Thursday, September 23, 2010

fashion's night out, audrey's night in

the last couple of weeks have been a whirl of whisking, folding, piping, and baking. this probably doesn't seem too out of the order, given i'm a baker by trade, but i spent the week before (and some during) fashion week fanatically sifting almond flour and whipping up ganaches for french macarons. through a series of extremely fortunate events, i landed a couple gigs making my favorite dessert for fashion week parties - including making a whopping 600 for the juicy and chictopia conference after party a couple sundays ago. it was the most i've made at a time, and i was really, really nervous for them to all turn out perfectly - the macaron is such a temperamental cookie and i was determined to get it just right. it was a lot of work, and i spent fashion's night out in sweats stained with lavender white chocolate ganache. (literally.) after all the effort, though, i was really, really pleased with the desserts, and from what i hear, the macarons were a hit.


lemon raspberry


strawberry basil

vanilla bean milk chocolate

coconut lavender white chocolate

orange honey mascarpone




i've been asked by a few readers to share tips and recipes for these beauties; here's what i do:

the recipe i use is:

100 g aged egg whites
30 g granulated sugar
3-4 drops food coloring
1 t flavor
120 g almond flour
200 g powdered sugar

use a food processor to pulse the almond flour and powdered sugar together, then sift and set aside. whip the egg whites until they are totally white and then add the sugar bit by bit; add the flavor and color and whip until stiff peaks form. fold the almond flour/powdered sugar in 5 additions, folding to completely incorporate every time. pipe them out, then let them sit until a skin forms and they are smooth to touch; put them in a preheated 350 degree oven but turn it down to 300 as soon as you put them in. rotate them every 5 minutes or so; take them out after 12-15 minutes, when they are just about to brown.

at this point i'll pop them in the freezer for a few minutes so they easily peel off the sheet. i now use parchment to line my sheet pans instead of a silpat; i find that the bottoms come out a lot better that way. if you are going to fill them right away, pair them up with similar sizes, then fill them with whatever you fancy - flavored buttercream, a ganache, a curd, jam, etc. put them in a tupperware and pop 'em in the fridge and let them relax there for about a day, so they have time to mature. voila! delicious macarons.

happy thursday, everyone! my friday! tgit.

xo audrey

12 comments:

  1. WOW. Okay as in WOW.

    I am in love with food so I have a lot to say about this blog!

    You do measurements per gram, meaning I should buy a mini weighing scale! I already have one but I think the digital weighing scale is better.

    Questions!
    1. Where do you get your recipes?
    2. Who thought of flavors? Such interesting flavors like strawberry basil, the other one with lavander!
    3. We have a different notion of what macaroons here. I think that is the french version of macaroons. French is more expensive though. Almond flour is expensive haha!

    You should post more! And I applaud you for making that for Chictopia! I wish I could teleport there and be your sous chef or something :)

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  2. This made me hungry literally.
    I was at the chictopia event too bad I couldn't make it to the after party
    I would've enjoyed that since I love any type of food =D
    you are trul talented.
    xo
    DOLLMEUP

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  3. i was in Paris recently and tasted for the first time the delicious macarons. i brought some home, and i was actually thinking of making some myself. but it seems like hard work and I am a disaster in the kitchen. yours look amazing, of course, I am sure they taste heavenly.

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  4. Congratulations on being in the Huffington Post! You deserve it! Your macarons look delicious! Your blog has always been a great mix fashion and food!

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  5. I'm running out to get a food processor now.

    THanks for sharing


    http://lesyeuxsansvisage-lincolntaft.blogspot.com

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  6. Oh my gosh if I had had any idea you'd made these I would have popped over to your blog sooner to thank you. They were DELICIOUS! Thank you so much, totally made my night!

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  7. hi len! thanks so much for reading. i think with baking in particular weighing out the ingredients is so much more accurate than using cups, etc, so i definitely recommend getting a scale. you can get a good one for about $20.

    so to answer your questions. . .

    1. this recipe is kind of an amalgamation of several recipes i've used - i combined the best parts with small changes to get a recipe that works best for me and my oven.
    2. ha, thank you! i thought of the combinations - the strawberry basil i used because i had gone strawberry picking over the summer and made a strawberry basil jam from my haul.
    3. a macaroon (with two o's) is the coconut version; a macaron (one o) is the french one. they both get mixed up a lot.

    thanks so much! have a wonderful weekend!

    and thanks to everyone for all the kind words! xo

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  8. gorgeous photos! thanks so much for sharing your recipe. macaroons are testy, and several of my attempts at them have resulted in a resounding "meh". also, LOVE that you weigh things out...makes a huge difference!

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  9. I've been dying to make these but since I jsut started to bake I'm a little nervous. I have a free day tomorrow so I'm off to get a scale and give it a whirl:)

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  10. congrats! i never got the appeal of macarons. maybe that's cos i haven't tried yours! will you consider opening a shop for this? and will you consider shipping it to this part of the globe? ;)

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  11. they look gorgeous! i'll bet they were delicious. i've seen bakeries selling macarons that didn't look nearly as good as these. (and they weren't edible. yuck.)

    and thank you for spelling macaron correctly!!!! they're my favorite little treat, and it's such a pet peeve of mine when the spelling is americanized. ugh, i sound like a big, giant snob. :/

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  12. THEY WERE A TOTAL HIT!!! Loved the innovative flavors. YUM

    You rock, Audrey.

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