Today I will be showing you my interpretation of Pierre Herme’s macarons. I’ve tried to keep the recipe as similar as possible to the original for my “Laudurée VS. Pierre Hermé” post. The changes include using gel food coloring instead of powder, using granulated sugar instead of caster in the syrup, and substituting almond extract for bitter almond essence.

Although Pierre Hermé uses a completely different technique to make meringue, the biggest difference between this macaron recipe and any other recipe that I’ve done is the addition of unbeated egg whites to the dry ingredients. Also, this recipe uses a Italian meringue  which is adding a sugar syrup boiled to the soft crack stage instead of adding granulated sugar to the meringue.

Ingredients

Macaron Shells:

• 300g Ground almonds
• 300g Icing sugar
• 110g Aged egg whites
• yellow food coloring
• green food coloring
•  300g Granulated sugar
• 75g Mineral water
• 110g Aged egg whites

Pistachio Ganache:

• 300g Liquid creme fraiche or heavy whipping cream
• 300g White chocolate
• 45g Pistachio paste (or 45g unsalted pistachios, blended with the cream)
• 1 or 2 drops almond extract

Method

Macaron Shell

Pulse the the icing sugar and ground almonds and sift twice. Stir the colorings into the first portion of the egg whites. Pour them over the mixture of icing sugar and ground almonds but do not stir.

Bring the water and sugar to boil at 118C (244F). Start whisking on low when the water boils. When the syrup reaches 115C (239F), simultaneously start whisking the second portion of liquefied egg whites to soft peaks on a medium speed.

When the sugar reaches 118C, pour it over the egg whites. Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50C. Fold meringue into the almond-sugar mixture. Spoon the batter into a piping bag and pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment.

Rap 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.

Preheat the fan oven to 180C (356F), then put the trays in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during cooking time. After 12 minutes, remove the macarons and slide the shells on to the work surface.

Pistachio Ganache

Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. If you’re using pistachios blend them with the cream. Otherwise, bring cream to the boil with the pistachio paste. Stir, then pour over the chocolate a third at a time.

Blend for 10 minutes with a hand blender. Pour the ganache into a dish. Press plastic over the surface of the ganache and set aside in the fridge for the ganache to thicken. Pipe a generous mound of ganache on to half of the shells then top with the remaining shells.

Store the macarons in the fridge for 24 hours before serving.

Thanks Sara for being my hand model 🙂