COOKBOOK / SWEET

Filling
1.5 lbs (650 g.) dried prunes
1 c. sugar
½ tsp. cardamom seeds
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt

Cake
4 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 c. butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ c. milk
1 c. sugar

Filling
Soak prunes, cover – cook 45 minutes, drain – save liquid – work prunes through food grinder – add prunes along with ½ c. liquid, sugar, cardamom seeds in sauce pan & cook 10-15 minutes – cool, stir in vanilla extract & salt.

Cake
Sift flour, baking powder & salt together / in a separate bowl work butter until soft then add sugar, beat eggs and stir into mixture along with vanilla extract – add flour mixture and milk alternately, ending with flour & mix well – chill in fridge for 2 hours – preheat oven to 250f – divide dough in 7 equal parts – roll each out thinly between wax paper, place on inverted 8” pie plate, trim edge to make circle, bake 15 – 20 minutes (try to catch before turning brown) – remove and let cool. Then spread prune filling on cake layers, wrap in dry cloth (tea towel) in fridge for 24 hours. Then, I usually wrap it in tinfoil, put in plastic bag and pop it in the freezer.

What I’ve found is that if you cool the prune mix in the fridge overnight and put everything together the next day it spreads better (not so runny).

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 10 min
Ready In: 2 h 10 min

INGREDIENTS

Beat together in stand mixer:

• 3 egg whites (100 gm) at room temperature plus 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar to stabilize the mixture
•  1/4 cup white sugar (50 gm) – SLOWLY pour the sugar into the foamy whites with the mixer running; don’t just dump it all in at once.

Sift together through sieve then mix/fold into egg whites:

• 1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar (200 gm)_ – tip: use confectioners sugar that does not have cornstarch in it
• 1 cup finely ground almonds (110 gm)

Add gelled food colouring at mixing/folding stage:

• For chocolate macarons: sift in 1 Tblsp of cocoa powder into the almond flour & conf sugar. Stir small amount of brown gel food coloring into the egg whites.
• For coffee macarons: sift 1 tsp of instant espresso powder into the almond flour & conf sugar. Stir small amount of brown gel food coloring into the egg whites.

DIRECTIONS [Preheat oven to 285 degrees F (140 degrees C).]

• Line a baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat. Find a template to trace circles on the Silpat. The plastic casing from the outside of a tealight works well.
• Beat egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until whites are foamy. Beat in white sugar and continue beating until mixture is glossy, fluffy, and holds soft peaks.
• Sift confectioners’ sugar and ground almonds in a separate bowl. In about 30 strokes fold the almond mixture into the egg whites. Add gelled food colouring at this stage.
• Spoon a small amount of the batter into a plastic bag with a small corner cut off and pipe a test disk, about 1 ½” in diameter, onto the Silpat. If the disk holds a peak instead of flattening immediately, gently fold the batter a few more times and retest.
• When batter is mixed enough to flatten immediately into an even disk, spoon into a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheet in 1 ½” rounds, leaving space between the disks. Because the consistency of the mix is like cake batter, be quick about piping it onto the silicone mat. Fill in the stencil with the pastry bag straight up and pull away as soon as batter reaches the edge of the circle. Hold the pastry bag sideways between piping so it doesn’t spill.
• Let the piped cookies stand at room temperature until they form a hard skin on top, about 1 hour.
• Bake cookies in preheated oven until set but not browned—about 10 minutes. (Some recommend up to 20 minutes. Cookies are done when they peel easily off the Silpat.)
• Cool cookies completely before filling.

TIPS (from the original submitter of this recipe):

• Measure the ingredients by weight. If you measure out, say, three egg whites instead of 100g of egg whites, you might be off enough to mess up the cookie, and it won’t puff up correctly (or at all).
• SIFT THE INGREDIENTS! Sift that powdered sugar and almond powder together.
• The “silicone baking mat” in step one was originally a Silpat. I have tried making these on every surface known to man, including my cookie favorite, parchment paper. You need the Silpat or you won’t be able to get the cookies off the sheet.
• People debate whether it’s necessary to let them set for an hour before baking. We tried setting them from 1 to 240 minutes. One hour is perfect.
• Use as few strokes as possible when folding the almond into the egg whites. Mix it too much, and the cookie won’t puff up when baked.
• Use already-ground almonds, rather than grinding them yourself. They have to be ground to a very fine powder, and it’s nearly impossible to do with regular kitchen equipment.

OTHER TIPSTERS:

I made this recipe for Xmas pressies, wrapped in tissue paper and handmade boxes. I followed the recipe to the T except I just used 3 egg whites – only thing I didn’t weigh) I read loads of comments and have summarized these tips that worked for me:

1. Weigh your ingredients – I never used cups and spoons, only ever a scale.
2. Sift icing sugar and almonds together (several times)
3. Work quickly, have everything ready to go.
4. Use ingredients fresh from their packaging (this is not a must but if you’re worried about humidity this could help – I however made these in the height of summer)
5. Fan Dry – I trained my fan onto the prepared macarons to “set up and skin”
6. Rotate pans in the oven – We have a fan oven and it does NOT brown evenly.

I made two flavours: green was white chocolate and lime ganache center and pink was dark chocolate raspberry ganache filling. SO YUMMY! Will never need another macaron recipe.