Macarons Thé Vert Bergamot

Macarons are a tricky dessert, they are light pastries with a layer of ganache in between (however I would term them as miniature cookies!). The egg whites are what make them light, almost like meringues only that in the macarons you have almond flour (so those of you with nut allergies and calorie count mania - keep away!).
Please do not confuse the Macarons with the Macaroons - which are anglicized lard loaded heavy coconut teeming cookies. Brr..
The French cuisine being royal and awe inspiring is where the origin of Macaron comes about. They are not an easy task, as I had mentioned in my previous post, and take time, effort and lots and lots of you know what.. Patience!

The Bergamot Green Tea Macarons I made, were crunchy on the outside, with a softer milder inside. The ganache was made with white chocolate (I am not a big fan of!) and green tea.

Here is the Recipe for my recipe of the Macaron Thé Vert Bergamot (Macarons Bergamot Green Tea).
(Makes 20-25 macarons)

GET
Almond Meal / Powdered Almonds - 65 gms
Icing Sugar - 80 gms
Bergamot Green Tea - 15 gms
Sugar - 40 gms
Egg White (one) - 50 gms
Green coloring

For the Ganache:
Cream - 35 gms
White Chocolate (broken into pieces)- 65 gms
Honey - 10 gms
Bergamot Green Tea - 1 tbsps

SET

• Heat the oven to 180°C. Line the baking tray with parchment paper, if you are as organized as I was, make 2 / 3 cm circles with 4 cm space in between them. 
• Blend the almond meal, tea leaves and icing sugar in a processesor, making sure the mixture is well blended and fine. Then pass this mixture through a fine sieve, making sure that there are no lumps left. 
• For the egg whites: make sure the bowl you use is extremely clean. The egg whites should be at room temperature, before you start beating, add a few drops of lemon juice or a pinch of salt. Beat on a medium speed, and slowly add the sugar spoon by spoon. Increase the speed after a minute, beating on high speed for 4 minutes or untill strong peaks have formed. Make sure that the eggs hold firm peaks, like a bird's beak! Before stopping the beater, add in a few drops of green color, use very little as a pale green looks nice, we don't want food to look radioactive! Beat for an overall 5 minutes as else the whites will break. 
• Sprinkly the dry mixture spoon by spoon over the egg whies. Blend this mixture very slowly with a spatula, just bend and not beat, else the whites will flop over. 
• While mixing you should be gentle making sure not to overmix, as you'd rather have an undermixed batter than a cakey overmixed batter. Normally, I turn the spatula in 30-40 circular motions depending on the quantity. 
• The best way to know whether the batter is ready, is to look for these signs:
• When you started off, the batter was firm and was holding its shape. After mixing for subsquent minutes, when you lift the batter it should fall in ribbons, should be shiny and satiny. 
• You should not be able to see any of the egg white.
  
• Fill in this mixture in a piping bag and use a 8-10 mm round tip. Pipe blobs of batter on the circled baking sheet, make sure you are holding the piping back perpendicular to the sheet. Pipe in just about enough to cover the circles you made, or if you were lazy, pipe the size of macaron you would want remember that the batter usually spreads about 1 cm.
  
• Leave the piped batter in a dry warm place for minimum 20 minutes so as to develop a thin cover. 
• Place the tray in the middle, keep another tray below the with the macaron. 
• Within 5 minutes the feet will start forming, and at the 7th or 8th minute if the macarons start to brown unevenly, rotate the baking tray. Bake for another 3-4 minutes, however, another trick to check if they are done, is to softly push the macaron, if the feet move a bit. 
• Remove the tray from the oven, take off the baking sheet and place on a wet surface for a couple of seconds so as to stop the baking process. You can do so by placing the baking sheet on a wet piece of cloth flattened out. 
• After a couple of minutes, peel the macaron off the sheet and place them upside down on a wire rack. If they do not peel or come off easily, pop them back into the oven for a couple of minutes.

The Ganache:

• Boil the cream and the honey, add in the green tea leaves and boil for a minute.
• Add the white chocolate pieces. Whent he mixture is uniform, let it cool.

GO
To finish the assembly of the macaron:

• Smear small portions of the ganache on the underside of each macaron and stick two undersides together. 
• Cool the prepared macarons for 24 hours at least, as they taste better.. 

And as they say you have to always wait for the good things!