Mellifluous Words

On syrups.

Syrups are pretty easy to make, and have all sorts of uses (which I will not detail here); the reason for discussing them here is with reference to the flavouring of the macarons recipe in my last post.

I've found a really effective way of flavouring the macarons is the use of Italian meringue (that is, a meringue made using a hot syrup instead of granulated sugar), made with flavoured syrups.

Syrups are generally made by melting sugar with a little water and boiling the sugar to the fine thread stage. By using different colours and flavours of syrup, we can easily flavour our macarons. Below are a few recipes for different syrups (the quantities given below are correct for making macarons. If you decide to use the syrups for something else, these recipes will readily scale up):

Earl Grey Syrup
2 Earl Grey Teabags
80g Granulated or Caster (superfine) Sugar
about 75ml of boiling water (the exact amount is not too important here, most of the water will be boiled off)

Put the teabags into the boiling water in a pan and stir. Leave to diffuse for around 4 minutes - we want the tea to be strong, but still clear. If the tea becomes cloudy discard it and start again -your tannins have gone awry. Once the tea is ready (it should be a deep red colour), remove the teabags and add the sugar to the pan. Stir until dissolved.
Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down and allow it to simmer. We're trying to remove the water and concentrate the flavour of the tea here. I tend to use the amount of bubbles as a guide to the amount of water left - the bubbles are water steam, and so give quite a good indication of the amount of water remaining. When the bubbling slows significantly, your syrup is ready. Remove from the heat and use immediately in your macarons recipe (see previous post).

Chocolate syrup
75g Caster (superfine) Sugar
75g Cocoa Powder
75ml Water

Put all the ingredients into a pan, and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
As above, simmer until the bubbles slow significantly. Again, use immediately in your macarons.

Raspberry Syrup
100g Raspberries (washed)
75g Caster (superfine) Sugar
50ml Water

Again, put all of the ingredients into a pan, and bring to the boil, breaking up the raspberries as they soften with a wooden spoon or spatula. As with the previous recipes, we're trying to eliminate the water in the syrup (it may take a little longer here as the raspberries have a relatively high water content themselves). This time, sieve the syrup or filter through a muslin bag, then use in the macarons.

Happy baking. Next time: fillings.