One of the greatest French pastry masters does us the honour to teach us a pastry recipe.
Pierre Hermé meets Eric Kayser in his kitchen. He takes the time to explain each step of a macaron’s recipe. A nuance of flavour where the citrus fruit meets the nut.
So, follow the guide, and step-by-step, learn how to realise your homemade macarons.
The ingredients:
Macaron biscuit
300 g of ground almonds
300 g of icing sugar
300 g of sugar
75 g of water
2 x 110 g of egg whites
Few grams of free from artificial colouring
Flaked hazelnuts for the decoration
The ingredients:
Yuzu cream
150 g of yuzu juice
85 g of comfited yuzu
1,8 g of natural setting agent
90 g of cocoa butter
125 g of sugar
250 g of white chocolate
230 g of eggs (4 to 5 eggs)
The ingredients:
Hazelnut praline
160 g of peeled hazelnuts
30 g of water
100 g of sugar
1 reused vanilla pod
The utensils:
A thermometer.
A pan and its hotplate.
An electric stand mixer and its whisk.
Small bowls and mixing bowls.
A rubber spatula.
A pastry bag and its pipe.
A whisk.
A hand blender (ideally) for the yuzu cream.
A nuts mixer (ideally) for the hazelnuts’ praline.
A baking tray and its greaseproof papers.
Cling film.
The timings:
The timings:
Preparation of the macarons’ shells: a dozen of minutes (+ time to cool down the beaten egg white).
Crusting of the dough: between 45 minutes to an hour.
Baking of the macaron’s shells: 14 minutes at 170°C.
Preparation of the yuzu cream: a dozen of minutes.
Preparation of the hazelnuts’ praline: a dozen of minutes
Cool down of the cream and the praline: 2 to 3 hours.
Shaping of the macarons: a dozen of minutes
Rest in the fridge of the shaped macarons: 24h
The macarons’ shells
Mixed the ground almond, the icing sugar, and the natural colourings in a mixing bowl.
In the meantime, cook the sugar and the water in a pan.
Pour the white eggs in the mixer bowl and start the mixer when your water-sugar blending reach 115°C.
Then, when your water-sugar mixing reaches 118°C, pour it in the mixer bowl with the egg white.
Let the beaten egg and sugar blending cool down till it reaches less than 60°C.
Add the raw egg white to the almond-icing sugar blending.
And incorporate the meringue by blending from the centre up to the edges while turning the bowl on itself.
Then, macaron your blending: meaning folding down the pastry to soften it.
Cover your baking tray with greaseproof paper and form macaron regular shells with your pastry bag.
Hit your table with the tray to allow the biscuits to spread out and not becomes a meringue.
Decorate your shells with flaked hazelnuts.
Finally, let your macarons to crust for 45 minutes to an hour.
Place your macarons in the oven for 14 minutes at 170°C.
The yuzu ganache:
Blend your sugar and the natural setting agent.
Add the whole eggs and the yuzu juice and whisk.
Then, add the comfited yuzu.
Place your bowl in a bain-marie in a pan on your hotplate.
Heat till ≃ 85°C.
In the meantime, slightly melt the cocoa butter and white chocolate.
Pour a third of the 85°C cooked preparation on the chocolate blending. And whisk until the blending is homogeneous. Do it again, two more times.
You could guarantee the homogeneity and smoothness of the preparation by using a hand mixer placed at the bottom of your bowl.
Pour your preparation in a not-too-high bowl. Cover with cling film while assuring that the plastic touches the cream, so that she does not crust.
Leave the cream to cool down for two or three hours (it could be kept in the fridge for two to three days).
The hazelnuts praline
Roast the hazelnuts and remove their peels.
Cook the water, the sugar, and the vanilla pod in a pan. Blend and bring them to the boil at 120°C.
Pour the tepid hazelnuts in the blending till caramelization.
Pour this praline on a tray and let it cool down.
Roughly mix the preparation, in order to keep the little grains texture of the macaron.
Pipe the half of the macaron’s shells with the yuzu cream and complete with a bit of the hazelnut’s praline.
Close each garnish macaron with the other half of the shells.
Place your macarons in the fridge for 24 hours, in order to let the cream humidified the inside of the macaron, but to keep their outsides crunchy.
You could keep them in an airtight box in the freezer for two to three months. You will have to place them in the fridge the day before in order to let the cream-shell process works.
A tremendous thank you to Pierre Hermé for his great teaching skills and the sharing of his secrets.
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