on a macaron shell, cover with another shell and serve immediately. Alternatively, freeze the macaron shells, then place 1 tablespoon of sorbet on a shell, cover with another shell, and freeze immediately.
Macaron tips and tricks:
- Before placing the macs in the oven to bake, I found it best to keep the tray over the oven, while the oven was preheating. This formed harder shells faster.
- Before piping the macs, you could outline circles with a pencil and compass on the baking paper, as a guide before piping.
- You can either add the almond flour to the egg whites, or the egg whites to the almond flour, either way works.
- To get the right lava consistency, can I also suggest having an extra beaten egg white and also some extra almond flour. This way you can always add a little extra of each or either to achieve the best batter texture.
- If using baking paper, pipe a small amount of batter onto the four corners of the baking tray, then place your baking paper on top. This will stop the paper from sliding or moving.
- For extra tips and tricks, have a look at Mactweets to see a great selection of the macaron round ups they hold every month, with loads of tips and tricks for achieving great macarons.
