One of my favourite recipes…
To keep you busy until you’re able to visit me in the Teaching Kitchen,
try this gluten-free / dairy-free, Paleo, and/or AIP recipe that is part of my weekly repertoire.
Macarons !
These fluffy little bites of heaven are a real treat. This version,
with a dark chocolate ganache, are to die for. Make a bunch and keep them in the freezer for just the right occasion.
Ingredients
- 200g almond powder
- 300g icing sugar (GF of course!)
- 50g cocoa powder
- 110g egg whites
- 110g egg whites
- 40g sugar
- 300g sugar
- 100g water
Macarons are one of the few items in a traditional bakery that, were we only required to worry about ingredients, are gluten-free.
The issue of cross-contamination is HUGE!
In any “normal” bakery, the air is full of flour particles (and their inherent gluten content) which contaminates anything and everything it comes in contact with.
Please realize that anything prepared
in a traditional bakery CANNOT be said to be
gluten-free… even if the ingredients of the recipe
do not contain gluten.
- In a high-speed blender, mix the almond powder, icing sugar and cocoa powder to form a fine, homogeneous powdered mixture.
- Combine sugar and water in a pot and begin to heat to 120*C. At the same time, place your egg whites into a large bowl (or kitchen aid) in preparation of beating.
- When the sugar / water mixture hits 110*C, begin to beat your egg whites. Add the sugar to firm slightly. When you reach 120*C on the stove, remove your sugar mixture and pour it into the fluffy egg-white mixture and continue to beat. Leave to cool slightly.
- Return to your first mixing bowl with the almond / sugar / cocoa mixture. Add the egg whites and mix well to combine.
- Once your meringue has cooled somewhat, incorporate it gently into your batter until the mixture acquires a certain “sheen”, and the batter falls from your spatula in one continuous ribbon, when lifted.
- Preheat your oven to 285*F. Transfer your batter into a piping bag and pipe into small, uniform mounds on parchment paper. (Remember that you’ll have to match pairs, so if ever one is bigger or smaller than another, be sure to make a match for it.)
- Bake at 285*F for approximately 14 minutes. (When you gently press the surface of each macaron, there should be a slight lateral movement on its spongy bottom.)
- Remove from the oven and cool before removing from the cookie sheet. Match your pairs and fill with pastry cream, lemon curd or ganache before closing.
On completion of cooking school in 2018,
Jan Steele (aka La Goose) relocated to the beautiful Cévenne mountains in the South of France. In the kitchen of her 18th c. stone house, she helps people to adopt (or better adhere to) a gluten-free, Paleo, or AIP diet. Jan is also the producer of the podcast « Bien vivre, sans gluten, en France. »