The phone rang late Sunday evening with one of our customers requesting information on the elegant, dainty and impressive litte macaron. The first words out of her mouth made time stand still, a teenager would describe it as ‘brain freeze’. “I want macarons for my wedding but I heard they melt!” My verbal response was a silent gasp, my mental response “whhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttt?” and imagine two massive eyes blinking at you in wonder and confusion. I then proceeded to let her know that this absolutely never happens unless you decide on an outdoor wedding in the noon day heat of April with Rose macarons as your preferred choice.
Me being me needed to know how she had reached this conclusion and after a few minutes I realised that she had been led to believe that they will melt at the drop of a hat as ‘buttercream’ (icing used on cakes) is used as a filling. Cue the silent gasp. It seemed my whole conversation with her was one of silent gasps. The rest of Sunday evening and Andy Murray’s Wimbledon final went by in a state of agitation. So I took it upon myself to right the myths.
You may wonder what right do I have to know what goes on with a macaron and how do I have the audacity to know the consistency. My background: eaten a few hundred of these on my travels in Europe as once you start I have realised that it is almost impossible to stop, and since the chance of weight gain is not as significant as a few other desserts I thought why not! Furthermore, I started baking these little treats in January 2012 for my clients. At the same time they (macarons) almost brought me to my knees from time to time as they are so temperamental. The first six months of last year had me camped out in front of the oven with a thumping heart and my hands in prayer, one tray would be fine and the other not so much. The kitchen table was filled with research of my time with these little divas and finally I managed to figure out the recipe for our humidity as well as our monsoon season. The first batch was vanilla and since then I have added pistachio, chocolate, caramel, salted caramel, coffee and rose. All in that order with more flavours on the way.
The macaron is a biscuit made from almonds, sugar and egg whites. This small round biscuit is crisp and tender at the same time and has transcended generations. To give you an idea, it was introduced to France from Italy in the 16th century by Catherine de’ Medici. Gourmands can forget their guilt as a macaron is just a little “mouthful” to lift the spirits and even allergy sufferers can enjoy this little treat as it is gluten free.
The fillings used in a macaron are all made out of almond and then some. A vanilla macaron will have either one of these three fillings (an almond cream, Chantilly cream with mascarpone and a vanilla crème mousseline), pistachio macaron (is a pistachio and almond shell filled with a pistachio cream, pistachio mascarpone cream and a pistachio chocolate ganache), a chocolate macaron (a chocolate ganache filling with the chocolate being used for the shell and the ganache being above 70%), Coffee macaron (coffee cream or a coffee jelly), caramel (with a freshly made caramel filling), salted caramel (with a freshly made salted butter caramel) and rose macaron (with a rose cream which is unlike the others and the cream does in fact melt in the April noon day heat)
What about fresh fruit in a macaron? This is a big no unless it is jellied into a coulis. But I have seen pictures? Those are just pictures. The reason a macaron is not filled with fresh fruit is because unless it is immediately eaten (which is never recommended) the moisture from the fruit will seep into shells and make them soggy. Why never eaten immediately? Once a macaron has been baked and filled they need to be put into a fridge so that their flavours can develop. They are at their best after 24 hours and at their worst in the first hour.
I hope a few doubts have been cleared and a clearer picture of this beautiful little treat, which has found its way onto our plates and into our hearts, has been achieved.
By: Dushinka Subramaniam
munchkinworld 