Earlier this month I stayed at WISE lured by the promise of a
vegetarian breakfast and a weekend of laughs at the Machynlleth Comedy Festival.
I liked WISE immediately, hard not to when you’re travelling on
a water-balanced cliff railway to scenery that was beautiful even in the lashing rain.
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| Thanks to my friend Laura for these photos. Here she is inspecting Megan the Mole in an educational display for small children that I found terrifying |
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| You're advised to take a torch if you're staying overnight at WISE - here's me and Iolo in the pitch black |
I was welcomed at WISE with a cup
of tea and cakes when I did a double take at the pink
macarons that looked normal but were labeled VEGAN. What was this egg-free
witchcraft? The chef told me the secret ingredient is the water from tinned
chickpeas – some dude in the US called Goose set the world of vegan baking
aflutter recently after discovering that it whips up like egg white.
It was only when I got back to Newcastle and cracked open the
chickpeas that I realised I hadn’t asked about the recipe. I cast about the
internet and found a couple of US recipes for French-meringue uncooked sugar
macarons here and here but neither worked for me. I suspect I didn’t beat the
mix for long enough
For my third and final attempt (there’s only so much chickpea
stew I can eat) I used my normal Italian-meringue cooked sugar macarons recipe,
which worked much better. There were a few losses, as there usually are with
macarons, and they are slightly more chewy than eggy macarons with bigger feet but
they have a lovely gloss and taste delicious. In tribute to Machynlleth I’m
calling them Macharons. Here’s the recipe:
Chocolate vegan macarons
Italian meringue
40g reduced chickpea water (one 14oz tin)
100g caster sugar
37ml water
Paste
40g reduced chickpea water (one 14oz tin)
100g ground blanched almonds
90g icing sugar
10g cocoa powder
If you don’t want chocolate macarons, leave out the cocoa powder
and use 100g icing sugar instead of 90g. If you’d like to colour them, mix a
little food dye into the paste
Ganache filling:
160g dark chocolate
90g coconut milk
I added dessicated coconut and coconut extract to the ganache
for extra flavour; the zest of an orange or some mint extract also works well
Method
Drain the water from two tins of chickpeas. Don’t use chickpeas
in brine unless you want them to taste salty, in which case seek help.
Simmer the chickpea water for 10 mins until it reduces to about half its
volume, then allow to cool.
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| Admittedly it doesn't look very appetising |
Mix the icing sugar, cocoa powder and ground almonds together
with 40g chickpea reduction to form a thick paste.
Now make the Italian meringue mixture: weigh out another 40g
chickpea reduction in a small clean metal or glass bowl and whisk it for a good 10 minutes until it is pale and
fluffy and forms peaks.
Heat the 37ml water and 100g caster sugar in a non stick pan to 114 degrees C as
quickly as possible without
stirring. It helps enormously to have a sugar thermometer for this, but
if you don’t have one, you’ll know your syrup is ready when a drop of it can
form a soft ball in a glass of cold water.
As the syrup reaches 114 degrees C, start whisking the fluffy
chickpea reduction again and pour in the syrup down the side of the bowl.
Continue beating for 5 minutes while the meringue mixture cools.
Using a spatula, fold one third of the meringue mixture into the
chocolate almond paste, then add in the rest. You need to break down the
meringue a little so that you have a mixture that is quite wet but not runny.
Line two baking trays with parchment. Put a plain round 1 cm nozzle
in a piping bag and pipe out small round mounds onto the parchment. You can use
a template to help you pipe them all the same size, or dip a round cookie
cutter in icing sugar and draw an outline on the parchment with it.
Tap the bottom of the trays lightly on the counter and leave the
macarons to rest at room temperature for about half an hour. They will form a
thin crust so that when you lightly run a finger over them, no mixture comes
away. This helps to prevent the shells from cracking on the surface when they
bake.
Heat the oven to 150 degrees C and bake the macarons for 14
minutes. As soon you take the cooked macarons out of the oven, slide the
parchment on to a cold counter top to "shock" them and ensure they
come cleanly off the parchment.
While they are cooling, make the ganache by heating the coconut
milk and chocolate to near boiling point and mixing thoroughy. Add any
flavourings now.
Once the macarons have cooled, you can fill them with the ganache.
Remember not to overfill them so it doesn’t overpower the fragile shells. You can
drizzle on melted dark chocolate and add decoration.
