I have listed these nuggets of knowledge below followed by my basic macaron recipe and a salt caramel filling recipe. I have used Ottolenghi's basic macaron recipe in the past but have been converted by La Duree's which have greater proportion of almond in them. That makes it harder to get a smooth texture but gives you a chewier result but I have found a way around this, which brings me onto my 10 pillars.
The 10 Pillars
1. Only use very fresh eggs
2. Either print the image below so it fills a sheet of A4 paper and place under your baking sheet to guide your piping or use something slightly bigger than a 2 pound coin to draw circles on your baking sheet. If your baking sheet isn't greaseproof on both sides, make sure you draw on the non greaseproof side before turning your baking parchment over when you use it to avoid getting marks on your macarons' bases.
3. For a delicate, smooth macaron shell, whizz the almonds in a food processor for around 10 minutes and then another 5 minutes with the icing sugar as well this brings out perfectly smooth ones.
4. Don't over-whip your meringue mix - you want it to be firm enough to just hold its peaks but not be dry
5. Fold the almond-icing sugar mix into the meringue mix in thirds using a metal spoon or plastic spatula.
6. Glue your baking sheet down with blobs if macaron mix in the corners so that you have a secure base to pipe onto.
7. Pipe your macarons out of a 1cm nozzle AFTER watching a few YouTube tutorials such a this totally whacky but useful one
8. Only cook one tray at a time
9. Turn the tray around half way through cooking in case your oven cooks unevenly
10. After 15 minutes they shouldn't have any moist slightly greyish bits and you can check the inside by smashing just one of the macarons on the baking sheet and seeing if they are too molten/moist.
Macaron Shell Recipe adapted from La Duree
Makes 25-30
165g ground almonds
165g icing sugar
125g egg whites (I used around 4 eggs)
125g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder for a caramel cream coloured macaron or a few drops of food colouring if making another kind of filling
To make the macarons, Preheat your oven to 150 degrees celsius with an oven rack in the middle (move down if they tend to brown). Prepare your baking paper with small circles to guide your piping later on (see pillar 2 above)
Blend your ground almond. Combine it with your icing sugar and blend some more. Sift the mixture through a medium gauge sieve.
In a large mixing bowl, beat your egg whites until foamy with soft peaks. Then slowly add the caster sugar beating on medium speed. Once the sugar has disolved, increase speed to medium high and beat until a thick glossy meringue forms that is not too dry. Add the cocoa powder or colouring and beat briefly to combine.
With a large flat rubber spatula, fold one third of your sifted almond/sugar into the egg whites until combined. Repeat, until you've added all the almond mixture and it is consistently mixed throughout.
Pipe your macarons onto onto baking paper that has been stuck to the baking sheet using macaron mix in each corner. Allow each batch to rest for 10-30 minutes before baking - you want a dry skin to have formed (you can check this by touching to see if it doesn't stick to your finger anymore).
Bake one sheet at a time for 15 minutes. To prevent hollows shells, take one macaron from the oven and break it open before removing the whole sheet. If the inside is still very moist or molten, leave the cookies in the oven for 1-5minutes more until the insides are set. This will prevent the insides from collapsing during cooling and forming hollows.
Allow the macarons to cool completely on the baking sheet before attempting to remove them (I mean completely!).
Fill the macarons with a small dollop (1/2 a teaspoon) of filling and then smudge them together. Anything too wet will make your macarons go soggy. Keep them in an air tight container. Refrigerate them overnight to amalgamate a bit. Then bring to room temperature and serve.
Salt Caramel Filling
If you are still feeling brave, caramel, like Macarons is a notoriously difficult kitchen feat. This recipe has split on my once but I have since adapted the recipe to include less butter and use a hand held whisk instead of an electric whisk. This involves quite a bit of perseverance but pays of when you have a beautifully emulsified filling at the end of it.
Ingredients
125g double cream
175g caster sugar
5g Fleur de Sel
150g butter
Chop your butter into small cubes
Weigh your sugar into a medium saucepan
Weigh your cream into a small saucepan and bring to the
boil, remove from heat as soon as it starts to boil
Commence cooking your sugar stirring very occasionally to ensure
that it caramelises evenly
When the sugar reaches a dark brown consistency remove from
the heat and slowly pour in the hot cream whilst continuing to mix with a
spatula
Let the caramel cool for 5 minutes and then stir in the
butter, a few pieces at a time. Pour into a shallow container and allow to cool
in the fridge.
Once TOTALLY COOL (could split otherwise), begin to whisk
with a hand held non electric whisk (again I find it is less likely to split)
and show a lot of perseverance, whisking until it suddenly emulsifies, goes
pale in colour and almost like whipped cream in texture.
Finally, spoon or pipe small blobs onto one of the macaron shells and sandwich with another. These keep in the fridge for a few days
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