Welcome/Macaron Mania

Hello everyone, welcome to Two Spoonfuls! We are Hannah and Mary, twins from the Chicago Western suburbs attending college in Boston who love to cook, bake, and experiment with new recipes and cooking techniques! For many years both of us have wanted to start a blog to combine our shared interests in writing, food, and photography, and after experimenting with our first lifestyle blog Three of a Kind (along with our friend Bailey), Mary and I decided that making a predominately food blog would be the best way to share our passion for food with a larger audience! We are so excited to embark on this culinary adventure and hope you join us along the way!

We couldn't wait to begin our first post by sharing our great experience at a macaron baking class yesterday at Sur la Table! Although both of us have made macarons in the past, (and even taken another great macaron class at Marcel's Culinary Experience in Glen Ellyn) Sur la Table was offering 50% off cooking/baking classes and we wanted to take advantage of this great deal and hoped to pick up some new tips on making these finicky yet beautiful desserts. We ended up enjoying the class so much and learned some very helpful tips and tricks that we will definitely use in the future. Our macarons turned out beautiful, and we are so excited to share some fun pictures!

Piping the macarons onto the baking sheet!

In this class we made three different flavors of macarons as well as three varieties of fillings.  The green macaron is a pistachio with a lemon buttercream filling, the pink is a strawberry with a milk chocolate ganache, and the purple is a lavender with honey buttercream filling! 

The key ingredient to the macaron mixture is almond flour. When incorporating the almond flour mixture into the meringue, the trick is to use a spatula to lightly fold the ingredients together to ensure the meringue doesn't deflate and to ensure you don't over-mix the mixture. One way you can tell that the mixture is ready for piping is when the ingredients are combined and when the mixture falls from your spatula in one long, continuous ribbon. When the batter is done, the consistency should be thicker than cupcake batter and will have a bit of texture from the almond flour. If you over-mix, the macarons will spread into each other on the baking sheet! 

Perfect circles on the baking pan!

Piping the macaron mixture into perfect little circles can be a bit of a challenge if you are new to making macarons or new to piping! In this class we used a paper template with circles already drawn which allowed us to achieve a consistently sized circular shape! When piping the macaron mixture, make sure to hold the bag straight up and down and almost touching the surface of the parchment paper. If you pipe on an angle or not in the center of the drawn circle, your macarons will not have the beautiful even surface on the top! Another great tip is to make sure not to lift the piping bag as you begin to pipe the circular shape. Although the tendency may be to lift the bag up as the macaron size gets larger, moving the bag upward will create piles of macaron mixture (not a great look!) 

You can really see the "feet" or ruffled bottom edge! 

After you have successfully piped the macaron mixture onto the parchment-lined sheet pans, it is recommended to wait anywhere from 10-30 minutes before putting the macaron cookies in the oven. This will help create the pied, or foot, which is the characteristic ruffled edge around the bottom of the macaron cookies. Another helpful tip which helps prevent bubbling in the macaron cookies is to bang your pan on the counter several times to pop any air bubbles that may be present. 

Pairing the macaron cookies together!

After you take the macaron cookies out of the oven and wait for them to cool, you simply find two cookies of a similar size and match them together! You can really get creative with the fillings using anything from buttercream to ganache to lemon curd to your favorite jams or preserves! 

To get the vibrant color of the macarons, we used gel food coloring which also allows for the color to distribute more evenly throughout the cookie. One thing Mary and I want to experiment with is using natural food colorings, such as making a purple color out of red cabbage or a pink color using beets! 

One interesting thing about macarons is that they really taste better a day or two after they've been made. While you may not be able to resist trying one after you bake them, the flavors merry together so much better given a day or two! 

Here's the recipe for the Lavender Macarons with Honey Buttercream, enjoy!

Lavender Macarons with Honey Buttercream

     *Recipe adapted from Sur La Table Basics of French Macarons Class

Ingredients

• 7 ounces powdered sugar, divided
• 4 ounces almond Flour or meal
• 2-3 tablespoons dried lavender, finely chopped
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• preferred amount Wilton gel food coloring
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut in 1/2 inch cubes and softened
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sour cream or creme fraiche
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper on top of paper macaron templates.
2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse about a third of the confectioner's sugar with the almond flour and chopped lavender until a fine powder is formed. Transfer to a mixing bowl with remaining confectioner's sugar. Using a sieve or double layered mesh flour sifter, sift mixture four times onto a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.
3. To make the meringue: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip white and cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add granulated sugar. Once all sugar is incorporated and the mixture is thick, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add food coloring, and increase speed to high, whipping until stiff, firm glossy peaks form.
4. To complete the macronnage step: Sift the almond flour mixture 1/3 at a time over the egg white mixture and fold using a large spatula until mixture is smooth and shiny. Once all the almond flour mixture is incorporated, check for the correct consistency, as the batter should be nicely firm, have a float shine, and drip slowly from the spatula.
5. Transfer batter to a pastry bag, cut the tip or use a piping tip and pipe 1 1/3 inch rounds on parchment lined baking sheets. Gently tap the bottom of each sheet on work surface to release any trapped air. Let stand at room temperature for 10-30 minutes. Check for a slight crust to form on the macaron. The macarons should not stick to your finger when lightly touched.
6. Bake macarons one sheet at a time, rotating halfway through, until macarons are crisp and firm, about 10-15 minutes. If the macarons are still soft inside, lower oven temperature to 300 degrees, cover with aluminum foil and bake for a few more minutes. If the top of the macarons look crinkled, the oven temperature may be too hot. Allow macarons to cool on baking sheets for 2-3 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely before filling.
7. For the Honey Buttercream filling- In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip softened butter until light and fully. Sift confectioner's sugar to remove any lumps, and add to the butter, mix until well combined. Add the honey, sour cream and salt, whip until smooth and creamy.
8. Pipe cherry sized portion of buttercream onto macaron half, top with second macaron had, gently pressing just enough to push filling towards edges. Once filled, macarons can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days.

I hope you enjoy these pictures and the great recipe! If you have any great macaron tips and tricks or some lovely photos, please share! We have many more fun posts in the works so stay tuned!