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Daring Bakers, October 2009 – Macarons

Chocolate 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.

Somehow, the theme for DB and kuVarijacije was the same this month. So, as I was already late, plus never ever tried to make macarons before and read all over the blogosphere that DB recipe turned into a disaster for too many bloggers, I decided to go with a recipe from Da mi je nešto slatko that was chosen for kuVarijacije. So, even dough it was my first time, and I haven’t managed to grind almonds perfectly (I didn’t even blanch them), my macarons turned just fine and not a single one cracked. So, please forgive me for making a different recipe :D

Chocolate Macarons

Macarons
(original recipe based on Tartelette’s famous one)

3 (about 100 g) egg whites that spent a day on room temperature
50 g sugar
200 g powdered sugar
110 g blanched almonds
40 g cocoa powder

Grind almonds with powdered sugar as fine as you can. Beat egg whites stiff with sugar. With energetic movements whisk in almond/sugar mixture. Pipe macarons on a pan covered with baking paper (this amount is for 2 oven pans). Let them stay like that for an hour. Bake for 12 minutes in in a preheated oven on 150°C.

Pierre Herme’s Chocolate Cream

150 g butter
160 g dark chocolate
100 ml milk

Melt chocolate with half of the amount of butter in a double boiler. Remove from heat and stir in remaining butter. Stir in warm milk. Cool in the fridge before assembling macarons.

My notes: I have written direction plain as that’s how I worked. Mostly, I have to thank Monika for this great article that cleared all the confusion and encouraged me (it’s in Croatian, but I hope Monika will translate it soon). I don’t know if this was beginners luck, I’ll make them again and see.

One more thing :) Just when I got my second batch out of the oven I dropped it on the floor and burned my fingers on hot pan. The first batch was a test one, and those macarons were all different size, so I managed to assemble 5 “good looking” ones. Seems like that even if you manage to bake them fine, they’ll find a way to make you mad :)

Note: Ovo je ujedno i moja ulaznica za ovomesečne kuVarijacije, koje je osmislila mamajac, a gde pravimo Macarons.

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31 Comments

  • Andrea October 30, 2009 12:33 pm

    Marija ispali su ti savršeno. :)Mislim da nije stvar u početničkoj sreći nego si naprosto pogodila trenutak kad treba prestati miješati. :)Što se tiče mljevenja badema ja ih meljem u zepeterovom mixsyju i on ih je u stanju pretvoriti u prah. :)Mislim da mu je mlinac za kavu najslićniji. :)Ponavljam, savršeni su, to je sve što mogu reći! :)

  • Ljilja October 30, 2009 12:46 pm

    Prezivele su ti bas fino uspele :)Ja se jos nisam usudila da ih napravim, a svaki put kao cuvam preostala belanca za njih. Svidja mi se fotka, predivna je.

  • Sweet Corner October 30, 2009 1:19 pm

    savrseni su!!!!

  • Sook October 30, 2009 1:24 pm

    Oh wow… the pictures are making me drool all over my laptop! :) Looks really good!

  • Snooky doodle October 30, 2009 2:21 pm

    oh wow these are so perfect :)

  • cosmo2503 October 30, 2009 2:22 pm

    Prekrasni macarons. Čestitke od srca, sve ti je naprosto savršeno

  • Audax October 30, 2009 2:28 pm

    Bravo and kudos to you they look marvellous NO they look sublime they look EXACTLY beautiful crisp shiny shells and large straight feet. PERFECT. I'm glad to hear that you took notice how hard the DB recipe was and used Helen's wonderful recipe it is a lot less temperamental and better of beginners. Beautiful beautiful beautiful chocolate macarons. And chocolate is the hardest flavour to do since the cocoa is so acid will changes the structure of the protein in the ipiping batter. Cheers from Audax in Australia.

  • Rosa’s Yummy Yums October 30, 2009 3:23 pm

    Wow, what perfect macarons! They could be sold in Ladurée's stores!Cheers,Rosa

  • peasepudding October 30, 2009 5:09 pm

    They look fabulous and if a recipe works for you don't even try another where macarons are concerned! I wasn't 100% happy with mine but it means I have an excuse to try again and perfect them :o)

  • Rochelle October 30, 2009 7:37 pm

    Perfect macarons and so yummy!

  • Cookin’ Canuck October 30, 2009 8:00 pm

    Your macaroons are beautiful and what a gorgeous photo! Well done on the recipe – you made it your own.

  • Daydreamer Desserts October 30, 2009 9:14 pm

    Those are just beautiful, great job!

  • Josipa October 30, 2009 11:59 pm

    izgledaju savršeno, kao najljepši božićni poklon :) drago mi je da su nekome ispali dobro unatoč onoj nezgodi, znači da je moguće :)

  • maslinka October 31, 2009 12:24 am

    predivno, predivno, predivno… savrseno si ih napravila!

  • Monika October 31, 2009 12:42 am

    fenomenalno izgledaju! svaka čast…

  • mamajac October 31, 2009 5:32 am

    Neverovatno su lepi. Ali neverovatno. I ne da si ih dobro ukomponovala u okolinu, nemam reci. Svaka cast!

  • Lisa October 31, 2009 9:59 am

    Some of the most perfect macarons I've seen in this challenge! VERY WELL DONe and they look delish! Love the photos too!

  • Jill October 31, 2009 10:15 am

    Well done! Your macarons are beautiful and I love the picture–these would perfect for the holidays! :)

  • Tina October 31, 2009 7:12 pm

    Lovely and cute Macarons….Perfect presentation and clicks…

  • Y October 31, 2009 7:16 pm

    Perfect looking macarons! Love how you presented them too.

  • Jenny Tan November 1, 2009 12:20 am

    Perfect looking macs. Wonderful job. I followed the recipe…and it didn't turn out right. :(

  • Lara November 1, 2009 3:33 am

    They look so beautiful!! And the way you took the photo, just awesome!!I made my first macs this month, also my first challenge (yeah a real newbie), found your (absolutely beautful) photo in the DK blog and just had to read your story and recipe ;-)Un abrazo desde España!

  • Chou November 1, 2009 6:32 am

    Beautiful! Congrats on Top 9 today.

  • Namratha November 1, 2009 4:17 pm

    Gorgeous photos and macs!

  • Penny November 1, 2009 9:25 pm

    Your Macarons look so beautiful…great job…I would like to know when that article you mentioned is translated :)

  • Marija November 2, 2009 3:30 am

    Penny, no problem, I'll post a comment on your blog to let you know when it happens :)

  • Julia @Mélanger November 4, 2009 5:48 am

    Your macarons are fantastic. Can't believe you hadn't made them before!

  • toffo November 5, 2009 10:23 am

    So beautifully photos.

  • Junglefrog November 5, 2009 3:19 pm

    That was your first time to make macarons?? Wow… they look fantastic! And very good to have picked another recipe as I did not like the challenge recipe one single bit!

  • Laura November 6, 2009 6:03 am

    You truly have golden hands, Marija!!! :)These macarons look fantastic!

Comments are closed.