There is a certain air of mystery surrounding macarons. At least, there is to novice bakers like me.
Just the word conjures up images of pastel-coloured treats lined up in the windows of Parisian patisseries then delicately boxed up to bring home.
They are something to be bought, not made, surely?
Despite watching numerous cookery programmes, my favourite being the Great British Bake Off, the most adventurous bake I’ve ever made has probably been chocolate and peanut butter cookies.
Bring me a cake and I’ll devour it with a cup of tea, but show me a recipe and I’ll admire the photo, scan over the method and give up before I’ve even started.
But last weekend, at a fringe event of the Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival, Anmar Odendal took the mystery out of macarons.
Anmar is a pastry chef and renowned cake maker at the White Lion Hotel in Thorpeness.
After trying numerous recipes, she’s come up with a foolproof method which produces perfect patisserie.
A group of 16 of us watched in awe as she demonstrated her recipe, then in groups we all gave it a go ourselves.
Anmar has made it look so easy, but bringing together the ground almonds and icing sugar with half of the egg whites was hard work!
The Taste Academy kitchen has all mod cons including the ‘hide and slide’ oven doors as seen in the Bake Off as well as convection hobs, where we boiled the sugar and water.
While that was heating to a temperature of 117C, we whisked the other half of the egg whites, which we then added the sugar syrup too.
This mixture was then combined with the thicker mixture a third at a time.
Anmar had made the piping look easy, but I managed to make all sorts of shapes and sizes!
After dropping the tray on the work surface three times, they were then left to dry before putting in the oven.
Next, EADT food writer Emma Crowhurst spoke us through her chocolate meringues, letting us each sample some she’d made already.
Delicate and crisp on the outside, but chewy in the middle, I was looking forward to trying to make these too.
The method was easier to make the meringues, but alas I managed to split the ganache. But no matter as Emma was on hand to rescue it for us!
By this time the macarons were out of the ovens – all around the room were sweet circles in pastel colours of pink (ours), blue, green and yellow.
I was amazed that mine had come out relatively well, and was really impressed by the uniformity of everyone else’s! (Any odd shaped ones of mine were popped into my mouth – just to try of course!)
My meringue piping was no better than my macaron piping, and may even have been worse, but again they came out better than I’d imagined they would and they tasted lovely.
Anmar had made some white chocolate ganache which I used to sandwich together any macarons which were matching in shape and size!
I paired up my meringues and squidged those together with the chocolate ganache.
When boxed up, and side by side, I was pretty impressed by my creations.
As to whether I would try them again, I would certainly try my hand at meringues. In fact, I’d probably try to make the macarons too, although I think for me I would certainly need a helper with those!
Both creations were pretty and tasty enough to share with friends and family and would be great for special occasions.
For more information, and details of upcoming courses, visit www.emmacrowhurst.co.uk
To see more of Anmar’s work, go to www.crumb-bespokesuffolkcakes.com
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