giant raspberry macaron - Cooking TV Recipes

giant raspberry macaron

This giant version of a classic French macaron, filled with raspberries and sweet cream, is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Author: The Chef

Cuisine: American

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

For the macaron shells:

150g almond flour
150g powdered sugar
55g liquefied egg whites (see below)
150g caster sugar
38g water (yes grams not mls)
55g liquefied egg whites
crushed freeze dried raspberries
2 drops pink food gel
Fresh raspberries
Pastry cream
3tbsp sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
6 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 cup whipping/thickened cream
2 tbsp powdered gelatine + 3 tbsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g unsalted butter

Instructions

Pastry cream
To prepare pastry cream begin by adding sugar and flour to a large microwave safe bowl. Whisk together until well combined. Next add the egg yolks, whisk and then add cream and milk. Whisk everything together until well combined.
Microwave for 1 minute at a time, whisking each time until thickened. It may take up to 15 minutes.
Add gelatin and water to a mixing bowl and mix together. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Add vanilla butter to the thickened custard and whisk until melted. Then add gelatin mixture and whisk until well combined. Lastly add vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until set.
Macarons
Add half the icing sugar and almond flour into a food processor and process until well combined. Repeat with the other half. This will help get rid of any lumps in the sugar. Alternatively you may sift the two together. This must be done at least 3 times.
Empty the almond mixture into a large mixing bowl, add the first portion of egg whites and mix until it forms a paste. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
Add the sugar and water into a small saucepan. Give them a very gentle stir to get them mixed together. Bring to a boil on medium high heat, then turn down to a simmer. Add a candy thermometer to the pot to help you measure the temp of the syrup. As the syrup bubbles away it will splatter small bubbles of sugared water on the sides of the pot. Use a pastry brush dabbed in a little water to brush those back into the syrup. This will help prevent the syrup from crystallising. When the syrup reaches 115C, add the second portion of egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and start whisking them on medium/high speed to help break them apart and get them a little frothy.
When the syrup reaches 118C, pour it over the egg whites in a slow and steady stream. Whisk to stiff peaks for about 6 min. Add the pink food gel and vanilla extract at about the 3 min point, whisk into the meringue for a couple of minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down, then whisk for an extra couple of minutes. When you can turn the bowl over and the meringue doesn’t fall out, you know you’ve reached stiff peaks.
Grab a spatula full of the meringue and fold it into the almond-sugar mixture, mix until well combined. This allows the mixture to thin out a little before you add the rest of the mixture. Fold everything together by going around the bowl with a spatula then through the middle (as demonstrated in the video). Continue folding until the batter gets thin enough that it drips off the spatula and falls in a ribbon. It should take about 10 seconds for the ribbon to disappear into the rest of the batter. That’s when you know the batter is ready to pipe.
Spoon the batter into a piping bag with a round tip.
Use a medium sized snack plate (measuring about 15cm in width.) use a food safe marker to draw a circle on to some baking paper. Turn the paper around so they marker side is down. Pipe a circle of batter around the circle using your drawing as a guide. Then pipe a snail of macaron batter to fill the perimeter. Sprinkle with crushed freeze dried raspberries. You’ll need two of these.
Gently tap the tray on the work surface covered with a kitchen cloth. Leave to stand for at least 30 minutes, until a skin forms on the shells. They shouldn’t be sticky when you touch them. It’s at this point that you can preheat a fan forced oven to 140C (280F)
Bake for 20 minutes. If you feel your oven is causing the macarons to brown on one side (usually the side closest to the fan) turn the tray around about half way through baking. Once they’re baked, let them cool completely.
Once the macarons are baked and cooled, very carefully turn then upside down on to the palm of your hand and peel the paper away from the bottom of the macaron.
Pipe blobs of pastry cream on one of the macarons. Don’t pipe all the way to edge because you’re going to add raspberries to the sides of the macaron.
Once you’ve piped the pastry cream, add some raspberries on top and pipe a second layer of pastry cream on top but not as high as the first layer. Add the fresh raspberries around the perimeter of the macaron and sandwich with the other macaron.