Macaron. A single word to strike fear and lust into the hearts of baking enthusiasts, myself included. These small desirous goodies are temperamental and prone to inducing obsessive like behaviour in otherwise normal people. I’ve made these a couple of times, based on a Martha Stewart recipe but they were never brilliant and were ridiculously hard to remove from the parchment. So like an abused baking enthusiast, I would curl into a foetal position whenever someone suggested I make them again.
I did find this recipe, one of the many, many post it noted, in How to be a Domestic Goddess and with a bounty of beauteous green and pink hued pistachios set about breaking the curse. I did experience some bad luck while making these. Indeed there was a pistachio shell amongst the shelled pistachios which found its way to the bottom of the piping bag rendering it stuck. And can I tell you something you probably already knew, reaching your hand into the rough, stickily sweet raw macaron mixture is not at all pleasuresome. I think sticking my hand in it ruined the beautiful lightness of the mix too and the best looking ones were the ones that I piped before the shell blocked the pipe.
The ones that I placed on the top tray of the oven were beautiful-and joy to behold, with the frilly foot! But they were also more caramel shaded than green. I had turned down my fan forced oven to 160c. The ones in the middle oven tray were a light green but they also cracked in the middle but also with the frilly foot! Sorry to go on about the frilly foot but I was terribly happy to see them, particularly since the ones in Domestic Goddess didn’t really have any. Also the recipe was supposed to make 40 single macarons (20 welded together) but mine only produced 15 single macarons. Perhaps mine were a lot bigger at 6cms diameter which is not huge by any means but perhaps Nigella means mini macarons. In any case I halved the buttercream quantities and came out with the correct amount of buttercream for my macarons.
I also took the advice of macaron obsessive David Lebovitz who amusingly documents his macaron baking adventures here. He suggests “rapping the baking sheet hard on the countertop to flatten the batter before baking” which I did. I can only presume that it helped with the frilly foot as Nigella didn’t suggest this and her pictured ones didn’t have them. He found that leaving them to develop a shell didn’t help his cause but Nigella’s recipe only required waiting for 10 minutes so I figured I may as well do that while preheating the oven.
On the left hand side, paler green but cracked macarons baked on the middle tray, on the right hand side, the darker macrons not cracked baked on the top oven tray
So whilst the colour might be slightly off, I can say that I do consider these a success. They are incredibly sweet so I would toy with the idea of reducing the amount of sugar or changing it to a flavour like lemon for the next batch.
The next batch? Did I actually say that?
Nigella Lawson - Pistachio Macarons from How to be a Domestic Goddess
These are the world’s most elegant macaroons. The color alone, that waxy pale jade, perfectly matches the aromatic delicacy of their taste; and their nutty chewiness melts into the fragrant, soft paste with which they’re paired. Of all the recipes in this book, this is the one of which I think I’m most proud: biscuit bliss.
These are perfect at the end of dinner alongside some confectioner’s-sugar-dusted raspberries; or alone with coffee, gracefully piled on a plate or cake stand.
Ingredients
For the macaroons:
- 75 grams pistachios
- 125 grams icing sugar
- 2 large egg whites
- 15grams caster sugar
For the buttercream:
- 55 grams pistachios
- 250 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 125 grams unsalted butter, softened
Preparation
- 2 baking sheets, lined with parchment paper
1. Grind the pistachios in a food processor along with the icing sugar (this stops them turning into an oily mess), until as fine as dust (I didn’t grind them that finely as you can see). Whisk the egg whites until fairly stiff, but not dry, sprinkle the sugar over and whisk until very stiff. Fold the whites into the pistachio-sugar dust, and combine gently.
2. Pipe small rounds onto your lined baking sheet, using a plain 1 cm nozzle. Let them sit for about 10 minutes to form a skin. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4
3. Rap the baking sheet hard on the countertop to flatten the batter before baking, then put in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes: they should be set, but not dried out.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool, still on their sheets, while you get on with the filling. This is simple work: grind the nuts and confectioners’ sugar in the processor as before; then cream the butter and continue creaming as you add the nut dust. Make sure you have a well-combined soft buttercream. Then simply sandwich the macaroons together.
From How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
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12 Comments | Add your own
Stop it NQN, just STOP IT. I almost made these on Saturday! Now wouldn’t that have been something? Synchronized macarons! However… my oven conspired against me and decided not to regulate temperature any more and boiled (!!!) a cake i was making (Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake from HTBADG) within 25 minutes. I still have the ingredients and now an oven thermometer, so i may attempt these soon - they look great!
Hi Nic-No way! That would be hilarious if it were simultaneous baking although truth be told I made these the week before.
Oh no, a temperamental oven? That’s no good and for the temperamental macaron, even worse! But boiling a cake, that’s a pity
These look oh so dainty and sweet! I’ve always shied away from baking these but you may have encouraged me to give it a go after seeing just how pretty your macrons looked! I can just picture serving these at my next afternoon tea.
Congratulations on the wedding anniversary AND the blog nomination! Well deserved. I do enjoy visiting your site each day!
I love your honesty and how you share with us what was wrong and what was right. I imagined they’d be very sweet biscuits.. but they look so tempting.. So delicately beautiful, and yes, like I’d want to make these too! You’ve done a great job yet again!
Re: my bagel video.. thank you so much for your compliments. It took about 2 hours to do..which is a quick video for me. I take into account uploading the camera photo’s.. choosing which one’s I’ll use.. editing the photo’s (lighting.. contrast..that sort of thing).. Then putting it all together in Windows movie maker. I have over 40 video’s now on YouTube.. it’s something I really love to do.. being creative like that.
I sincerely want to thank you for inspiring me to bake those bagels (It ended up being a joint effort as you know.. I’m glad hubby and I shared that experience together).
Anyway… keep cooking/baking/documenting/blogging!!
oh, oh, oh…how gorgeus and delicate these look! i am so tempted to try and make some but i fear my patience might be seriously lacking for such a delicate mission…hmmm, but if i see many more piccies like this on your site i might just have to trade cupcakes for macarons for once
Got to love those frilly feet! How big did you pipe them on the tray? Last time I made them, they spread out like biscuits so were too large to sandwich together.
Hi Sally-Definitely give these a try but be confident, I think a Macaron smells fear
They are really perfect for an afternoon tea though, your guests will be in raptures!
Thankyou so much, that’s nice to hear and so lovely that you come to visit every day!
Hi Maria-Thankyou! Yes sometimes recipes have issues and I like to let people know of any if I can.
I’m going to check out your other videos on Youtube! That’s great, the video makes it look like fun
I’m glad you really liked the bagels, yours looked absolutely perfect!
Hi airy fairy-Macarons can be a real baking addiction. Right about now, I’m trying to think up the other flavours that I want to make. Just like cupcakes really!
hi
i used to make 4 trays of tiny petit four-sized macarons at work every morning and this recipe is fairly easy to master. we used to sprinkle them with brightly coloured and crushed meringue or little bits of various crushed nuts. i hope you’ll be encouraged to try again!
280g almond meal, sifted
480g icing sugar, sifted
200g eggwhites
· combine the almond meal and icing sugar in a large bowl
· beat the eggwhites in an electric mixer on high for 50 seconds or until medium-firm peaks form (1-2 tsp of powdered colouring can be added here).
· gently fold the eggwhites into the dry ingredients and then place into a piping bag with a round size 7 nozzle.
. pipe into 10 cent-sized pieces on heavy baking trays, sprayed and lined with baking paper, then tap the underside lightly with the palm of your hand to smooth.
· allow to rest for 15-20 mins until skins form (it helps with the smoothness of the end result)
· bake in a convection oven preheated to 135ºC for exactly 14 mins (the low temperature prevents cracking and keeps the centre moist, and be sure not to peek too early or they could collapse)
Hi Cathy x- thanks for that, it sounds quite similar in technique with the rapping and allowing 20 minutes to allow the skins to form. But the cooking time is different, that’s really good to know!
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