Strawberry Sorbet Macarons

French Meringue
  120 g Egg whites, room temp

  30 g Sugar

  1 g Cream of tartar, or lemon juice (stabilizer)

  1.50 g Vanilla bean (seeds), or paste

  0.50 g Red food coloring

Almond Mixture
  125 g Almond meal (white)

  250 g Powdered sugar

Sorbet Syrup
  150 g Water

  110 g Sugar

  30 g Honey, or corn syrup

  5 g Kirsch alcohol*

Strawberry Sorbet
  290 g Sorbet syrup

  300 g Best organic strawberries or raspberries

  5 g Lemon juice

  0.20 g Red food coloring (optional)

Before Your Start

1 There are 3 different methods to creating a proper meringue for macarons: the French,
Italian and Swiss. The French macarons (Lenôtre/Paris) is the most used in macaron
recipes, because it results in the correct texture and taste for the French macaron. The
Italian method macarons (Ladurée/Paris) is said to produce a more stable meringue
because it uses a hot sugar syrup in place of dry sugar, but the downside is that it
results in macarons that are sweeter and more challenging to bake. The Swiss meringue
offers an interesting compromise; meanwhile whisking and heating egg whites and
sugar together to 60ºC. Some claim to be the easiest but more challenging to execute
into large batches.
Cracking is an unfortunate and undesirable side effect in a macaron shell. Cracking
seems to be caused by multiple issues, including oily or wet almond meal, whipping the
egg whites for too long or not enough (French method), over-folding the dry ingredients
into the meringue during the 'macaronage' step. Excessive moisture in the air and batter
and skipping the drying step before baking; this allows cookie to form a skin allowing
the moisture to escape from the bottom while baking forming the macaron foot (pied);
foamy base. A little known fact is that macarons withstand freezing very well. Chill
macarons upward with or without filling in an airtight container for up to one week, or for
up to 3 months in the freezer.

Strawberry Sorbet

2 *Liquor adds flavor, but it also prevents the sorbet from freezing solid. Alcohol won’t
freeze, so it is great insurance that you will have a soft sorbet. Honey, liquid glucose or
light corn syrup will help maintain a soft mixture. Make sorbet syrup first; bring to boil –
add liquor and cool. Blend red fruits with lemon juice and syrup; chill and process in ice
cream maker. Freeze. Scoop out small portions (≈15g) and arrange on frozen tray and
mat. Keep frozen.

Almond Mixture

3 In a food processor, blend almond meal and sugar to fine powder, sieve and keep
(macaron almond mixture / tant pour tant) in dry area. Can me made in advance and in
large quantity.
French Meringue
4 Yield 30 large cookies / 60 small macaron shells

To find macaron silicon mat click here

For pink macarons; add a few drops of red food coloring into the meringue. If you want
to play with the colors, make 2 separate recipes; one vanilla and one pink. In a stand
mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat room temp egg whites with cream of tartar
and one-third of the sugar on medium speed. Let it run and keep it on the foamy stage
for as long as needed. Set speed to high and beat until stiff peaks adding remaining
sugar gradually and food coloring if desired. Transfer meringue in a large pastry bowl
and fold in half of the dry ingredient – add remaining powders and continue folding until
just combined. Macaronage: with the help of a soft dough scraper – scrape down the
sides of the bowl; rotating it coming across the bowl smashing the batter. Repeat this
step until the batter turns glossy and ribbon forms. Pipe out macaron using a
0.40''/10mm diameter plain pastry tip over 2 half sheet (11 5/8" x 16 1/2”) silicone
baking mat. Tap over the counter and leave macaron to dry out for 40 minutes, or until
the shells are not sticky to the touch.

Baking

5 Professional ovens tend to bake macarons much faster. A pizza stone is recommended.

To find pizza stone click here

If using a conventional oven preheat oven to 325ºF/160ºC and bake for about 14
minutes. If using a convection oven preheat oven to 300ºF/150ºC and bake for about 12
minutes. Bake one sheet at a time. Cool and freeze.

Montage

6 Wear gloves. Sandwich sorbet in frozen in 2 macaron shells. Store macarons upward in
air tight containers for weeks in the freezer. Enjoy!