Les Macarons, le premier essai!

I said I would, and I have! I have dedicated my sunday to making these sweet little french treats! I have spent my past two summers in Corsica with, no exaggeration, the Macaron Queen! I definitely fell on my feet with this aupairing "job". That's if beach by day, baking by evening and dining al fresco at night can really be considered a job! Delphine is definitely the best baker I know and has managed to perfect her macarons. If I send her pictures of a batch of biscuits or cupcakes I've made, she will immediately reply with her latest AMAZING macarons! Then again she does have the illusive Kitchen Aid... yes, that's definitely the reason. I would have to say that whereas Granny Spongecake taught me the basics of baking, Delphine has some seriously good baking tips and I regularly message to pick her brain during a challenging bake! 

So, the Macarons... 

I decided not to follow Delphine's unbelievably difficult and pernickety recipe and decided instead to go down the "macarons for dummies" "easiest ever macarons" "fool proof macarons" kind of route. I decided I would go for the BBC recipe (link below) from Lorraine Pascale's show "baking make easy", perfect. 

Tips and modifications:

The recipe was pretty easy to follow and worked well although there are a few things that aren't clear in the recipe. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/macaroons_04669

1. Take extra time to mix the almonds with the icing sugar and egg to avoid the "painted wall" effect. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing - as you will see below)
2. If you are using colour, add it to the almond paste and not the meringue, so not to risk losing too much air. If you are adding colour, add a lot! (hindsight again). When you then add the meringue the colour becomes a lot paler and (as you will see below) the colour may not be as bright as expected. 
3. When making the syrup, do not stir. Swirl the pan the help the sugar dissolve. (There's that hindsight again, take a look below!) 
4. I suggest, when baking the macarons, to instead set the oven to 155ºc fan and instead of leaving the oven door ajar to let out the moisture as suggested, leave the door shut and open 3 times during cooking for a few seconds to let out the moisture. Depending on the oven, I would also leave the macarons to bake for at least 16 mins. 12-15 mins was definitely not enough in my case! 

The filling - 

You can fill these little guys with anything you want. I decided to continue my chocolate orange theme and fill them with the chocolate orange ganache I used for Dan's cake. I have reduced the quantities so that you can buy a little pot of 150ml double cream which is more than enough for the quantities in the Pascale recipe. 

150ml cream
138g dark chocolate (cheap as you like!)
1tsp orange extract

Put the chocolate and cream over a bain marie with the extract until melted. Leave to cool and pipe! Easy as pie! 

And here they are, the little cuties... 

Aren't they cute! If ever so slightly reminiscent of burgers!

Can you tell which one was the first?

First attempt at sugar syrup! (Don't use a spoon!)

Never waste anything! Make a cute little tadpole! 

Et voilà, mes premiers macarons!