Projekt: My amateur Chocolate Macarons

Macarons is new in my life. I fell in love with them, as I started foodblogging about a year ago. There's a blog writer who I should thank for introducing me to macarons, she who travels to paris occasionally and she wrote and posted a lot about macarons. At that time, I have never seen macarons 'live' but still so interested in them because they looked so lovely. Well, if its french pâtisserie, it is near to perfection.

I was intriqued to make macaron mostly because of how they look, they are also hard to find, unless you live in Paris of course. I have only eaten them once bought in Lindts Confiserie in Zürich and they were perfect. They were called Luxembürgerli instead of macarons, I'm not sure why but I heard it was because they were tinier and rounder. Sadly I couldn't find macarons to be sold anywhere else here where I live.

I have tried a few macarons recipe, semua tak jadi. This one is my best one ever. The macarons doesnt look like proffesionally made, but I'm still rather satisfied.

Chocolate Macarons

(I made a small batch just to try, if you want to make more, just double everything)

1 egg white, around 30g at room temperature

75g powdered sugar, sieved

60g powdered almond, sieved

1 teaspoon kakao powder

Sieving everything is important! Prepare everything and make sure all utensils are dry. Prepare a piping bag. After sieving the almond powder, mix with the kakao.

Beat the egg white until very-very stiff, add teaspoon at a time the powdered sugar. When finished, beat the batter some more for a few minutes. Using a spatula, add the powdered almond, first at a small amount and fold in gently. Do not overfold! The batter should still hold its form, make sure batter not too runny.

Put everything in a piping bag and pipe small portions onto a baking parchment. Pre-heat the oven at 150°C. Let the batter 'dry' for 1 hour in open air, after the hour you should be able to touch the surface of the discs.

Bake for 6-8 minutes. You will find that the disc will form 'feet' as they bake.

My feet are not perfect, because they come out from the sides. They should rather form at the bottom of the disc. After baking, let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet. Peel them carefully from the parchment.

Cool them on a rack.

For the filling: 150ml whipping cream, heated in the microwave. When the cream is warm, break 100g bitter-sweet chocolate into it and stir to form a chocolate cream. Place in the fridge to cool. When completely cooled, whip to get a fluffy texture.

When the disc are ready to be filled, arrange them in pairs according to their size. Fill them with chocolate cream or just plain strawberry jam and match the disc together.

Let the macarons rest for a few hour and after that they are just perfect to be relished.

We ate ours just in one go!..