Families

Chapter 13

" So for the surprise we are going to make..."

"Oh we are here ... we are here." Albus and Rose came barreling into the cafe.

" Great dears I was just going to say what we were going to do. So today my friend Madame Hamel is going to teach us how to make Macarons and then we will make them."

Then Madame Hamel takes over," French macarons are delicate sandwich cookies with a crisp exterior. Each individual cookie is known as a macaron shell. The shells are made without any chemical leaveners and get all of their lift from properly beaten egg whites. If you follow the recipe carefully, the cookies have a unique nougat-like, chewy texture. They should not be hollow. You can flavor macarons many ways, but this recipe is for plain macarons. They taste like sweet almond– and they're delicious! You can always have fun with different flavorful fillings such as Vanilla Buttercream, Lemon Buttercream,Salted Caramel, or Chocolate Ganache.

The bulk of French macaron batter is meringue made from properly beaten egg whites. For best and most consistent results, I strongly recommend using fresh egg whites instead of egg whites from a carton. It's imperative that NO egg yolks make it into the recipe. 

In 3 additions, beat superfine sugar into the egg whites + cream of tartar. Without sugar, the protein molecules in egg whites will collapse. What is superfine sugar? Well, it's regular granulated sugar that's ground much finer, but not quite as fine as confectioners' sugar. It's also known as caster sugar. Superfine sugar's granules are the best size to provide optimal structure for French macarons. Granulated sugar is simply too coarse, while confectioners' sugar dissolves too quickly in the egg whites. Then make sure you use almond flour, not almond meal.

Now it's time to start the macaron batter.

Add cream of tartar to your aged room temperature egg whites and beat until very soft peaks form. This takes a few minutes of beating. At first the egg white and cream of tartar mixture will be foamy, then the bubbles will begin to tighten and the beaters will leave tracks as the egg whites build volume.

Now add your superfine sugar in 3 additions and beat until stiff glossy peaks form. After several minutes of mixing in all the sugar, the egg whites will form stiff glossy peaks. This means the whites have stiff, smooth, and sharp points in the bowl or on the lifted whisk attachment/beaters. Stiff peaks do not droop down. You can literally turn the bowl upside down and the egg whites will not move or spill out.

Now you can add your optional gel food coloring. It's important to add gel food coloring to the egg whites directly, instead of the finished macaron batter. Fold the coloring in very slowly. You can also beat in the food coloring with your mixer on a low speed."......... 

After explaining everything she told to pair up start on them. The pairs were :

Me and Draco

Scorp and Rose

Cassie and Albus

Mum and Dad

Grandma and Granddad 

Aunt Amanda and Uncle Wilfred

Aunt Jennie and Uncle Tanner

Joalin and Tristan

Rebecca, Solitaire and Crystal.

So we got to work. While we were making the buttercream Draco came behind me and put one hand on my hip and used other to take a scoop of the buttercream. If looks could kill I would be dead by the glares I was receiving from Rebecca, Crystal, Solitaire, Aunt Amanda and Aunt Jennie.