Raspberry Chocolate Macarons

Alright, here's the big kahuna, the Mount Everest of baking. The delicious and dreaded macaron.

This is a tried, tested and proven recipe. Pierre Hermes and Laduree, you ain't got nuthin' on me. You may rule Paris, but I got tropical weather macarons down pat. I've tried the Canele ones, and I must say, mine are just as good, if not better (can you see my head growing bigger?). Ok, ok... maybe not better but I definitely give them a run for their money. Not bad for an amateur baker with a 2m x 2m kitchen.

First, the essential must-haves:

• Weighing scale
• Silicon baking sheets (Silpat) or non-stick baking paper sheets
• Baking trays
• Mixer or wire whisk (I don't recommend whisking the meringue by hand. It is literally too painful.)
• Metal mixing bowls
• Spatula (plastic or rubber)
• Sieve
• Large piping bag with 1/2-inch round nozzle 
• Oven thermometer (if you don't have a digital oven)

Next, the  ingredients:

• Egg whites - aged in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, 48 is ideal
• Finely ground almond powder - also called almond flour
• Icing sugar
• Castor sugar - the finest grain sugar available
• 1/4 teaspoon of  cream of tartar

 Then, the basic ratios based on 1 unit of egg white of 50g:

• 1.3 almond meal x 50g egg white (1.3 x 50g = 65g almond meal)
• 1.6 icing sugar  x 50g egg white (1.6 x 50g = 80g icing sugar)
• 0.8 caster sugar x 50g egg white (0.8 x 50g = 40g caster sugar)
• Egg white 50 gm
• Total weight of ingredients = 235g

Preheat your oven to 160C.

Here's an important note: An oven that's too hot will cause the tops of the macaron shells to crack. If you're experiencing that problem, turn down the heat to about 150C. If you're making mini-sized petit four macarons (about 2cm in diameter or less), set the temperature at 140C.

Stack two or three heavy baking trays. Line the top tray with non-stick baking paper or silicon baking sheets. If you're not adept with piping, mark the paper with 3cm circles, spaced about 4cm apart.

Sift the icing sugar and almond meal into a bowl to remove lumps of powder. Set aside.

In a clean bowl, beat the room-temperature egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar until stiff peaks form and you have a firm, glossy and compact meringue. You'll know you have the right consistency when the peak of the meringue stands up by itself, like in the image below. If it flops over, it's known as soft peak and not done yet.

Sift the dry mixture over the meringue and fold in with a spatula using a circular motion around the bowl, scraping under the batter and folding it over. You don't need to be gentle, but don't beat the crap out of it either. The whole point is to mix in the dry ingredients quickly without over mixing the batter. It's better to under mix than over mix, because you can mix it more later if the consistency isn't right. Add colourings or flavourings at this point.

A quick note of colours and flavours. Use powder or concentrated gel colourings as it doesn't add more moisture to the batter. You didn't go through all that trouble to dry your egg whites just to put liquid back in. On flavours, use natural extracts rather than the artificial stuff. If you don't have the natural stuff, then it's better to leave it au naturel.

The final batter should be smooth and thick but flowing (often referred to as being "like magma", but like as if we've ever seen lava flowing out of a volcano before. Duh...). Basically, a ribbon of batter dropped from the spatula to the top of the batter should take about 30 seconds to disappear.

Spoon the batter into a piping bag/gun with a 1/2-inch nozzle and pipe evenly onto the baking paper/ silicon sheet in 3cm globs, spaced about 4cm apart (the piped batter will spread about 1 cm).

You'll get little peaks after piping like in the picture below. Mild peaks should settle back into the batter eventually. If they don't disappear, whack the tray repeatedly on a table until the peaks disappear. Usually the batter will spread a little and any bumps will disappear.

Let the piped batter dry so that a "skin" forms on the top  of each macaron. This can take from anywhere from 20 minutes to never in our humid weather, so have a hairdryer on standby. This post will explain why the skin is necessary and the hairdryer (yes, I know it's weird, but it works).

Bake the macarons tray by tray on the centre rack.

At the 5 minute mark the shells should have lifted and developed "feet". At the 6-7 minute mark they should be starting to colour just slightly. Rotate the baking tray if the colouring is uneven. Bake for 12 minutes in total.

Stand back and admire those pretty little feet. Yes, you're gorgeous... Yes you are!

If you are using a silicon baking sheet, allow to cool completely before removing the shells. If they stick to the sheet, place them in the freezer for awhile to help with the sticking problem.

If you're using paper, spritz a little water from a spray bottle under the paper while still hot. The steam created will help release the shells from the paper.

Lay the cooled macaron shells face up and match them according to size (this is where the anal-retentive part of me is really enjoying herself).

For the raspberry ganache filling, you will need:

• 85g fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao or more), finely chopped if not using buttons
  
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract

Melt chocolate with cream and butter in a metal bowl set over a pan of lightly simmering water (bowl should not touch the water), stirring until smooth.

Remove bowl from heat, then add raspberry extract. Let stand at room temperature until cooled completely, spoon into a piping bag and chill for 20 minutes till firm.

Now you're almost at the home stretch and ready to assemble the macarons.

Pipe a dollop of ganache onto one side of each shell, the size of a Hershey's Kiss. Gently press down to sandwich the two sides together.

Haha... I lied. You're not at the home stretch yet.

Macarons taste best when refrigerated and eaten the next day. The process of chilling in the fridge and warming back up to room temperature allows the moisture from the filling to meld with and soften the inside of the shells to create that unmistakable crisp outside and chewy soft inside.

Be patient and wait. It will be worth it. Oh yes it will.