Multicultural Inspiration from…
France
“Remember that time we were at your uncle’s 50th birthday, and they had those awesome pistachio macaroons? They were awesome…”
Sous-Jeff isn’t a man of many words, but he certainly knows how to make a point. He’s also not a fan of the French, citing that they’re arrogant and full of themselves, and are only good for 4 things: Kronnenburg Beer, croissants, Tony Parker and Thierry Henry. He doesn’t actually know any French people, nor has he been to France, but he’s fairly certain in his convictions. However, at my uncle’s 50th birthday party, he added a 5th thing to his list – the pistachio macaroon. He’s never been a fan of macaroons before, labeling them the most over-rated dessert to come out of MasterChef. Personally, I’m a fan, but only if they’re done well. So, with that surprise comment of his out of the blue, I decided that it was finally time for me to face my culinary fears, and try to make a batch of pistachio macaroons. The stakes were high and the odds already stacked against me. With that, I prepared to battle grounds and took to the pantry, armed with my Australian Women’s Weekly High Tea cookbook. Here’s how it went down…
To make a batch of approximately 15 pistachio macaroons with white chocolate and honey ganache filling, you’ll need…
- 45g unsalted, roasted pistachios
- 3 egg whites
- 55g caster sugar
- green food colouring
- 200g icing sugar
- 90g almond meal
And for the ganache:
- 60ml single cream
- 155g white eating chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 2 tsp honey
First up, preheat the oven to 130°C, and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Next, put the pistachios into a food processor and process until finely ground – I just pulsed mine so I didn’t process them too finely.
Separate the eggs if you haven’t already, and beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Add in the caster sugar and a few drops of food colouring (as much or as little as you want, depending on the shade of green you want!), and beat again until the sugar dissolves and the green is blended.
If the bowl you’ve been beating the eggs with isn’t very big, transfer the mixture to a large bowl now. Then, fold in all but a tablespoon of the pistachios, the icing sugar and the almond meal, in two batches.
Here is where I encountered my first problem – the step where you have to put the mixture into a piping bag, and pipe delicate little circles onto the baking paper. 1. I’m not particularly delicate. 2. Turned out that I had no piping bags left. Time to improvise – a thick, plastic, snap lock bag with a little hole cut into a corner. It’d have to do! If you’re doing this step properly, you’ll need a 1cm plain tube, piping them into 4cm rounds, approximately 2.5cm apart. Tap the trays on the bench so the macaroons spread evenly, sprinkle them with the remaining pistachios, and let them sit for around 30 minutes – this enables them to form a “crust” so that they cook properly.
Now the easy bit – bake the macaroons for around 20min, or until they get the tiniest bit of golden-ness in colour.
While they’re baking, you can make the ganache. This is where I struck my next problem. I followed my instructions to the letter – bringing the cream to the boil in a small pot, , removing it from the heat, and then pouring it over the chocolate and honey in a bowl, stirring it until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
My problem was that the chocolate didn’t melt, so I panicked and added a little more hot cream. I stood my ganache as per directed, until it cooled to room temperature. Unfortunately, it didn’t thicken up anywhere near enough. Fail.
But, back to the actual macaroons themselves – they came out of the oven bang on 20 minutes. Some were perfect…
… some of them, not so much.
I can only assume the dodgy, cracked macaroons were a result of my not so perfect piping. Oh well, live and learn! Then, I had to put them together… I’d put the ganache in the fridge for 30 minutes, and it did thicken slightly, but still not quite enough! To make a thick filling. It was just still fairly sloppy and gooey, but as far as the taste went – delicious!
I nervously presented my creations to Sous-Jeff. No, the filling isn’t meant to be dripping down the side of the macaroon. No, it shouldn’t be cracked on top. No, they’re not perfectly round. Just shut up and eat it, I don’t care what it looks like, I care about how it tastes!!! Luckily for me, it passed the taste test, it was “good,” “nice,” but apparently still not as good as the ones from the 50th. Sous-Jeff’s mum, my lovely mum-in-law, tried one too; “far too sweet for my palate, but delicious!” was the verdict there. Personally, I was disappointed by the fact that my ganache was a failure, but I was thrilled with the flavours – the white chocolate and honey was a perfect combination, and yes – it was very sweet. But, I am a chronic sweet tooth, so it tasted perfect to me!
Over to you, lovely readers – when was the last time you gave something a try that you really wanted to live up to standards, and how did it go?!
