Baking Class: Macaron

I have always loved desserts. Desserts to me is the main course. Over the past year, I have grown to love macarons. It all started with Audrey’s Concerto‘s macarons. Since then I had always wanted to learn to make my own batch. It’s expensive buying macarons in the city. Audrey’s Concerto sells the small ones for $1.75 and big ones for $2.50.

After some research, I came across Sur La Table which offers a macaron making class called, Vive Le Macaron for $69. They don’t offer this class often and I immediately signed up for it.

Sur La Table had a spacious kitchen for their cooking class and we all worked in groups of 3 or 4. I worked with a couple, Alisa and Brian.

The first batch of macaron we were making were Strawberry with Champagne Buttercream. The almond flour, powered sugar and strawberry powder was already mixed by a food processor into a fine powder form. We went ahead to make the french meringue (Room temperature egg whites being whipped with a high percentage of sugar).

We wanted the meringue to be stiff, firm, and have a glossy peaked form.

We then added the food coloring and whisked it a little more to create the perfect peak!

Now for the macaronnage process! (It’s the process of folding the almond flour mixture with the meringue.)

Wah la! That was the macaronnage process. It was suppose to be a little less liquid looking and more dense. We over did it a little.

Now to put all of the macaronner (what we call the final batter) into a piping bag.

After we did that, we were ready to pipe our first batch!

This is chef/instructor, Katie Rosenhouse giving us a demonstration on the correct way to pipe the macaron shell.

I however didn’t quite do it correctly at first….

You see how Chef Rosenhouse and Brian was piping it straight and I was piping it at an angle. It’s not the best way to pipe. I corrected myself afterward. After this batch was placed into the oven, we started working on our next batch right away.

After 10 to 15 min in the oven, the first batch is complete! Some big and some small. It’s always 2 shades lighter then the macaronner.

The second batch of macaron we made was the Mint Macaron with Dark Chocolate Ganache. We repeat the whole process all over again with almost the exact same ingredients. Only difference was green food coloring and peppermint extract was added to make the meringue.

After the macaronner was done, we started piping again. My favorite part was the piping.

After adding cocoa powder to it, it’s ready to go into the oven! We’re also ready to make the buttercream for the Strawberry and Bacon Macarons.

We made two batches of buttercream. One of the buttercream was mix with champagne and the other was with maple for the Bacon Macarons. The buttercream was super sweet. When I try to make my own batch at home, I will try to make it less sweeter.

 

Chef Rosenhouse then proceed to help us make the Chocolate Ganache with 77% Dark Chocolate which will the filling for the Mint Macaron.

We repeat the whole process of making the Meringue again for the Bacon Macarons.

I had to add this sweet picture of Brian and Alisa together. They look so cute together! Wish my boyfriend would surprise me with a class like this. It was actually Brian’s idea to take the macaron making class together. Alisa didn’t know anything about it till she got there! So sweet!

After piping it, we added pieces of bacon on top of half the batch. The bacon leaves a great aftertaste in your mouth. Breathtaking!

When all the batches were done and cooled we added the buttercreams and chocolate ganache to create the fillings for the macarons! 3 batches of macarons in 2.5 hrs. If we were to prepare all the ingredients it would had taken a lot longer.

End result! Could had piped it better though…

Here’s a closer looks at them… We splited them 3 way, these were the little ones I were taking home! During the making process, we did plenty of in between tasting. I love the Mint Chocolate ones!

Final picture of me with my macarons!!! Great class, atmosphere, and instructor. Class Rating: A+