CHOCOLATE MACAROON DAY: History, Recipes, Museums, and Martinis!

Today is National Macaroon Day. Now I know that macaroons are not the same as the "French" macarons, but the word has the same root.

The words both come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone which is derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat -- referencing almond paste as the principle ingredient. Most macaroon recipes contain egg whites, almonds or nuts. Sometimes coconut -- and definitely sugar! I grew up with macaroons that were mainly coconut.

The 'French' macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection filled with ganache, buttercream or jam and is between two 'cookies'. It's smooth and domed. Lots of flavors, including, of course, chocolate! Although French, there has been much debate about its origins. Larousse Gastronomique cites the macaron as being created in 1791 in a convent near Cormery. Some have traced its French debut back to the arrival of Catherine de' Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II of France.

In the 1830s, macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The macaron as it is known today was called the "Gerbet" or the "Paris macaron" and was created in the early 20th Century by Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Ladurée, composed of two almond meringue discs filled with a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache filling.

But for today's post, I thought I'd focus on MACAROONS, since it's National Macaroon Day!

First, you should know that there is an Almond & Macaroon Museum in Montmorillon, France. This museum pays homage to the generations of craftsmen who built the reputation of Montmorillon, Cité of Macaroons.  The Museum reveals the history of the macaroon, from the culture of the almond tree (and the multiple uses of almonds), to the arrival of the macaroon in France.

There are informative panels, interactive terminals, and machines and old instruments used in the kitchen. At the end of the exhibition, a film summarizes the broad outlines of the visit, and dwells on the arrival of the Macaroon of Montmorillon, and on the creation of Rannou-Métivier House. The visit culminates in the opportunity for tasting in the Winter Garden of the museum.

And, a few recipes to help you celebrate the day! 

CHOCOLATE MACAROONS

Ingredients
1 1/3 (8 ounces) cups dark (70%) chocolate, chopped, divided
2 large egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened fresh flaked coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1 cup chocolate in microwave-safe bowl; microwave on low setting at 10-second intervals until chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally (or melt in a double boiler). Cool just to room temperature.

Using electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, then vanilla, beating until whites are thick and glossy. Fold in melted chocolate and coconut, then remaining 1/3 cup chocolate (broken into small pieces the size of mini-chips).

Drop batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 1-1/2 inches apart.
Bake cookies 10 minutes. Reverse sheets. Bake until tops are dry and cracked and tester inserted into centers comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 10 minutes longer.

Cool cookies on sheets on racks.

Three More Chocolate Macaroon Recipes:

CLEO COYLE'S MOCHA DIPPED RUM MACAROONS

CHOCOLATE CHIP MACAROONS

SCOTTISH MACAROON BARS FROM CATRIONA MCPHERSON
And for those of you who like to drink your Chocolate Macaroons: 

Chocolate Macaroon Martini

6 ounces vodka
1 ounce chocolate-flavored liqueur
1 ounce Amaretto
orange twist

Combine liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker with cracked ice and shake well.
Strain into chilled martini glass and garnish with orange twist.

Chocolate Macaroons: Chocolate Chip, Mocha Dipped, and Martinis!

Today is National Macaroon Day. Now I know that macaroons are not really the same thing as the "French" macarons, but the word has the same root.

The words both come from the Italian maccarone or maccherone which is derived from ammaccare, meaning crush or beat -- referencing almond paste as the principle ingredient. Most macaroon recipes contain egg whites, almonds or nuts. Sometimes coconut--and definitely sugar! I grew up with macaroons that were mainly coconut.

The 'French' macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection filled with ganache, buttercream or jam and is between two 'cookies'. It's smooth and domed. Lots of flavors, including, of course, chocolate! Although French, there has been much debate about its origins. Larousse Gastronomique cites the macaron as being created in 1791 in a convent near Cormery. Some have traced its French debut back to the arrival of Catherine de' Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II of France.

In the 1830s, macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices. The macaron as it is known today was called the "Gerbet" or the "Paris macaron" and was created in the early 20th Century by Pierre Desfontaines of the French pâtisserie Ladurée, composed of two almond meringue discs filled with a layer of buttercream, jam, or ganache filling.

But for today's post, I thought I'd focus on MACAROONS, since it's National Macaroon Day!

First, you should know that there is an Almond & Macaroon Museum in Montmorillon, France. This museum pays homage to the generations of craftsmen who built the reputation of Montmorillon, Cité of Macaroons.  The Museum reveals the history of the macaroon, from the culture of the almond tree (and the multiple uses of almonds), to the arrival of the macaroon in France.

There are informative panels, interactive terminals, and machines and old instruments used in the kitchen. At the end of the exhibition, a film summarizes the broad outlines of the visit, and dwells on the arrival of the Macaroon of Montmorillon, and on the creation of Rannou-Métivier House. The visit culminates in the opportunity for tasting in the Winter Garden of the museum.

And, a few recipes to help you celebrate the day! Stay posted for Macaron recipes another day!

CHOCOLATE MACAROONS

Ingredients
1 1/3 (8 ounces) cups dark (70%) chocolate, chopped, divided
2 large egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sweetened fresh flaked coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1 cup chocolate in microwave-safe bowl; microwave on low setting at 10-second intervals until chocolate is melted, stirring occasionally (or melt in a double boiler). Cool just to room temperature.

Using electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, then vanilla, beating until whites are thick and glossy. Fold in melted chocolate and coconut, then remaining 1/3 cup chocolate (broken into small pieces the size of mini-chips).

Drop batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 1-1/2 inches apart.
Bake cookies 10 minutes. Reverse sheets. Bake until tops are dry and cracked and tester inserted into centers comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 10 minutes longer.

Cool cookies on sheets on racks.

Three More Chocolate Macaroon Recipes:

CLEO COYLE'S MOCHA DIPPED RUM MACAROONS

CHOCOLATE CHIP MACAROONS

SCOTTISH MACAROON BARS FROM CATRIONA MCPHERSON
And for those of you who like to drink your Chocolate Macaroons, here's a great: 

Chocolate Macaroon Martini

6 ounces vodka
1 ounce chocolate-flavored liqueur
1 ounce Amaretto
orange twist

Combine liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker with cracked ice and shake well.
Strain into chilled martini glass and garnish with orange twist.

CAKE! Guest post by Catriona McPherson

Photo: Janet Rudolph

In my other life, well, in one of my many other lives, I host Literary Salons in my home. Last week I was lucky enough to host Scottish author Catriona McPherson. I say lucky not only because she's witty and funny and creative and an excellent writer, but because she brought her own cake! "If I knew you were coming, I'd Have Baked a Cake!" This was a first. I don't think any other author has ever shown up with cake, let alone a cake they made! So, of course, I had to have the recipe. That in itself was unique. Catriona not only didn't have a written recipe, but her manner of testing the cake was by listening to it. No toothpicks involved. And, then there was the matter of the word cake. It certainly involved the English language separated by a large body of water. I just had to ask for a post on DyingforChocolate.com. Thanks, Catriona, for stopping by!

CATRIONA McPHERSON:

Cake.

That’s the first thing we need to sort out. I’m often cast adrift from those around me by our shared language, and it took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing on Facebook to establish that this wasn’t a shortcake, or a sponge cake, or a sheet cake, or an angel food cake, or (although it’s close) a white cake.

I don’t really know what those categories of American sweet treats are. I know this stuff as “cake”. Like there’s camembert, stilton and chevre, but there’s also . . . “cheese”. Focaccia, ciabatta, baguettes and . . . “bread”.

So here’s my mother’s “cake” recipe. 

6oz butter
6oz sugar
6oz self-raising flour
3 eggs.

I know standard US recipes use volume rather than weight. I use these:

Someone once asked me if they still worked. I thought: how could they not?

You’ll also need an 8in diameter cake tin. I use one with a push-out bottom and line that bottom with a disc of greaseproof paper. And I use a hand-held electric balloon whisk. If you are gym-fit, you could use a wooden spoon.

If you like vanilla – I love it! – you can add a teensy-weensy drip of vanilla extract too. And if you want to make a chocolate cake, Janet, you can take out an ounce of flour and add an ounce of cocoa powder in its place.

Set your oven to 300-325ish. Sorry, but you need to get to know whether your own oven is sluggish or fierce. Mine is a bit fierce so I tend to the 300 end.

It’s very important that the butter and eggs should be at room temperature. If they’re cold the first bit of this is well-nigh impossible.

Okay, in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, by whipping them with your brawny arms or with the electric whisk set on nuclear. Keep going until the mixture is pale and fluffy and there are no gritty bits.

Then break one egg into the mixture, add a tablespoon of flour to it (this prevents curdling) and beat/whip again. Then the next egg and another spoonful of flour. Then a third of each. If it curdles, soldier on; it’ll come back together in the end. Up to this point the more mixing the better. Scrape the sides to make sure everything is well beaten.

But then, oh but then, it all changes!

When it comes to adding the flour, you want to get it all incorporated while at the same time disturbing the egg mixture as little as possible so as not to pop all the bubbles which are going to make your cake light.

So in about four batches: add some flour and fold and cut, fold and cut. This means sweep a metal spoon around the edge of the mixture and then once through the middle. The flour will gradually be mixed in.

I’ve heard it said that if you have a food processor you can dispense with folding and cutting. But I have this:

When all the flour is incorporated, gently pour/slide/scrape the mixture into the cake tin. Have it higher round the edge than in the middle so that it ends up flat as it rises.

Put it in the oven and then – very important – leave the door closed. It’ll fall if you peek. It should take about 50 mins to an hour. You can start checking after 40 if you think your oven is on the aggressive side.

To check, take the tin out and listen to the cake. It’ll whisper “I’m ready” in a piping little voice--Wouldn’t that be adorable? But no. If it’s not finished cooking you will hear wet snapping noises. If it’s ready you will hear dry popping noises. If it’s silent it’s very ready and might even be a wee bit what we call “well-fired”.

Leave it in the tin until you can handle it without wincing – about ten minutes. Then turn it out onto a wire rack.

Et voila. For the literary salon at Janet’s house, I cut it in half and filled and topped it with cream, whipped up with some icing/powder sugar and a drip more vanilla and added strawberries. Butter cream icing (one part butter to two parts icing/powdered sugar) and M&Ms are also a fine idea. But don’t, whatever you do, go to all this faff with the warm eggs, and folding, and listening to a cake - and then cover it in that nasty shop-bought gloop. 

Photo: Clark Lohr

Catriona McPherson is the Agatha, Macavity and Left Coast Crime Award winning author of a series of (preposterous) 1920s detective stories, including DANDY GILVER AND AN UNSUITABLE DAY FOR A MURDER (Minotaur), set in Scotland where she was born and where she lived until 2010.  AS SHE LEFT IT (Midnight Ink) is the first in a new strand of contemporary stand-alones. Catriona now lives in northern California with two black cats and a scientist.

Scottish Macaroon Bars: Catriona McPherson

Photo: Janet Rudolph

The great thing about having author events for Mystery Readers NorCal at my home is that the participants bring treats, and knowing of my chocolate addiction, they're always stellar! Recently crime writer Val McDermid was here for a Literary Salon, and she invited fellow Scottish mystery author Catriona McPherson. Catriona brought the absolutely fabulous Scottish national sweet Macaroon Bars. These tasted nothing like any macaroon I've ever had--and don't even think about comparing them to the French macaron. Scottish Macaroon Bars have a very sugary snow white inside that's dipped in chocolate and rolled in toasted coconut. These are very, very, very sweet.

This candy reminded me of those coconut patties my grandparents used to bring back from Florida when I was a kid. So you can imagine my surprise when Catriona told me the secret ingredient -- mashed potatoes. Of course I immediately asked her to share her recipe with readers of DyingforChocolate.com. My mystery and chocolate worlds collide again. Love her post and recipe method.. being Scottish she also has a plan for the leftover bits :-)

Catriona McPherson is a Scottish mystery writer whose recent transplantation to Northern California has had two main repercussions: a lot of Skype time with old friends and a lo-hot of learning to make things she used to buy - shortbread, haggis, oatcakes and these traditional macaroon bars. For more on Catriona's series of 1920s detective novels - the latest is Dandy Gilver and The Proper Treatment of Bloodstains - please visit www.dandygilver.com.

CATRIONA McPHERSON:

Every Scottish kid buys these with his or her pocket money. I didn’t know you could make them until I moved to California and was forced into extremes of ingenuity. And even I was surprised by the first ingredient. A good tip is not to tell anyone about it until they’ve tasted the results. No one has spat one out yet on hearing the news.

Macaroon Bars

Photo: Catriona McPherson

Ingredients:
One large floury potato (a Russet is ideal)
Roughly a pound of icing aka powdered sugar and then some
Roughly a pound of dark chocolate
Roughly a pound of shredded coconut
A pinch of salt (optional)

Now, I know the quantities in the ingredients list are not calibrated with precision. The main thing is to have lots of icing sugar. If you run out of chocolate or coconut, you can save the filling in the freezer for when you’ve bought more. If you find yourself with too much chocolate (?) and coconut you can make a couple of rocky roads with crumbled digestives and dried fruit.

Method:
Peel and boil the potato until it’s tender but not mushy and then mash it very smooth. Don’t whip it with a machine - it’ll go gummy.
In a large bowl, begin to tip in the sugar in batches and mix it with the potato. Keep going until you have a paste so stiff your arms hurt. Pinch a piece off and taste it. It shouldn’t taste like potato. If it does, rest your arms and then try again. If you use a processor for this bit, just keep going until you can’t incorporate any more sugar or your machine blows up.
Roll the paste out into a shortbread tin or other shallow pan. No need to grease.
At this stage, I would sprinkle the pan with a little salt. I love salt with chocolate. Miss it out if it seems odd but if you use it, sprinkle it at this stage and don’t mix it in. Burst of salt through the sweet on the tongue are so much better than overall saltiness.
Now mark the mixture out into squares ready to break it up when it’s set. Small pieces will be best: it’s quite sweet.

Put the tin in the freezer to chill and stiffen even more.
Melt the chocolate very gently in a bowl set over simmering water. When it’s all melted keep it over the water to stay warm.
Toast the coconut in a dry frying pan. Be careful! It burns about half a second after it browns. Don’t use the toasting time to check your email. When it’s all toasted, spread it on a plate.
Set out a few big plates or racks covered with greaseproof paper.
Now take the tin of filling out of the freezer and break it up into “bars”.
Using tongs or a fish slice, dip each bar into chocolate, then toss it in coconut, then lay it on the greaseproof paper. This operation will descend into sticky chaos.
When the bars are all coated or the chocolate and coconut has run out, put them back into the fridge or freezer to chill them, then keep them in airtight tins, interleaved with paper, until you want them.

I have no idea how long they keep. How would you find out?