Macaron Infiniment Cafe

I always think of macarons as little jewels of the cookie world. They’re a delicate, complicated cookie that’s a bit fiddly to make but so very pretty. I had made them exactly once before. After reading my review copy of the new Pierre Herme Macaron, I was inspired to try again. At the beginning of the book, there’s a story about how macarons were made at Lenotre pastry shop in Paris in 1976 when Pierre Herme worked there. Two vanilla shells were pressed together with no filling. The shells were baked on paper-lined baking sheets, and after baking a small amount of water was run under the paper to slightly moisten each shell bottom. That’s what made them stick together as a sandwich cookie. But, the most shocking part of making these early macarons was that they were baked on a hearth, and the baking sheets had to be placed in such a way to control the heat. Herme eventually moved on and perfected his own technique for making macarons including crafting inventive flavor combinations. This new book includes reinterpreted recipes from Herme’s early career as well as more recent flavors. Each recipe has its own instructions, and there’s also a separate kitchen guide for the basic steps involved that are the same for all macarons. For the most part, the shells are always made the same way but for many, different food coloring is added. The fillings, however, are all delightfully unique. For instance, for the Macaron Infiniment Mandarine, a mandarin cream is made with an orange and lemon curd mixed with melted cocoa butter. Chopped bits of candied orange are nestled into that mandarin cream inside each macaron. The Macaron Creme Brulee involves a vanilla ganache with salted-butter caramel shards, and the shells are vanilla on one side and coffee-caramel on the other. There are fillings with green tea cream and black sesame crunch, mint cream with sugared peas, strawberry compote and wasabi cream, lovage cream with green apples, and many more. I kept making mental notes of all the buttercream and ganache flavors I want to try. For my first attempt from the book, I went with the Infiniment Cafe because the shells have coffee flavor from extract and no food coloring, and the filling is a white chocolate-coffee ganache. 

Each recipe includes “liquefied” egg whites which are egg whites left to age in the refrigerator for five days or a week. The whites were placed in a bowl, the bowl was covered with plastic wrap, holes were poked in the plastic with a knife, and the bowl was refrigerated. The next step is to prepare the baking sheets. Circles were drawn on a piece of parchment paper. A second sheet of parchment was set on top of that template. When ready, the cookie disks were piped to the size of the circles. Then, the template piece was pulled from below and reused with new parchment on top for each baking sheet. Ground almonds and confectioner’s sugar were sifted together, and half the egg whites with added coffee extract were added to the ground almond mixture. The other half of the egg whites were whisked in a stand mixer while sugar syrup was brought to temperature in a small saucepan. The syrup was slowly streamed into the mixer while running to create the meringue. The meringue was folded into the ground almond mixture, and the batter was ready for piping. A piping pro I am not, and therefore my cookies were not all perfectly the exact same size. But, they were close. They were to be baked at 350 degrees F in a convection oven which I thought seemed a little hot for macarons. Also, I'm still getting to know my new oven and the convection bake option. Some of mine browned a bit, and I turned the heat down for the next pans that went into the oven. Next, the coffee ganache was made. White chocolate was melted, cream was steeped with ground coffee beans and strained, and the two were combined. The ganache was to chill for six hours before using. After leaving it to chill overnight, it still seemed very runny. I whisked it to thicken the consistency before filling the macarons. 

I felt like I had better success with these macarons that I did that first time just over five years ago. It almost seemed too easy. All of the little cookies had feet just as they should, and none of them stuck to the parchment or broke when I removed them from the baking sheets. The coffee flavor, the crunchy surfaces giving way to chewy middles, and that white chocolate-coffee ganache combined for dreamy cookies. I’m definitely less afraid of making macarons now and look forward to many more flavor combinations.

Macaron Infiniment Cafe
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from Pierre Herme Macaron.
 
Infiniment cafe is the expression of my work with coffee with Hippolyte Courty, founder of l’Arbre a Cafe in Paris. The Iapar rouge du Bresil coffee is both potent and soft, with aromatic notes of chocolate, cinnamon, spice, and a sharp touch of eucalyptus. It’s an exceptional coffee! 

MAKES ABOUT 72 MACARONS (OR ABOUT 144 SHELLS) 
PREPARATION TIME: 5 MINUTES (5 DAYS IN ADVANCE, SEE “MACARON SHELLS STEP-BY-STEP” IN THE KITCHEN GUIDE) 
COOKING TIME: 16 TO 18 MINUTES INFUSION TIME: 3 MINUTES RESTING TIME: 30 MINUTES REFRIGERATION TIME: 6 HOURS + 24 HOURS 

FOR THE COFFEE MACARON SHELLS 
3 cups (300 g) confectioners’ sugar 
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (300 g) ground almonds 
2 tablespoons (30 g) coffee extract, preferably Trablit 
7 large (220 g) “liquefied” egg whites, divided (separate eggs, place whites in a bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap, poke holes in plastic with a knife, refrigerate for five days)
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (75 g) still mineral water 
1 1/2 cups (300 g) superfine granulated sugar 

PREPARE THE COFFEE MACARON SHELLS. The day before, sift together the confectioners’ sugar and almonds. Combine the coffee extract with half of the “liquefied” egg whites. Pour this into the confectioners’ sugar–almond mixture without mixing. Add the remaining “liquefied” egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the wire whisk. In a saucepan, boil the mineral water and granulated sugar to 244°F. (118°C). As soon as the syrup reaches 239°F (115°C), begin beating the egg whites on high speed. When the syrup reaches 244°F (118°C), reduce the mixer speed to medium-high and pour the syrup in a steady stream down the inside edge of the bowl into the beaten egg whites. Beat the meringue until it cools to 122°F (50°C). Fold it with a silicone spatula into the confectioners’ sugar–almond mixture until the mixture loses volume. Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a plain #11, ½-inch (11-mm to 12-mm) pastry tip. 

FOR THE COFFEE GANACHE 
15 3/4 ounces (450 g) Valrhona Ivoire 35% white chocolate 
1/2 cup (30 g) Iapar rouge du Bresil coffee beans, preferably from l’Arbre a Cafe 
2 1/4 cups (520 g) light whipping cream (32%–35% fat) 

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Pipe disks about 1 1/2 inches (3.5 cm) in diameter and ¾ inch (2 cm) apart on the lined baking sheets. Rap the baking sheets on a work surface covered with a clean kitchen towel to gently smooth out the disks. Set aside for at least 30 minutes at room temperature to allow a skin to form. Preheat a convection oven to 350°F (180°C). Place the baking sheets in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, quickly opening and closing the oven door twice during baking to release moisture. Remove the shells from the oven and slide them still on the parchment paper onto a work surface. 

PREPARE THE COFFEE GANACHE. 
Chop the white chocolate using a serrated knife then melt it to between 113°F (45°C) and 122°F (50°C) set over a bain-marie or in a microwave. Grind the coffee beans. In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. Add the ground coffee and stir. Cover and let infuse for 3 minutes. Strain the hot cream through a fine-mesh sieve then pour it in thirds into the melted white chocolate, stirring after each addition starting in the center then in increasingly wider concentric circles toward the sides of the bowl. Pour the ganache into a baking dish. Cover it by gently pressing plastic wrap onto its surface. Refrigerate for 6 hours, just until the ganache has developed a creamy consistency. Transfer the ganache to a pastry bag fitted with a plain #11, ½-inch (11-mm to 12-mm) pastry tip. 

Turn half of the shells over with the flat sides up onto a new piece of parchment paper. Fill them with the ganache. Close them with the rest of the shells, pressing down lightly. Refrigerate the macarons for 24 hours. Remove them from the refrigerator 2 hours before eating them. 

I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program. 

Tweet

Chocolate Espresso Macarons

I am a food geek to the extent that I have cooking and baking goals. There are things I want to try, and I plot and plan for that some day when I'll have the time or the patience or the inclination to tackle them. French macarons were one of those things for many years. When the Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook was published back in 2005, one of the recipes she demonstrated from the book was French macarons. I already had to have the book, but when I saw that demo, I couldn't wait to have a look at that recipe. Then, over four years went by, and I never got around to attempting these little cookies. I've seen lots of other blog posts showing gorgeous examples of macarons, and I eavesdropped, so to speak, on Twitter conversations about baking macarons. Jamie from Lifes a Feast and Deeba from Passionate About Baking have created the MacTweets site that's all about macarons, and they encouraged anyone who hadn't attempted them before to go for it. I finally did it, and what you see here is my first ever effort.

The suggested recipe on the MacTweets site is from Helen at Tartelette, and it is very similar to the recipe in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I followed Helen's recipe exactly with Jaimie's suggestion for adding a little cocoa powder and espresso powder. I also heard from Jaimie that she uses pre-ground almonds rather than grinding them in a food processor, and I did that as well. So, the almond meal was whisked with confectioner's sugar, and then cocoa powder and finely ground espresso were added. Egg whites were whipped with granulated sugar, and then the almond meal mixture was folded into the meringue. I saw a useful tip in the Martha recipe for marking circles on a baking sheet by repeatedly dipping a one and half inch round cutter into flour and then pressing it on the silpat. Then, when piping the meringue, you have a guide for making the cookies all the same size. I was sure I owned some large, plain, piping tips, but when I went searching for them I found I only have star tips. I should take an inventory of my kitchen supplies. So, I went the cut a hole in a disposable piping bag route. The first hole I cut was, of course, too big, and the cookies spread a bit after being piped and I had to start over. The second time around, I made them very petite, inside the marked circles, and sprinkled a few bits of sanding sugar on top of each. I baked them at 280 degrees F, as instructed, and couldn't believe it when I saw that pretty, ruffled feet had formed.

I followed Helen's instructions for making a vanilla buttercream, and can I pause for a moment to dwell on the silky deliciousness that was that buttercream? One more moment. After letting the macarons cool, and then ever so gently peeling the silpat from the backs of them, and seeing a few of them crack and shatter, I filled the rest with that buttercream. For a touch of holiday spirit, I rolled the edges of exposed filling in crushed candy cane pieces. These cookies are a fun challenge in the kitchen, and the possible flavor combinations are endless. I don't think they'll ever become my favorite cookie to eat, whether I've made them or purchased them. They are light with a barely there crunch on the surface and a hint of chewiness, and the filling was extremely good, but they're also a little on the sweet side even for a cookie. I am thrilled, though, to have finally made French macarons and the experience has only increased my respect for those bakers who make them look so colorful, delicious, and effortless.

Tweet