Blackberry Macaron Recipe

These little delights are from a while ago now, I’ll be honest, I made these before I moved house. A desperate need to use up the contents of our tiny one shelf freezer and a large craving to feel like a snacking Parisian led to their creation.

I love making macarons. Correction: I loved making macarons. In my last kitchen, with my last incredibly dodgy old oven, they were a dream. They are still the only bake I have ever undertaken where I got it right first time, and as a result they are my proudest bake. Or rather, they were.

Now it’s all changed. Now I have a no fan gas range which has a mind of its own. I cannot figure out where the heat comes in to the thing, top? Bottom? Middle? Who knows? And what is worse still the dog decided it would be a great idea to tear the instructions into teeny tiny shreds.

I attempted them a weekend or so ago in the new oven and unsurprisingly they were an unmitigated disaster. My macaron pride is in as many shreds as my oven manual.

Perseverance is key, and I will keep trying but for the time being I can look fondly back on these little beauties all perfect in their form, with teeny little feet and a stunning blackberry ganache……..excuse me, I need to sob into my ripped up oven manual.  

Recipe

Ingredients

3 large egg whites

75g Caster Sugar

125g Ground Almond (The finer the better)

175g Icing sugar

200g White Chocolate

200g Blackberries

Method

Put your blackberries in a pan and heat until they disintegrate.

While you wait for your blackberries break up your white chocolate and put into a heatproof bowl.

Once the blackberries have disintegrated pass through a sieve over the chocolate.

Stir together until the chocolate is melted and set aside to set.

Before you start combine your icing sugar and ground almonds and pass them through a sieve together to get rid of the bigger bits of almond. Alternatively you can put them into a food processor together and process until the mix is a fine powder.

Whip you egg white to soft peaks in a large bowl then add in your caster sugar spoon by spoon, ensuring each spoonful is completely combined. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and you reach glossy peaks. 

Gently add your almond and icing sugar mix making sure to slowly combine to avoid knocking air out of you mixture.

Once all combined transfer your mix to a piping bag and pipe into evenly sized discs on a completely flat baking tray.

Bang your tray against your worktop a few times to knock out any large air bubbles then leave for at least an hour to develop a skin (you should be able to lightly touch the shells without leaving a mark).

Set your oven to preheat at 140°C for a fan oven (Christ knows what it should be for a no fan range....).

Put your little macarons into the oven and bake for 13 mins, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't brown.

Once baked allow to cool then stick two discs together with a teaspoonful of your berry ganach. 

Et Voila! Now; eat!