The Daring Cook's October 2009 Challenge: Violet Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Visit Ami S - LAmonkeygirl at http://bakingwithoutfear.blogspot.com/

I have made some lovely little violet macarons complete with dried violets sprinkles for everyone to enjoy. I normally use the Italian Meringue technique, but as this was a challenge, I have used the recipe given by Ami S.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz) confectioners’ (icing) sugar

2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz) almond flour (meal)

2 tablespoons (25 g, .88 oz.) granulated sugar

5 egg whites (approximately 165 grams. 5.8 ounces) (at room temperature)

a few drops each of red and blue food colouring

whole crystalised violets (found in a speciality kitchen shops)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Add a few drops each of red and blue colouring until a pretty violet colour is obtained, making it brighter than the required finished colour as it fades during cooking.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper) and sprinkle whole crystalised violets on top of half of the shells.

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: This recipe is supposed to yield 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons. (As was mine)

For the violet ganache:

50g unsalted butter

50g almond meal

100g confectioners (icing) sugar

1 teaspoon violet flavouring
a few drops each of red and blue colouring

Process almond meal and icing together same as for the macarons. Cream the butter and gradually add almond mixture. Add 1 teaspoon violet flavouring and a few drops each of red and blue colouring to make a pretty violet colour.

Finishing off: Pair up similar sized macarons, with one macaron turned face up. Pipe approximately a teaspoon of filling on to the turned up macaron, twist the pair together until filling comes just to the edges of the macarons. Place in a small paper cup cake patty to set.

Storing: Keep the unfilled shells in a container in the fridge and they will be more tender. Macarons can also be frozen. Freezing has a tenderizing effect but at the same time, the shells will be weaker than before being frozen. To defrost, remove the macarons from the freezer and place them in the refrigerator overnight. This minimizes condensation on the shells but also gives them a bit of shininess.

Note: The violet flavouring is from a French company: - Sevarome- Z.A La Guide 1 43200, Yssingeaux Z.I. La Guide, France
Tél : +33 4 71 59 04 78
Fax : +33 4 71 65 54 24
Email: info@sevarome.com
Web: Sevarome.com

Don't forget to visit the other Daring Bakers and for some fabulous tips visit Audax Artifex at http://audaxartifex.blogspot.com/