Sur La Table Macaron Class

As a Christmas gift I signed myself, my Mom and Mother in Law up for the Valentine Macaron class at Sur La Table on February 9th with Chef Zak Groh.  The class made three types of macarons that day:  Hazelnut with Praline Buttercream, Raspberry with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Violet with White Chocolate-Rose Ganache.

Thanks to Chef Zak for taking a picture with us!

 

The class was about 2.5 hours in length and was a lot of fun.  However....macarons are a lot of work!!  Let's just say that we all agreed that we couldn't tackle these at home by ourselves.  You definitely would want 2-3 people to split up the arm-work.  These babies were a good workout! 

 

To begin you have to sift the flour and powdered sugar mixture two times.  And not just a light sift, you really use your arm muscles here trying to push out the mixture so that it is very fine.  Chef Zak joked that most pastry chefs say to sift it three times, but that it is just so that by the 3rd time you think to yourself, "forget this, I'll just buy the macarons".  lol.

 

 

Another thing that was interesting is that Chef Zak separated the egg whites on Thursday, a few days before the class to allow them to reach room temperature by storing them in plastic containers with holes in the top.  I would have never thought egg whites could sit out that long.

 

After sifting the flour, it was time to beat the egg whites until they were in meringue form.  We put my Mom in charge of this part who worked it like a pro, (with just a break or two in between). 

 

To be honest, this was my first time using a pastry bag and it took some getting used to.  Sue's second tray below looked pretty dang good.  It was nice that they put a sheet underneath so that you had a sense of the size to pipe out so that the macarons are uniform.  We did four trays of macarons.  Two of them were piped pretty good, but we did start out a bit rusty!  My blogger friend Karis will appreciate the use of the Silpat!

A few pics of us with our nametags.  Chef Zak used everyone's first names in class which made it very personal, whether he was addressing you when you asked a question or commenting on your technique. 

I love how they both are pimping the Valentines gear here.  XOXO.

Below are some trays ready to go in the oven and some already cooked.  They kept track of which trays were yours so that you went home with your own macarons.  Some of ours were piped kind of high, so they were a bit hollow, but overall I was proud of our work.  I am definitely not a macaron pro yet though.  The hazelnut macarons with praline buttercream were my favorite.

I never got a picture of the finished product, so I am thankful that my Mom took one the next day on this pretty platter. 

Thanks to Chef Zak for an interesting experience, he was a patient teacher and we all really enjoyed it.  Having participated in two classes now at Sur La Table, I would definitely recommend them for a group of friends, or a couple's night out together for something different.