《小廚娘筆記》薄荷巧克力馬卡龍 Mint Chocolate Macaron!!

前幾年某個聖誕節我去上了一堂馬卡龍的課 @ The Dirty Apron Cooking School，　Ａ到了一個餐廳級的馬卡龍食譜．　整個聖誕節下來，　我做了不下５０個馬卡龍！！真是太幸福了～ 大家一定要切記, 每個步驟都要很小心的做, 畢竟馬卡龍真的是一個很精緻的甜點, 很容易失敗 ><.

薄荷巧克力馬卡龍

材料：
85g    很細的杏仁粉
150g  糖粉
90g    室溫的蛋白. 切記一定要室溫這樣才會成功唷
65g    砂糖
5ml    薄荷精, 或是如果不喜歡薄荷口味也可以用香草精
少許食用色素

巧克力醬夾心
100 g   黑巧克力
100ml  鮮奶油

過程：

1.預熱烤箱到３５０度Ｆ

2.準備一張烘焙紙 (半透明的) 在一面畫上幾個大約直徑3-5公分的圓圈 (你想要馬卡龍的size再小一點點), 圓圈和圓圈中間要隔至少2公分唷!
3. 用篩子篩過杏仁粉和糖粉
4. 在另外一個碗中用打蛋機將蛋白和砂糖打到蛋白泡泡可以站立, 不會倒下 (stiff peak)


 

5. 分3 次輕輕的將杏仁糖粉拌入蛋白泡泡中, 千萬不要扮的太忘我, 這樣會把好不容易打到很鬆的泡泡都消氣了 (我頂多不會拌超過一分鐘).
6. 等到杏仁糖粉和蛋白完全融合之後, 加入薄荷精和色素.
7. 大約再拌10次
8. 將混合好的蛋白挖入擠花袋中, 請用圓形的擠花頭.




9. 用擠花帶擠出一個個圓形的餅狀 (就是擠在#2畫好的烘培紙背面!)
10. 全部擠完之後輕輕敲烤盤, 讓馬卡龍餅中間太多的空氣跑出來.
11. 現在最重要的步驟.... 讓它們在室溫等著...至少15 分鐘. 這個步驟是要讓馬卡龍的表面乾掉, 這樣烤起來, 馬卡龍才會只有長高, 不會長胖然後表面龜裂.
12. 大約烤10-17 分鐘. 這個步驟也是成敗的關鍵點. 由於馬卡龍真的是一個很delicate 精緻的一個甜點, 每個烤箱溫度不一定一樣, 要自己慢慢找到對的時間. 我幾乎過了前5分鐘後, 每兩分鐘都會再去檢查一下. 如何知道烤好了呢? 就要烤到上面殼變脆了, 而且下面可以蠻輕易的移開烘培紙 (蛋白液都被烤熟了)
13. 拿出餅乾後, 等放冷了就可以夾入內餡了!

巧克力醬Ganache
1. 將鮮奶油用中火熱到滾
2. 倒入切碎的巧克力中, 攪拌均勻變成液體狀. 放涼.
3. 等到巧克力凝固成醬之後, 裝入擠花袋中

將巧克力醬以螺旋狀擠在一片馬卡龍餅乾上，然後輕輕的用扭轉的方式將另外一片馬卡龍餅乾黏在巧克力醬上。就這樣甜蜜的馬卡龍就完成了唷！

《英文全食譜》

Mint Chocolate Macarons

Ingredients：
85g Fine Ground Almonds 
150g Icing Sugar
90g Egg whites (room temp) 
65g Berry Sugar or Granulated sugar 
5ml Mint Extract 
Dash of food color 

Ganache
100 g Chocolate 
100ml whipping cream 

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. 

2. Prepare a parchment paper and draw circles with about 3-5 cms and each circle should be at least 2 cm apart. 

3. Sift together ground almond and icing  

4. In a separate bowl, beat egg white and Berry Sugar to stiff peak.

5. In 3 batches, slowly fold in the powder mixture into the egg white. DO NOT over mix, just do it enough so it is not super lumpy. I don't mix for over 1 minute. 

6. Add peppermint extract and a few drops of the food coloring.

7. Fold about 10 more times so the color is fully mixed. 

8. Fill the fixture into a piping bag with the round piping tip. 

9. Use the drawn parchment as a guide, pipe the mixture on the back of the parchment paper.

10. After piping all the macaron cookies, tap the pan about 5 times to get rid of excess air/bubbles.

11. MUST leave the macarons sit out in room temp for at least 15-25 minutes. You need this step for the top of the macarons to harden a bit and dry out. This way when you bake the macarons will rise and create *feet*, instead of cracking.

12. Bake for 10-17 minutes. Really depends on your oven's true temperature. Due to the delicate nature of Macarons, you really have to test out your oven and see how long it takes for your macaron to set. I tend to check after the first 8 minutes, and then every 3 minutes. It is done when the top part hardens, and it is easy to remove from the parchment paper (cooked so it does not stick to the paper).

13. Take out of the oven and allow it to fully cool before adding the filling

Chocolate Ganache

1. In a small sauce pan, bring whipping cream to a boil.

2. Turn off the heat and add chopped chocolate into the mixture. Mix until fully incorporated. 

3. Let cool to room temperature and then put it in fridge for about 30 minutes to make the ganache pipable. 

To Assemble the Macaron, pipe the ganache on one cookie and twist another cookie on gently. There you have the perfect and elegant Mint Chocolate macaron!!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Strawberry dipped in Chocolate is one of the easiest thing to make, yet one of the most elegant sweet treats thanks to Godiva! Instead of buying 3 dollar for A strawberry dipped in chocolate, why don't you just spend no more than 10 dollars and make a batch of 15-20 strawberries! They are so simple and upgrade any dessert!

What you need

5 Baker's bittersweet Chocolate (or more depends on how many strawberries or how big one strawberry is) 

15 strawberries

1 Baker's white chocolate (for decoration drizzle)

Food coloring (optional)
parchment paper/wax paper

How do you do it?

1. Thoroughly wash the strawberries, leave the leaves on the strawberries as you will need to hold on to them to dip the strawberries into chocolate.
2. Thoroughly dry the strawberries (I used paper towels to triple dry the strawberries. *Make sure your strawberries are dry before you dip them, or else you will end up with those pretty chocolate dipped strawberries, but all the chocolates fall off after first bite!*)

3. Use a double boiler and melt the bittersweet chocolate. *I highly recommend using baker's chocolate since it is made to be used for baking or cooking. This will lower the chance of the dipped strawberries sweat when stored*.

4. Dip the strawberries into well melted chocolate, and let it sit on the prepared parchment paper. After all strawberries are dipped, put them in the fridge to set for about 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, microwave to melt 1 oz (1square) of Bakers white chocolate. Fill it in any small plastic bag. I used a ziploc sandwich bag. 
6. Take out the set strawberries, and cut a tiny whole on one end of the sandwich bag. Start piping some patterns on the dipped strawberries. 


7. Optional: I saved half of the white chocolate and added a drop of red coloring to make the white chocolate pink and pipped half of the strawberries with pink stripes and half with white stripes!



** A side note, you mostly won't be able to finish piping all the white (pink) chocolate, so this is a good chance to pipe different pattern on the parchment paper and save it future decoration. Great to put on ice cream or cakes!!