My Basic French Macarons with caramel chocolate filling

Selam everybody..... Merhaba from Türkiye




M a c a r o n s

İt' a flavoured meringue cookies

Has  smooth surface but chewy at the middle

Petite, and perfectly round

Filled with buttercream or ganache

Ribbon-soft in mouth for no doubt

Take two bites..  😍

Personally İ enjoy my macarons with dark Turkish coffee or just regular espresso.
Mostly at afternoon at 4 p.m , watching my favorite TV program or just wandering around then lost in the internet 😃
What do you see in the internet that can make you forget the time- or forget how many macarons did you eat already?...  😄

İ lost my self in the web world anytime İ click anything about cooking, start from bakeware sale until food photography.
And İ love crafting like crocheting, so İ mostly drifting away searching hundreds of patterns.. 😊

Eniweeeeyyy...my today post is my latest macarons baking. 
Yep... İ enjoy to eat them as much as İ love to bake them. Give me a pro camera then İ will capture them in many styles! 😊
They are so adorable in front of camera, don't you think so? 

What is macarons?
Macarons, a sweet treat meringue-based confection made of egg white, sugar, icing sugar, almond powder, and sometimes food coloring is added. 
The confection is characterized by smooth, squared top, ruffled circumference (referred to as the "foot" or "pied"), and a flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors that range from the traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to the new (foie gras or matcha).


Today İ'll share my basic French Macarons.
You can vary the filling with buttercream or other ganache or even cream cheese as you like. 
Below İ share my caramel chocolate filling and chocolate coffee filling, my most choice of filling.
Or you can Check my Macarons category in this link to see my other macarons recipes and variety and filling.

Do it ahead:

This step for some people is optional. Maybe since they already purchase "macarons baking mat" with ready circles on it. Or some people just accustomed bake macarons like hundred times 😏 . 
But for me who wants my macarons to have a precise size, I always do this step. Draw some circles over white paper like the picture below. The circle should have about 4 or 5 cm in diameter with about 2,5~3 cm space in between. İf you want your macarons bigger or smaller, draw in diameter as you want. You can keep this paper for later you bake another batch of macarons.
Put the paper underneath your baking paper. Slide off after you pipe your macarons.

Well.. if you want to bake them or looking for a simple recipe to make macarons... here you go.. 

My Basic Macarons recipe

For Macarons shells.

Make 30~35 pairs depending on how big you pipe your macarons

Ingredients:

• 70 gr egg white, room temperature
• 50 gr caster sugar 
• 100 gr almond flour
• 140 gr powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or any essence you like
• 2~3 drops red gel color (optional)- or any color you prefer

Making the macarons Shells:

1) Put almond flour and icing sugar in a food processor then process for about 3 minutes or so until you get a powdery mixture. Scrape down with a spatula to evenly fine the mixture and start process again until you get a fine powdery mixture.

Then sieve twice or three times into a bowl, press with back of the spoon until you get a fine mixture. Set a side.

Note : 

sift the dry ingredients a few times to aerate the mixture and for remove any big chunks of almond or pistachio flour to make smooth macarons cookie shells.

2) İn clean mixing glass/ metal bowl (do not use a plastic bowl) whisk egg white until foamy. 

Note:

It's important to keep your mixing bowl and utensil grease-free cause meringue very very very hate oil-even just a touch of it! Plastic bowl has risks with grease even after you clean them. I always avoid using plastic mixing bowl.

Gradually beat in caster sugar one spoon at a time. Continuously whisk between each addition. Keep whisking until glossy and stiff peak. 

3) After you get stiff and glossy egg white, dump all almond mixture to meringue, then with fold motion combine almond mixture with the meringue. At first 10th or 15th folds you may still get uneven/ rough mixture, keep folding until you get RİBBON STAGE, mild batter BUT NOT RUNNY. The batter should has ribbon stage consistency. You can see video below to see the ribbon stage should be, İ made it with different color.

4) Take the batter a few tablespoons and add gel food color, fold to blended well. Prepare round tip nozzle (about 2 cm diameter) attached to piping bag. 
Transfer the colored batter into a piping bag, arrange only at one side of the piping bag then pour with the rest of the white batter. We will have slightly marble pattern at one side.

5) Pipe the batter to prepared baking tray line with parchment paper Make space approximately 2,5 -3  cm between each round, rap that baking tray few times (each side) to remove the air bubble. İf you see some obvious bubble in the surface of your macarons you can puncture it with a toothpick. 

6) Let them sit for about 45 to 60 minute (depend on your local humidity and temperature) or until they dry on surface (when you gently touch it surface, it will not stick in your finger). This drying step to form "skin" on your macarons you'll get nice "feet" when you bake later.

7) Preheat your oven at 130 to 140 Celsius ( fan force) at least 15 minutes before baking time. Bake about 18 to 20 minute.  Test them 1st before you take from oven by press them gently, if it's strong and hard enough they should be okay.

Cool them completely before removing from parchment paper, otherwise, your macarons will stick on your parchment paper.

My macarons at these pictures has chocolate caramel filling. And here İ share my two ways of filling, you can try one or both. Each recipe enough for 1 batch my recipe macarons shell above.

For the Chocolate coffee filling.

Ingredients and how to make it. (it's enough for amount of this recipe)

• 80 ml heavy cream
• 80 gr dark cooking chocolate, finely chopped/ shredded
• 2 tsp instant coffee granule 
• 50 gr unsalted butter

1. Put chopped dark chocolate and coffee in a medium mixing bowl. Double boil heavy cream just until simmering. Pour it into chopped dark chocolate+coffee mixture, let it rest to melt for a few minutes--If you find your chocolate not completely melting, slightly double boil it and stir until melt.
2. Cream butter for 2 or 3 minute until smooth, slowly add in chocolate mixture. Whisk just until well blended for 1 or 2 minutes more.  Store in the fridge until it's ready to use.

Chocolate Caramel filling:

• 200 gr caster sugar
• 50 gr  butter
• 200 ml whole milk
• 150 gr dark or milk chocolate chip
• pinch of salt

How to:

1) İn heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the sugar. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon until it melts and changes color to amber. İt will look coarse-grained it first but it will melt soon. Just do not leave the pan, keep stirring.

2) Once all sugar melted and become dark amber in color, CAREFULLY add the butter, gently stirring until butter are melted.

3) Then SLOWLY add milk while you keep stirring your caramel-you should keep on eye if there is a little splash from the pan while you pouring the cream-careful not burn your hand.

Stir the caramel for 1 or 2 minutes more before adding the rock salt. Stir to dissolve well, let it bubbling 1 minute more before removing from heat.

4) Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chip, let it melt and stir to combine. Let it cool down and move to a piping bag. Set aside until you ready to fill macarons.

Assembly the macarons.

Pair your macarons shells that fit best together. Take one shell from each pair then pipe (or spoon) the filling. Place the second shell cookie pressing gently on the filling to stick them together.

Once all of the macarons are assembled, you should put them in an airtight container, store them in the refrigerator, and let them rest at least for another 24 hours, they are best after 24!

But if you planning keep you macarons longer, Just keep your macarons shell without filling. Store them in airtight container/ ziplock bag and keep in freezer up to 2 months (my own experience).

Happy baking everyone!

Check my other Macarons recipe HERE.

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If you making this recipe, please let me know. 

Use hashtag #citrashomediary_recipe and tag me 😊 Send me some 💚

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French sweets? Well, here a bit of history.

Macarons have been produced in the Venetian monasteries since the 8th century A.D. During the Renaissance, Catherine de' Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II of France arrived in France. Larousse Gastronomique cites the macaron created in 1791 in a convent near Cormery. In 1792, macarons began to gain fame when two Carmelite nuns, seeking asylum in Nancy during the French Revolution, baked and sold the macaron cookies in order to pay for their housing. These nuns became known as the "Macaron Sisters". In these early stages, macarons were served without special flavors or fillings.

It was not until the 1830s that macarons began to be served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The macaron as it is known today, composed of two almond meringue discs filled with a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache filling, was originally called the "Gerbet" or the "Paris macaron." Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Ladurée has sometimes been credited with its creation in the early part of the 20th century, but another baker, Claude Gerbet, also claims to have invented it. French macaron bakeries became trendy in North America in the 2010s