By Tarun Kapoor
Delicate, airy, subtle, and exotic — this is how I define the French macaron. It has an almond, sugar and egg white-based shells. The shells are light crunchy texture on the outside and are slightly chewy on the inside. These shells are held together by a filling, generally made from a ganache or meringue or jam. The word macaron comes from the Italian macaroni which defines as “a pasta dish with cheese”. For a long time macaron not just referred to a cookie but the savory pasta preparation consisting of flour based paste cooked with spices and grated cheese and served with the sauce.The origin of macaron is still not clear but most of the stories related state that it was brought from France to Italy by a princess who got married in Italy and also took her chefs along with her to her new place. Another story states that two nuns in order to support themselves in their asylum started selling macarons. They simply made a cookie with a combination of Ground almond, egg white and sugar and people started liking it as they were 100% cookie without any special flavour or filling. In the 19th, century macaron was no longer a humble cookie. Chef Pierre of Parisian Pastry Shop and Café Laduree decided to take two cookies and fill them with ganache. Even today the pastry shop Laduree continues to be one of the first shops for macaron lovers in Paris. Now the macaron has turned into a versatile flavoured cookie with a thin light crust briefly giving way to a layer of moist almond meringue filled with a silky smooth filling. I would say macarons were popularised by a New York Restaurant where the macaron were sold in gift boxes of different sizes and many flavours. Later on it was found that no one else was selling it on their own and French restaurants used macaron as ornaments to decorate their cakes and desserts or serve them as petit fours. Another close resemblance to macaron is the macaroon— do not confuse yourself as they are both entirely different cookies from different parts of the world. Preparation of both starts with a meringue base, then the French macaron gets finely grounded almonds and the American one has shredded coconut folded in before baking them until crispy outside and chewy inside. I will discuss the American Macaroon later in the coming weeks to make them both clear to you. Till then enjoy this French macaron recipe.French macaronIngredients For cookiesIcing sugar 1 cupAlmond powder ½ cupEgg whites 2 noKosher salt A pinchGranulated sugar 2 tbspAlmond extracts ¼ tspNeon food colouring 3-5 dropsFor ganacheMilk chocolate 50 gmUnsalted butter 1 tbspCooking cream 1 tbspVanilla extracts Few dropsMethodFor the cookies, preheat the oven to 160 Celsius and line a baking tray with butter paper. Sift icing sugar and almond powder, and keep aside.Whisk egg white and salt until frothy and light, gradually add the granulated sugar and continue to whisk until the sugar is dissolved.Add the almond extract and the food colour to the mixture.Gradually add 1/3rd of the sugar and almond mixture to the above mixture and blend until combined.Add the remaining mixture also— the batter needs to be fluid and not too runny.When you lift the batter with spatula and let it fall in the mixture the batter should form a dollop for few seconds and then mix with the batter.Transfer the batter to the piping bag— squeeze until the batter forms a circle on the butter paper lined tray.Gently flatten using damp fingertip if the cookie is not flat.Bake in the oven until the macarons are crisp on top and the bottom leaves the butter paper, remove from tray and allow to cool down. For the ganache, combine chopped chocolate and butter in a bowl and keep on boiling water to melt.Once the chocolate and butter are combined well stir in cream and then remove from heat.Set aside to cool down and stir occasionally.To assemble the cookies, spread a thin layer of prepared chocolate ganache and top with second cookie, press gently to spread the ganache till the rim of cookie.Note: getting the batter to the right texture is the key to a perfect macaron. It’s better to have a stiffer batter rather than a loose one.
♦ Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to: exe.chef@horizonmanor.com