For everyone who loves macarons, here is the one recipe to keep: kings' macarons with frangipane. Pink or golden shells, a melting almond filling, 100% homemade — enough to impress every sweet tooth at the table.
Ingredients (serves 8)
For the macaron shells:
- 100 g egg whites
- 200 g icing sugar
- 125 g ground almonds
- 30 g caster sugar
- Pink or yellow food colouring, whichever you prefer, plus a little iridescent gold colouring for the finishing touch
For the frangipane cream:
- 15 g caster sugar
- 10 g flour
- 1 level teaspoon cornflour
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon powdered vanilla or liquid vanilla extract
- 120 ml milk
- A mix of 60 g icing sugar and 60 g ground almonds
- A few drops of bitter almond extract
- 1 tablespoon orange blossom water or rum
- 10 g butter
Making the kings' macarons with frangipane
- Blitz the ground almonds and icing sugar very finely in a food processor and sift them. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice. As soon as the whisk starts to leave tracks, add the caster sugar and beat at full speed. Add the pink or yellow colouring, keeping the iridescent one for later. Give it one last turn of the whisk: the whites should be firm and glossy. Fold in the icing sugar and almond mixture a little at a time with a silicone spatula, taking care not to knock the air out. The finished batter should be glossy and fall from the spatula in a ribbon.
- Fill a piping bag with the batter and close it. Pipe 5 cm rounds onto baking sheets lined with parchment, leaving about 3 cm between them. Hold the nozzle upright, almost against the sheet, and press without moving it so the mounds come out even. Leave to rest for an hour so the tops dry out.
- Meanwhile, make the frangipane: beat the egg with the 15 g of caster sugar until pale, then work in the flour and the cornflour. Bring the milk to the boil with the vanilla, then pour it over the egg mixture all at once, whisking. Transfer to a small pan and cook gently, stirring constantly so the cream does not catch. As it starts to thicken, add the almond and icing sugar mixture, the almond extract and the orange blossom water or rum. Take it off the heat once it reaches the consistency you want and leave it to cool. Run the 10 g piece of butter over the cream to stop a skin forming as it dries.
- Heat the oven to 150°C (thermostat 5). Bake the shells for about 15 minutes — ovens vary. After 5 or 6 minutes the foot should begin to form: watch closely from then on, as the macarons must never brown. Once they are firm and ready to lift away, take them out, slide the baking paper onto a damp surface to help them release, then turn the shells over and leave them to dry, ideally overnight, before filling them with the frangipane cream. Finish with a dusting of iridescent colouring if you like.
Keep the macarons somewhere cool and dry.
