Robin's Egg Macarons

There are a number of pastry and dessert recipes that call for more yolks than egg whites, so every now and then the question of what to do with leftover egg whites comes up.

Making macarons is an obvious choice as it does require egg whites but no yolks.

There are three main approaches to making macarons depending on the way the meringue is prepared, for me the Italian method has worked most consistently. It may seem complicated at first as you have to make a sugar syrup for which you need a sugar thermometer, but so far I have always ended up with a nice, shiny meringue.

Macarons are truly variable, they are traditionally round shaped, but given the topic, this time I decided to make egg-shaped ones, colored and speckled like robin’s eggs. Also, I chose a filling to mimic the appearance of an egg. Yes, sunny side up …

Please bear in mind that the process involves aging egg whites, therefore you need to think ahead and get started 3-5 days prior to the planned day of baking!

Ingredients:

For making about 120 shells, that is 60 macarons.

For the shells:

• 150 g ground almonds
• 150 g icing sugar
• 55 g aged egg whites
• 1/3 coffee spoon blue food coloring gel
• a few drops of brown food coloring gel
• 150 g caster sugar
• 40 g water
• 55 g aged egg whites

For the filling:

• 100 g cream cheese
• 180 g icing sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

 For the quick mango jam:

• 200 g mango puree
• 50 g sugar
• juice of half of a lime 
• zest of a lime
• 3 gelatin leaves

Utensils:

• digital scale
• stand mixer with whip and paddle attachment
• food processor
• sifter
• silicone spatulas
• 3 pastry bags and piping tips
• mixing bowls
• small saucepan
• digital thermometer
• parchment paper
• baking sheet
• brush for making speckles
• template
• scissors
• zest scraper 

Aging egg whites is a simple process in the course of which it is left in the fridge for a couple of days so that proteins (albumen) are relaxed and it will be easier to whisk them into a lofty volume.

Weigh 110 g egg whites out into a glass, cover with cling film, poke with a pin (or tip of a sharp knife) several times and let it rest in the fridge for 3-5 days. Bring it to room temperature before starting the recipe.  

Before actually starting the recipe, get everything prepared.

1. Weigh out all ingredients.
2. Gather all utensils and make sure that everything is clean and grease-free.
3. If you wish to use a nozzle, prepare your piping bags (you’ll need one for the shells, one for the cream cheese filling and a third one for the mango jam). Using scissors, cut the top of the piping bag about 4 cm from the end and insert the nozzle firmly. Using a nozzle is optional, you might as well just cut the tip of the piping bag after filling it and use it like that. For piping the shells, I suggest a 6-8 mm round nozzle, whereas for the cream cheese filling a 4-5 mm nozzle (could be round, star, whatever you want).
4. Prepare baking trays. Print the attached template and lay it on the baking tray, then cover with parchment paper. Now, you can either print the template in the number of copies needed, or after you piped the first batch, you can remove it from underneath the parchment and use the same template for the next tray.

Sift together ground almonds and icing sugar. Sifting helps to aerate and combine ingredients.

Pour it into the bowl of a food processor (in several batches if yours is small like mine) and pulse until it has a powder consistency. Then sift again. 

Using the digital scale, separate the 110 g aged egg white into two equal parts, 55g goes into the bowl of the stand mixer, the other 55 g goes into a tiny bowl.

Add blue food coloring gel into the tiny bowl containing the egg white. Don’t be shy with coloring, we’ll be adding lots of fluffy egg whites to the mixture that will fade the color and so will baking. 

Precision is essential when making meringue. First things first, have your stand mixer ready, equipped with the whip attachment and the mixing bowl containing the egg whites.

Pour caster sugar into a small saucepan and add water.

Cook sugar over medium heat and when all sugar has dissolved, turn it to high heat, constantly measuring the temperature of the sugar syrup with a digital thermometer.

As soon as the sugar reaches 110 °C, switch the stand mixer on and start to whisk the aged egg whites to soft peaks at high speed.

Meanwhile, watch the thermometer closely and when the sugar reaches 118 °C remove the saucepan from the heat. In a thin stream running down the side of the mixing bowl, pour the hot sugar over the egg whites while whisking constantly. If you touch the mixing bowl from the outside, it is hot. Keep whisking until it feels just slightly warm. Congrats, you have just made an Italian meringue.

Pour the colored egg white over the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly until it’s like a paste (or wet sand).

Add 1/3 of the meringue and mix it really well with the almond and sugar paste to soften the batter.

Then add the rest of the meringue, but from now on, go carefully, and instead of mixing vigorously, just fold in the meringue with a silicone spatula. I usually start in the middle, go down to the bottom of the bowl, pull the spatula up along the side of the bowl, then rotate the bowl.

Keep folding until the batter is homogeneous and is starting to get glossy and it streams off from the spatula in a ribbon. That’s when the batter is ready. 

Take the first piping bag, fold out the top 10-15 cm and place it in a jug (or hold it in your half-opened hand, whichever feels safer) and fill with the batter. If you are not using a nozzle, this is the time to cut the tip of the bag off.

Squeeze the batter into the bag by twisting the end of the bag. This is to ensure that no air is trapped inside. 

Place the piping bag in a vertical position about 2 cm above the baking tray. Starting from the top of the first egg template, go down the left side of the line, then up on the right side following the line and then fill in the middle. Make a quick quarter turn to stop the batter flowing, or if used without a nozzle just pinch the end of the bag with your fingers. Keep piping until you have no batter left. 

To flatten the shells, lift the baking trays and tap them lightly on the counter a few times. Should you see any air bubbles on the surface of the macarons, get rid of them using a toothpick.

When you have finished piping the shells, mix a tiny bit of brown food coloring with a teaspoon of water. Using a brush, splatter the macarons with brown food coloring.

Wait until the top of the macarons dry completely aka a skin forms (you have to be able to touch them without fingers sticking). It may take 30-50 minutes depending on how damp the weather is. 

Preheat the oven to 145 °C and bake for 12-13 minutes, turning the trays half time.

You can make the fillings while the macaron shells are drying and baking.

Using the stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in the icing sugar and the vanilla extract and mix on medium-high speed until it becomes smooth and creamy. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small tip. Keep in the fridge until assemling the macarons.

Pour mango puree in a saucepan. Add in the peel of a lime and the juice of half of it. Add sugar and bring it to boil on medium heat, then cook for 2-3 minutes. Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water until they get soft. Remove saucepan from the heat, squeeze excess water out of the gelatin leaves and stir in the jam. Transfer into a piping bag and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes until it sets a bit, so that it will be easier to work with.

No matter how precisely you piped, there will always be a few bigger and smaller or oddly shaped shells. So next up is matching macaron shells into similarly sized and shaped pairs.

To assemble, pipe a ring of cream cheese around the outer edge of a shell, leaving a hole in the middle, where you pipe a bit of mango jam. Gently sandwich by pressing the paired shell on top. 

(Normally you'd hold the piping bag with one hand and the macaron with the other, but then I would not have had any hands left to take the photos.)

Macarons are the best served next day, so hold on a bit if you can, then enjoy!