Macaron Masterclass at La Barantine

La Barantine Macarons

Tucked away in Bruntsfield is the gorgeous La Barantine patisserie and cafe. The atmosphere is welcoming, warm and friendly – a true corner of France in Edinburgh and a great place to have a relaxing coffee. In addition to some marvelous cakes, tarts and sandwiches, you’re bound to find a fine selection of macarons. Flavours might include pistachio, salted caramel, raspberry or chocolate. Owner Vincent Aplincourt invited me into his petite kitchen to discover how he makes these favourite delicacies.

I’d not made macarons before. Having seen the process, I think it is fair to say macarons are finicky. They are definitely worth trying, but of course the easier option is definitely to go to La Barantine to buy them instead!

Vincent’s Top Macaron Tips

Be prepared to experiment. It took quite a few attempts to find the right temperature to cook at for example.

Beat the egg whites thoroughly. Fold in both sugars and cocoa powder to make a soft mixture

The mixture should be quite soft, just firm enough to be able to pipe it. (Botanical Baker suggests drawing circles the size you want on the reverse side of baking paper so you can see where to pipe.

Put mixture into a piping bag and pipe equal sides circles of mixture

It’s really important to tap the piped macarons. This helps develop the “foot” of the macarons (the rough edges in the picture below.
Leave them to dry for at least half an hour before baking to develop a skin
Bake on metal baking sheets  doubled up (one on top of the other). This will help the macarons rise nicely.
Allow them to completely cool before filling.

Our piped macarons out of the oven. As they need to cool, we fill caramel flavour ones.

Fillings

Depending on the flavour of your macaron, you can create a ganache or even fill with jam. Make sure your ganache is absolutely cold before putting into a piping bag and piping as shown above.

Rich Chocolate Ganache

Macaron Masterclass

 

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Preparation time

1 hour

Cooking time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour 30 mins

 

This recipe requires attention to detail. Do read the instructions carefully and have a look at the photos to help you. I have halved Vincent's original recipe which made 3 tray fulls of macarons. For baking, your oven is bound to vary, Vincent bakes his at macarons at 150C for 3 minutes, and reduces the temperature to 120C for 25/30 minutes. I've added my recipe for rich chocolate ganache, you'll notice that Vincent uses special chocolate drops, simply break the chocolate you use into small pieces.

Author: Edinburgh Foody

Recipe type: Cake

Cuisine: French

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 120g white eggs
• 110g caster sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 20g cocoa powder
• 230g icing sugar
• 120g good dark chocolate (70%)
• 120g double cream
• 30g butter

Instructions

1. For the macarons:
2. Beat the egg whites until firm. Add the caster sugar and beat again.
3. Gently spoon in the icing sugar and cocoa powder.
4. Put into a piping bag with a round nozzle and pipe circles approximately 3 cm wide.
5. Tap the tray of piped macarons a couple of times
6. Set aside to harden for a minimum of 30 minutes.
7. Put into the oven at 150C and turn down to 120C after 3 minutes. Bake for a further 25 minutes until firm.
8. Allow to cool before filling.
9. For the rich chocolate ganache:
10. Bring the cream to boiling point and take off the heat.
11. Add butter in small pieces and the chocolate broken into pieces
12. Stir until melted. Cool completely before using.

3.5.3208

Last updated by Bread Baker Danielle at April 25, 2017.