Cassis Marroni Macarons

Mix 200 g icing sugar with 200 g almond flour. This is called «tant pour tant» because the same amount of icing sugar as almond flour is used.

Important: be sure to use extra finely ground almond flour, not the ordinary kind from the supermarket. The same goes for the icing sugar: the finer, the better. Mix both with a spoon and set aside.

Separate 5 to 6 eggs until you have 150 g egg white. Make sure no yolk gets into the egg white. You can freeze the yolk or use it for a patisserie cream or crème brûlée.

Pour 75 g egg white into the almond and icing sugar mixture and stir everything with a spoon to form a marzipan-like paste. Set it aside briefly.

Put the remaining 75 g egg white into a clean, grease-free bowl, attach the whisk to the stand mixer and set everything aside.

For the Italian meringue, a sugar syrup is poured over the lightly whipped egg white.

Put 200 g sugar into a pot and add 50 g water. Make sure the water fully covers the sugar before you heat the mixture. Place a thermometer in the pot: with the Italian method it is a must.

Heat the sugar and water mixture on the highest setting without stirring. As soon as the syrup reaches 103 °C, switch on the stand mixer with the egg white at medium speed. The pot stays on the stove until the syrup reaches 118 °C.

The egg white should not be whipped into stiff peaks, only foamy.

Once the syrup reaches 118 °C, immediately remove the pot from the stove and pour the syrup in a fine stream into the egg white while the mixer continues on low speed.

Do not pour too much at once, and let the syrup run down the side of the bowl. If you pour it directly onto the running whisk, it splashes against the walls and you lose a lot of sugar.

Once all the syrup has been added, colour the meringue. Use gel or powder colours, but never liquid colours, or it will be a disaster! I mixed violet and ruby to get a rosy violet.

Then whip the meringue on medium speed for another 5 minutes so that it cools down until it forms a nice peak. The meringue must be firm, which is important for the next step: if it is too runny, everything collapses.

Remove the whisk and add the almond and egg white mixture to the meringue all at once. Fit the paddle attachment (K-beater) and mix on the lowest setting for about 30 seconds. Stop the machine once or twice and scrape the bowl with the dough scraper so that everything mixes well.

I always finish the macaronage by hand, as this gives the perfect texture. The batter is ready when it is glossy and flows from the dough scraper in a ribbon without being runny.

Cut the tip off a 40 cm piping bag and insert an 8 mm round piping nozzle. Place the bag in a large measuring cup so that you have both hands free, then fill it with the macaron batter.

Place a macaron stencil on a perforated baking tray and cover it with baking paper. Piping onto stencils is much easier than piping by eye. The circles should have a diameter of about 3.5 cm; after baking, the macarons will be about 4.5 to 5 cm in size.

Hold the piping bag vertically, place the nozzle in the centre of the circle and keep about 0.5 cm between the nozzle and the baking paper. Squeeze until the circle reaches the right size, then stop and lift the nozzle away with a small twist.

Don't worry if small peaks remain: tap the tray on the work surface and they will disappear.

If you have an older oven, set it to 140 °C top and bottom heat and bake the macarons tray by tray for about 15 to 18 minutes. With top and bottom heat, never bake two trays at once.

With a newer oven, you can choose 135 °C fan. The baking time is then 12 to 18 minutes depending on the oven, and two trays can go in at the same time. For this I place two baking trays upside down in the oven so that the perforated trays lie flat, and preheat. Once 135 °C is reached, I place the perforated trays with the macarons on top.

Perforated trays are essential! I never use silicone mats: the shells bake too slowly on them and do not release well.

Take the tray out of the oven and let the shells cool completely on the baking paper. Only then will they come off cleanly.

You can now freeze the shells in a tin without any concerns. I always make a little extra, so I have a reserve for spontaneous guests or as decoration for cakes.

Put 50 g white chocolate into a glass bowl. Pour 25 g full-fat cream into a saucepan. Make sure it really is full-fat cream, this is important.

Add 1 tsp marron cream to the cream. It intensifies the flavour: I tried it with and without, and it really makes a difference!

Bring the cream to the boil and pour it over the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a few seconds, then stir everything together with the whisk.

Once the chocolate has melted, add 150 g vermicelles and stir everything with the whisk.

Finally, fold in 100 g cold full-fat cream. You will get a very thick but lump-free mass. Please do not whip it with an electric whisk, otherwise the chocolate will separate.

Cover the ganache with cling film, pressing the film directly onto the surface, and place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. If you do not observe the chilling time, the ganache will separate and become grainy.

Place 1 sheet of Gelatine in very cold water.

Put 1 egg and 50 g sugar in a saucepan.

Weigh out 5 g Maizena, easiest with a spoon scale, and mix everything well.

Add 105 g Cassispüree and mix everything well.

Opened puree keeps for 2 to 3 days in the fridge. If you don't need it during that time, freeze it in portions: it keeps for about 6 months.

Set 65 g butter in a bowl next to the Gelatine. Bring the cassis mixture to the boil while stirring constantly. At the first "plop", remove the pan from the heat and pour the curd into a bowl.

Add the soaked, well-squeezed Gelatine and stir until it has melted and is evenly distributed.

Add 65 g butter and stir again. Then blend the curd with an immersion blender until it is smooth.

Cover the curd with cling film and let it cool thoroughly in the fridge.

Once the ganache and curd are well chilled, it's time to fill. Briefly whisk the curd by hand with the whisk to loosen it, then transfer it into a piping bag fitted with a 5 mm round piping nozzle.

Transfer the ganache into a mixing bowl and briefly whisk it for about 10 seconds. It is slightly grainy, which is normal and comes from the texture of the vermicelles. Fill it into a piping bag fitted with an 8 mm round piping nozzle.

Arrange the shells in pairs and pipe a ring of chestnut ganache onto half of the shells.

Fill the centre with cassis curd, place a second shell on top and press down very gently so it holds.

Best store the macarons in a sealed tin or a macaron box in the fridge. Enjoy!