Make homemade pasta. Note to the hostess

Many people know how to cook spaghetti. After all, like any other pasta, they just need to be boiled and doused with boiling water. However, the presented method will suit you only if you plan to serve some goulash or sausages with gravy with this side dish. If you do not plan to prepare such a dish, then the spaghetti should be processed a little differently.

How to cook spaghetti as a regular side dish?

To make such a dish as tasty as possible, pasta should be purchased only from durum wheat. Otherwise, during heat treatment, spaghetti can boil down and turn into an unpleasant mushy mass. Moreover, such products contain complex carbohydrates, which require a lot of energy to process, which means that the cooked pasta dish will contribute to the least amount of excess weight.

So, before you cook spaghetti as a regular side dish, you should purchase:

• durum wheat spaghetti (as an option, you can use the manufacturer "Makfa") - 2/3 of a standard pack;
• iodized salt - add to taste (1 dessert spoon);
• drinking water - 2 l;

Cooking process

Delicious spaghetti is good for lunch. Combined with meat goulash and cutlets, this dish will quickly fill your whole family.

To boil pasta, take a large saucepan, pour drinking water into it and bring to a boil. Further, in the bubbling liquid, it is required to lay out the spaghetti, having previously broken them, or in an integral form. Also, a small amount of salt must be added to the water. To prevent spaghetti from sticking together, it is recommended to pour one large spoonful of sunflower oil into them.

Cook pasta over medium heat for about 8-11 minutes. If the spaghetti was not made from durum wheat, then it is advisable to shorten this time, since otherwise they can boil.

The final stage

The readiness of the spaghetti, the photo of which is presented in this article, can be determined as follows: it is enough to break the pasta with a spoon, pressing them against the side of the pan. After the product becomes soft, it must be discarded in a colander and rinsed thoroughly under cold water. If you plan to serve the side dish to the table immediately, then it is advisable to pour over the finished products with boiling water. This way you don't have to reheat them in a microwave or frying pan.

What is served with?

Now you know how to cook spaghetti as a regular side dish. You can serve boiled pasta to the table with beef goulash, sausages, sausages, small sausages, fried vegetables, chicken, cutlets, fish, etc. To give this dish a special taste and aroma, it is recommended to additionally serve it with some kind of sauce, ketchup or homemade marinades. Bon Appetit!

Cooking spaghetti in a slow cooker with mushrooms

You can cook spaghetti not only on a regular stove, but also using a device such as a slow cooker. To do this, we need a similar set of ingredients:

• durum wheat spaghetti - ½ standard pack;
• iodized salt - add to taste (2/3 dessert spoon);
• drinking water - 1 l;
• odorless sunflower oil - a full large spoon.

First, a barely audible crunch, then a sugar explosion, the fragments of which settle in the corners of the lips, while the sweet taste of the filling is already spreading in the mouth ...
The macaroon, a piece of heavenly delight that fits between the index and thumb, is the most modern of the classics of French pastry chefs.

Small round cakes with cream filling, colorful confetti with original flavors have become a favorite treat all over the world - from the banks of the Seine to the Hudson and Tokyo Bay. (c) Pascale Bernard

Everything you need to know about macarons: composition, rules for choosing ingredients, what the “right” macarons are, how to serve and how to give. And also: two basic recipes - in French and Italian merengue and 9 delicious fillings - ganache, Kurds, creams. And one more thing: about macaroon fashion, facts and legends, and even a little linguistics ...

The main thing about macaroons

Macaroon - a small cake (or complex cookie) made from crushed almonds and meringues - is firmly gaining ground on our table, becoming an increasingly desirable dessert for the holidays.

At first glance, it seems that cooking macarons is very simple: beat the whites with powdered sugar, mix with almond flour, put them in circles on a baking sheet - and you're done. However, this is not the case. Almond cookies with a characteristic "skirt" - a piece, although not oriental, but very delicate, and they will turn out only if you strictly follow all the instructions and follow the recipe exactly.

Almond flour should be fine and dry. The success of the cookie depends on its quality. If it is impossible to buy the mentioned component in your area, this is not a reason to despair and close the page - you can cook flour yourself, you only need almonds. Of course, this greatly complicates the already difficult process of baking macaroons, but the result is worth it, believe me!

Proteins for macaroons must be aged. Ganaches and creams - aged. The ingredients are measured to the nearest gram, the oven temperature is monitored strictly and closely. Baking cookies is a lot of work that requires concentration, physical effort and a huge investment of mental strength. If you violate at least one point of the requirements, macarons will not work - it has been checked more than once!

So, the "right" macaroons should:

- be even, strictly round and appetizingly neat;
- to be the owner of a flawless surface without "tails" and, of course, cracks;
- be glossy, delicately shiny and do not stick to the skin when pressed with a finger;
- have a crispy crust; if there is no such crust, everything is in front of you, but not macaroons;
- have 4-4.5 cm in diameter (nowadays there are still fashionable mini-macaroons, they do not exceed 3 cm in diameter, and maxi-macaroons, more like almond cakes);
- hide a delicate texture, sweet and moist under a crisp;
- demonstrate a flirty "skirt" (La collerette), the thickness of which should be approximately equal to the thickness of the top of the cookie;
- show off a delicate filling, the thickness of which is again equal to the thickness of the cookie;
- to have a filling that goes a little, quite a bit beyond the "skirt", teasing the eyes and mouth.

How to serve macaroons?

A special kind of art is the ability to present macarons beautifully. Designers come up with special coasters, confectioners compete in the originality of ideas, and numerous coffee houses "play" with dishes and napkins. Once I had a chance to eat macaroons on a stick - seemingly completely incompatible things, nevertheless, someone came up with such pampering!

At home, it is better to pick up unusual-shaped plates for macarons - after carefully laying out the cakes on the dish, try to give the row of cookies a quirky bend, a non-standard line, experiment with the “towers” ​​and “floors”.

Macaroon packaging is a separate conversation... Try to order these take-away cakes in any bakery in Paris - I guarantee you will get incredible pleasure admiring the box, untiing numerous ribbons and bows, touching textured paper, rustling with napkins. If you bake macarons to take on a visit or to give them to a good friend in the hospital, think about packaging - this is important, this is an integral part of the cakes, this is the general essence of the grand show called “Macaroons!”.

2 basic macaroon recipes and a scattering of macaroon fillings

Everything else is variations on a given theme and games with additives. French meringue is simpler in the cooking instructions, but very unstable - without experience, the chance of spoiling macarons is quite high. Italian meringue is, of course, a little more difficult to cook, and there are a lot of pitfalls, but the dough mixed with it is much easier to work with. The choice is yours, and I propose to start with a simpler, but at the same time more capricious option.

Macarons on French merengue

Ingredients:

• 165 g white almond flour;
• 165 g icing sugar;
• 150 g sugar;
• 115 g protein.

French macaroon recipe

1. Mix powder and almond flour, sift through a sieve several times. Twice 165 g each is the output of the finished product, so I recommend initially taking a little more powder and flour, and sifting it on the scales so that you know exactly when to stop. Beat the whites first at a slow speed, then we increase the speed and continue to soft peaks - at this stage, add sugar a little at a time, in a thin stream, and, if necessary, a couple of drops (no more!) of helium dye (a pinch of dry). Beat until sugar dissolves and hard peaks are obtained.

3. Spatula and very neat mix meringue with almond-sugar mixture- this stage is called "macronage". It is important to find the right moment to stop: the mixture should already be homogeneous, but not liquid, the proteins should already combine with the almond flour, but still retain a sufficient amount of air bubbles. Different sources indicate a different number of movements of the scapula - from 10 to 50. I think it is obvious that you should not be guided by this moment, it is better to intuitively understand when to stop: the dough should drain from the scapula with a continuous ribbon.

4. Transfer the finished dough into a pastry bag and put it on a sheet of parchment paper in circles with a diameter of 2-3 cm. There should be a distance of about 2 cm between them, it should be planted strictly vertically, "cutting" the dough with a sharp movement to the side. On a properly mixed mass, the "tail" will disperse in a few seconds.

5. After that, it is necessary to raise the baking sheet several times and knock it well on the table surface - so future macaroons will take a more regular shape, extra bubbles of dough will come out of the cookies, the last memories of the "tails" will go down in history.

6. Leave the baking sheet with cookies on the table - the dough should be aired so that the resulting crust does not allow air to escape during the baking process. After 15-20 minutes, gently touch the surface of the macaroon with your finger - if your finger remains clean, you can put the cookies in the oven. If the dough sticks, let it sit for another 10-15 minutes.

7. We bake at a temperature of 150 degrees for 14 minutes. Depending on the characteristics of your oven, the time may be slightly longer or slightly less.

Transfer the finished macaroons to the wire rack directly with the paper, leave to cool completely, and then remove from the parchment.

Macarons on Italian merengue

Ingredients:

• 300 g icing sugar;
• 300 g almond flour;
• 110 g protein;
• 110 g protein;
• 50 g sugar;
• 250 g sugar;
• 75 g of water.

Italian macaroon recipe

1. Sift powdered sugar with flour(again, we strictly make sure that the output is 600 g), add the protein (the first 110 g) and mix. Without subtleties and tricks - we just keep track of the weight, remembering that when baking macaroons, correctly measured components are half the success.

Add powder or gel dye if necessary.

2. Cook syrup from sugar (250 g) and water up to 120 degrees. If you do not have a cooking thermometer, focus on the syrup string - it should stretch well between two fingers, not tear (not cooked) or break (digested).

3. At the same time, the whites are whipped. with sugar (50 g) - to soft peaks. Pour the finished syrup, hot and scalding, into the protein mass in a thin stream, while the mixer is not turned off. The mass will greatly increase in volume, and then become shiny and smooth.

4. We connect two masses, we make a maccoronage(in this version - not particularly almond, the meringue is stable and strong, so we knead it intensively, the mass should be glossy and fall from the shoulder blade with a ribbon), after which we transfer the finished dough into a pastry bag and place it on a baking sheet in the form of circles with a diameter of 2-3 cm Cut off the "tail" with a sharp movement to the side, leave a distance of 2 cm between the cookies.

Grasping the two edges of the baking sheet, knock them on the edge of the table several times.

5. Leave for 15-30 minutes for airing, after which bake at a temperature of 150 degrees about 14 minutes (look at the features of the oven).

6. When the macaroon blanks are baked, you can combine the cookies in pairs. The filling is transferred into a pastry bag, squeezed out onto half of the baked cookies, and then covered with the other half. By the way, for this it is convenient to immediately lay out two rows of blanks on a baking sheet - half "head" down, the other half - on the contrary. So it is more convenient to deposit the cream on the first part of the cookie and quickly close the second.

Almond Cake Fillings Recipes

Classic chocolate ganache

Ingredients: 100 g of dark chocolate, 100 ml of heavy cream.

Break the chocolate into pieces and fill it with warmed cream. Knead with a spatula until a homogeneous, smooth mass, cover with cling film and leave in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours.

Coffee ganache

Ingredients: 200 g of dark chocolate, 100 ml of heavy cream, 30 g of coffee beans.

Mix the cream with coffee beans, bring to a boil, leave to brew. Melt the chocolate in a water bath, filter the cooled cream into it. Stir until smooth, cover with cling film and put in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours.

Ganache on white chocolate

Ingredients: 200 g good quality white chocolate, 150 ml heavy cream.

Break the chocolate into pieces, put in a bowl, pour in the cream brought to a boil, knead a smooth homogeneous mass. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 10 hours.

Raspberry ganache

Ingredients: 50 ml heavy cream, 200 g white chocolate, 100 g raspberry puree.

Mix the cream with the puree, bring to a boil, pour the chocolate into pieces, and stir well. The mass should be smooth and glossy.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 10 hours.

Lemon Kurd

Ingredients: 115 g of egg mixture, 120 g of sugar, 80 ml of lemon juice, zest of 1 lemon, 125 g of butter.

Mix freshly squeezed juice with sugar, add zest, stir in eggs and put the mixture in a water bath. Stir constantly, cook until thickened (15-30 minutes). Cool, then add butter at room temperature and beat. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

Raspberry cream

Ingredients: 300 g of mashed raspberry puree, 100 g of sugar, 1 tbsp. l. with a "slide" of starch, 1 tsp. gelatin.

Pour gelatin with a little water, leave to swell.
Mix raspberry puree with starch and sugar, bring to a boil, but do not boil. While stirring, cook until thickened. Add gelatin, cover with foil and put in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Ganache "Green tea"

Ingredients: 100 ml heavy cream, 200 g white chocolate, 1 tsp. green tea.

Mix the cream with tea, bring to a boil and let it brew. We filter, pour through a sieve onto the chocolate melted in a water bath. Stir and let it brew under cling film for at least 12 hours.

Pistachio ganache

Ingredients: 200 g milk chocolate, 100 ml heavy cream, 15 g pistachio paste.

Bring the cream to a boil, pour it onto the chocolate broken into pieces, knead until smooth, then add the pistachio paste and stir. Cover with cling film and keep in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours.

Mint ganache

Ingredients: 100 g good quality white chocolate, 40 ml heavy cream, 2 tsp. mint liqueur, green dye if desired.

Pour the broken chocolate into pieces with the cream brought to a boil, knead until smooth, add the liqueur and dye, mix again and, covered with cling film, put it in the refrigerator for 10 hours.

Saffron and orange, licorice, rose, pralines and chestnuts, nuts and coconut, champagne and liqueurs, all kinds of berries and fruits, vanilla and cinnamon, lilies of the valley and violets - there are many additives in creams and ganaches, try and create! By the way, depending on the filling, macaroons are also dyed - traditionally cookies with lemon curd are cooked in yellow, and raspberry jam "asks" for red dye to be added to the almond mass.

It is not easy to bake macarons at home, however, if you at least once try to create this magic with your own hands, conjure yourself something amazingly delicate and unusual, you cannot just forget about macarons. Difficult, laborious, not fast, but worth it!

Macaroons: facts, legends, investigations

According to one of the legends, macarons were invented by the Carmelite sisters in one of the monasteries of the Nancy district - trying to diversify the meager food, they were guided by the instruction of Teresa of Avila: "For girls who do not eat meat, almonds are useful." The recipe was born within the walls of the monastery, and during the French Revolution, the nuns, hiding from the outraged people in the house of the local doctor Gormand, baked cookies for sale, earning their living - and it was then that macarons became incredibly popular. There is a street in Nancy that bears the names of the Carmelite sisters, and in addition, the Maison des Soeurs Macarons house-cafe still exists - the owners consider themselves carriers of the original recipe according to which its creator's macaroons were baked.

However, there are other versions of the origin of macarons - many believe that almond cookies were brought by Italian chefs whom Catherine Medici took with her when she married Henry II and moved to France.

How Macarons Became a World Celebrity Macaroon fashion

Be that as it may in reality, the fact remains: almond cookies, when they were born, very quickly became popular. First, the macarons were glued together with hot steam - a double-sided almond cake was obtained. Delicious, crumbly, crunchy, but still slightly dry. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, confectioner Pierre Defontaine, the owner of the famous confectionery house Laduree, while traveling across Europe, in some cafe he tasted delicate chocolate cream - and it was he who came up with the idea to glue macarons with a magnificent filling. Absolutely incredible, but until 1930, it never occurred to anyone that dry macaroons could be enriched with cream. Hurray for Pierre Defontaine!

And from this moment, the real heyday and rapid rise of macarons begins. Experiments with fillings, games with additives, fantasies with flavors and, of course, all kinds of dyes - this is the way the development of macaroons has gone. Paris officially becomes the capital of macarons and a trendsetter in macaroon fashion. Today Pierre Defontaine's Laduree confectionery sells at least 15,000 macarons daily, and for some reason I am sure that this is far from the limit. And if you estimate how many cafes and coffee houses exist in the world in general and in Paris in particular, which prepare and treat almond delicacies, the figure turns out to be mind-boggling.

Every self-respecting confectionery house is simply obliged to have a dozen or so of its own, branded recipes for making almond desserts. Moreover, once a year, Paris celebrates Macaroon Day, invented by Pierre Hermé, a French pastry chef. This is a special holiday for which it is customary to prepare ... with a new collection of macarons! The most famous confectionery houses in France, famous culinary specialists from Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, the USA, Japan strive to take part in the annual event, and by this day every culinary name is simply obliged to come up with and demonstrate something completely new, unusual, non-standard.

The latest fashion is savory macarons with olives and cheese, chili and gherkins, capers and goose liver, white truffles and basil. Of course, this is a special kind of cooking, which is more related to art than family tea drinking with homemade cakes, but even at home, in an ordinary 12-meter kitchen with a standard set of dishes, you can dream and learn, grow and strive for something new, unknown, interesting.

By the way, in France macaroons are sold even in McDonald's - and, in my opinion, this is one more undoubted proof of the popularity of this dessert.

And more: macarons, pasta and cooking for philologists

How can it be correct to say - "macaroni", "macaroon", "macaroni", "macaroni" or something else? Let's delve into history.

Of course, now you can hardly prove that it was in the beginning - a chicken or an egg, however, the facts exist: in one form or another, cookies based on whipped proteins and almond flour exist in many cuisines of the world. The luxury that we are accustomed to, which is found on the beautiful covers of glossy culinary magazines, which decorate the windows of pastry shops, originally from France.

In the original language, the name sounds like "macaroon" (fr. Macaron), although simple transliteration gives "macaroni". Both words are so common that if it depended on me, I would have said long ago: as you want, say so! Alas, this is not in my power, so I will whisper quietly: as it is convenient for you, pronounce it, the main thing is confidently and authoritatively!

"Macarons" and "macarons" may sound beautiful, but definitely not correct: the ending "s" in the original language speaks of the plural, which is formed completely differently in Russian.

In addition to the French gourmet comrade, there is also the popular American: the same whipped egg whites, powdered sugar and coconut. In English, cakes are called macaroons, and here there can be no two options - they are pronounced exactly like "macaroons". Rather, "macaroon", but we have already decided that we will not say that, right?

Apparently, in order not to confuse similar names (and the cookies are somewhat similar, you must agree!), And two variants of pronunciation were popularized - macaroon and macaroni.

The variant "macaroon" is closer to me - after all, the word "macaroni" is associated with pasta, and I don't want to mix God's gift and scrambled eggs into one cutlet. Although ... according to one of the versions of the origin of the name of the cakes, they are not so far from pasta. They say that there used to be a dessert soup in Italy - pieces of dough mixed with almond flour floated in it. Over time, almonds have gone their own way, pasta - their own, but the common name (pasta) stuck to each dish.

Previously, many women who strictly monitored their weight included dishes made from pasta, noodles and other flour products on the list of the strictest taboos. Today it is reliably known that pasta made from durum wheat flour does not harm the figure at all.

Healthy homemade noodles

This cannot but rejoice, since there are countless dishes that can be prepared from noodles, pasta or noodles. And some hostesses prefer not to buy pasta, but to make homemade noodles on their own.

Shop counters today are literally overflowing with pasta from various manufacturers, all kinds of shapes, sizes and even colors. But there is nothing tastier than noodles cooked at home, with your own hands, according to the recipes of our great-grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers.

But the modern woman already has a huge burden of responsibilities: work, household chores, childcare. Most often, in your free minute you want to spend on yourself, and not stand for hours in the kitchen. So it turns out that we buy a finished product, trying to save our time.

However, if you feel like pampering your family and friends, make homemade noodles for them. We are sure that this dish will warm their souls, because they will feel your boundless love and care. And so that cooking homemade noodles takes as little time as possible. involve your household in the business. After all, everyone likes the taste of homemade noodles, and therefore your family is unlikely to refuse to help you in its preparation. So, the husband can be entrusted with a responsible and rather laborious task of kneading and rolling the dough, and the kids will certainly not refuse to help their mother cut the noodles into thin strips!

Cooking noodles at home (recipe)

So let's start by making the dough. To make homemade noodles, you will need:

• 400 gr. flour
• 8 yolks
• 50 gr. vegetable oil
• 2-3 gr. salt
• 1 tbsp water

Cooking homemade noodles:

• Pour 400 grams into a large bowl or directly on the table. flour, make a depression in it on top.
• Then in a separate bowl, mix 8 yolks with salt, vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of cold water, beat until smooth.
• Pour the resulting yolk mass into the groove in the flour and begin to gently mix it with the flour. When the dough is thick enough, start kneading it with your hands.

The dough should be as tight and plastic as possible, the quality of the resulting noodles depends on this. Therefore, at the stage of kneading the dough, you cannot do without the strong hands of your beloved man - he will cope with the dough faster and better than you. The cooler the dough, the better the noodles will turn out, and therefore we call a representative of the strong half of humanity and solemnly entrust him with this responsible matter, of course, under your careful guidance.

• Leave the dough for 10-15 minutes before rolling. cover with a towel or an inverted bowl and allow it to stand.
• Then we get to work again. First, sprinkle the table with a thick enough layer of flour, put the dough on it, and start rolling, gradually adding flour under the rolling pin in order to avoid the dough sticking to the rolling pin.

Turn the dough periodically while rolling so that it does not stick to the table. The thinner the dough is rolled out, the better, therefore, again, you can call a strong man for help. Ideal - when the thickness of the dough does not exceed 1 mm.

• After the dough has become thin enough, you need to leave it for 10 minutes to dry.
• In the meantime, check with your family on which noodles you want to cook: long or short. Short noodles are indispensable for making soups, and long noodles make a great side dish.

In order to make short noodles from the rolled dough, you need to cut the dough into strips of 1.5-2 centimeters, then fold the resulting strips in a pile, remembering to sprinkle them with flour to avoid sticking.

• Now take a thinner knife and start cutting the noodles, try to make them as thin as possible. During the cutting process, remember to turn and shake the already cut noodles so that they do not have time to stick together.

If you decide to make long noodles, sprinkle the rolled dough with flour and roll into a roll, then slice it thinly and shake the resulting noodles so that it unfolds.

• So you have reached the home stretch, now you just have to dry the homemade noodles, to do this, sprinkle it in a thin layer on a floured baking sheet or table and leave it to dry for about 30-40 minutes.

What to make from homemade noodles?

Noodles can be prepared for future use, for this it must be dried until brittle, sprinkled with flour and stored in a linen bag.

Place homemade noodles in a sieve before cooking and shake slightly to remove excess flour. Now it all depends on your tastes and imagination.

• Boiled homemade noodles are good as a side dish.
• Lovers of dairy soups will surely like the following cooking option: pre-boiled noodles should be thrown into a colander, allowed to drain, then pour over boiled milk, add sugar and butter to taste.
• And chicken soup with homemade noodles is simply a classic of the art of cooking. To make homemade chicken noodles, you need a rich chicken stock. Separate the boiled chicken from the bones, cut into small portions, put in the broth along with the noodles. Remove from heat after 10 minutes. after boiling. You can add some chopped parsley.

Homemade noodles: many options

• If you're not afraid to experiment in the kitchen, there are tons of different homemade noodles you can make. For example, replacing wheat flour with buckwheat and giving up eggs, you will get homemade buckwheat noodles.
• To make rice noodles, you will need 3 cups of rice flour, 2 tbsp. l. starch, salt and 2 glasses of cold water.
• In addition, sweet lovers will surely love the taste of chocolate noodles, for which you only need to add about 40-50 grams to the dough. cocoa powder.
• For lovers of unusual and original dishes, you can offer to cook colored homemade noodles, especially since it is quite simple. You just need to add a little beet or carrot juice to the egg mixture before mixing it with flour - as a result, you will get one-time or yellow noodles.
• In addition, with the help of special knives and various molds, you can create various options for curly homemade noodles.

Homemade Carrot Noodle Recipe

Another option for making homemade noodles is "carrot".

To make carrot noodles you will need:

• 200 gr. carrots
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp Sahara
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp salt
• 3-4 tbsp. flour

Cooking homemade noodles:

• Cut the peeled carrots into pieces and boil.
• After the carrots have cooled, rub them through a sieve or chop them in a blender, add all the ingredients except the flour, beat.
• Then, gradually adding flour, knead the tight dough.
• Divide the dough into 3-4 parts, roll out thinly and cut into long strips.
• Boiled "carrot" noodles are an excellent side dish for meat and vegetables!

Do not be afraid to experiment in the kitchen and surprise your family! Bon Appetit!

Miniature Pastry Macaron is an exquisite dessert originally from France. Two halves of puffed almond flour cookies and a rich chocolate ganache that holds them together ... Today I will share with you a step-by-step recipe for the famous Macarons that have won the hearts of many sweet tooths.

Before writing a recipe for Macaroni cakes, I thought for a long time how to describe the process in detail and in detail. I think I'll stop at the golden mean - I hope that 30 steps will be enough to achieve a positive result. In general, frankly speaking, I am far from an expert in the preparation of this homemade dessert - I have succeeded in making the Macaron cake only with ... 4 times.

I cannot but draw your attention to the fact that in the preparation of this capricious delicacy there is a huge number of nuances and subtleties. It would seem that you do everything according to a recipe whose author you trust as yourself, and still nothing happens ... This time I made Macaron cakes according to the recipe of my dear friend Lenochka Funk (thank you very much!), And the result is in front of you.

What pitfalls are encountered in the preparation of this French dessert? First of all, without weights (1 gram division), you don't even have to try to start. So to speak, to measure products "by eye" - immediately disappears. Precision, precision and again precision are one of the prerequisites for this recipe.

You can do without a cooking thermometer only if you are friends with the meringue, because you will need to properly cook the syrup. Almond flour, of course, can be made at home, but for the first time, I still recommend buying it at the store. Well, read about everything else in the step-by-step recipe for Macaroni cakes, otherwise I probably already killed you with my long introduction.

Ingredients:

Almond dough:

Italian meringue:

Chocolate ganache:

Cooking a dish step by step with a photo:

To make Macaroni cakes, we need the following products: almond flour, egg whites, powdered sugar, granulated sugar and water. I deliberately did not take pictures of the ingredients for the chocolate ganache, as I was not sure if the result would please at least the fourth time.

Cooking dough for pasta cakes. First, we weigh exactly 100 grams of almond flour and powdered sugar.

Sift flour and powder through a fine sieve - two or three times. This is done in order to get rid of the large pieces that are always present in almond flour. If they remain in the sieve, you can simply grind the small parts in a coffee grinder (then pass through the sieve again) or replace with the same amount of already sifted flour.

As a result, the bowl will contain exactly 200 grams of a homogeneous dry mixture consisting of almond flour and powdered sugar. Double or even triple sifting is necessary so that the surface of the cakes remains smooth and even.

Add 37 grams (no more, no less, but exactly 37!) Egg whites to the dry mixture and leave everything on the table for now. A small digression: when preparing macaroni cakes, cooks most often use aged proteins - that is, they leave them at room temperature in a bowl, covered with cling film or a saucer, which is pierced with a toothpick. Due to such manipulation, it seems like the structure of the protein changes and when whipping it turns out to be smoother. I use ancient proteins in general, if I may say so. The fact is that when cooking, sometimes I only need yolks, then I freeze the whites and store them in the freezer for several months. When I need them, I move them to the refrigerator in the evening, where the squirrels spend the night safely and are completely thawed.

We turn to the preparation of Italian meringue - it is this protein cream that will become the second component of the Macaroni pastry dough. In a small saucepan or stewpan, pour 27 milliliters (sounds ridiculous, but it is necessary) of water and pour 100 grams of granulated sugar. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil. From this point on, cook the sugar syrup over low heat for about 5-6 minutes. If you have a cooking thermometer, wait until 110 degrees - the ideal temperature for sugar syrup. Or try on a soft ball - drop the syrup into a bowl of ice water, then take it between your fingers and roll. If you get a soft ball, the syrup is ready. Of course, if you constantly cook custard meringues, then you can safely work without a thermometer, but for beginners, it is vital when preparing these cakes.

When the temperature of the syrup reaches about 90-95 degrees, it's time to beat the egg whites (room temperature). Whipping utensils must be clean, dry and fat-free. We start and continue to beat the whites at high speeds, without changing the speed until the very end. At first, the proteins will become cloudy and a light foam will appear, then gradually the mass will begin to turn white and noticeably increase in volume, turning into a snow-white, persistent and dense foam.

At this time, the sugar syrup will be prepared. We remove it from the stove ...

And pour a thin stream into the already dense proteins, which still continue to whisk. It is important to pour the hot syrup exactly in the middle between the walls of the dishes and the whisks. If it falls on the wall, it immediately crystallizes, and if on a whisk, it quickly cools down and winds up with a caramel thread. I still got a small amount of syrup on the wall, since it is extremely inconvenient to hold the camera in one hand, and a heavy saucepan with hot syrup in the other.

Returning to the almond base - use a spatula to mix the dry part with the egg whites. In general, of course, you need to mix everything until smooth, but here I didn't really try, but only mixed in most of the protein. I read that this is not critical. Some chefs do not mix proteins into almond flour with powdered sugar at all.

Next, there is another important stage - pasta. This is the final batch of macaroni pastry dough. In this case, we need to achieve the correct consistency of the dough. Transfer the Italian meringue to a bowl and stir in with a spatula clockwise, turning the bowl in the opposite direction.

Interestingly, experienced pastry chefs say that for the correct consistency of the pasta pastry dough, exactly 50 movements of the spatula are needed. How much it took for me personally, I did not count. So, with proper kneading, the dough should not only become smooth and uniform, but also drain off the shoulder with a wide ribbon.

We twist the bag from the wide side, adjusting the dough closer to the spout. Now you can breathe out a little with relief, but only slightly - there are still a couple of crucial moments ahead.

To bake halves of cakes, we need either a special macaroni mat or a simple baking sheet and high-quality parchment paper. If you are an esthete and are preparing this dessert for the first time, take care of the preparation in advance. Draw circles with a diameter of 3 centimeters on the back of the paper with a simple pencil. Then turn the paper over and place it face up on the baking sheet. Since I was making the Macaron for the fourth time, I decided not to draw anything and put the dough on my eyes. It seems to have turned out pretty smoothly, what do you think? Another important point for aesthetics: how to properly deposit the dough. Hold the bag vertically above the paper, squeeze the dough (remember that it will still flow) right into the center of the imaginary or drawn mug, and at the end with a sharp but neat movement, remove the nose of the bag to the side. This will break the dough and no spout remains on the surface. When you have deposited all the blanks, admire the work done. If the humps are still sticking out, you can help them straighten out. Put a thick towel (terry towel is best) on the table and very gently tap the baking sheet on the surface. If even then the spouts still continue to rise, then you have mixed the dough poorly.

Next, it is important to let the blanks dry out. Just leave the baking sheet on the counter for 30-60 minutes to cover the dough with a crust. In this case, time is a rather relative concept and depends on many factors. The main one is indoor humidity. My blanks were quite enough for 30 minutes while the oven was warming up. Touch one piece - if it has ceased to be sticky and you can even lightly run your finger over the surface, you can safely move on to baking. Only in the presence of this very crust can you expect a recognizable skirt, which distinguishes Macaron from other cakes.

Halves of cakes are baked in a preheated oven at an average level at 140-150 degrees for 14-17 minutes. In my oven, fortunately, this is the lowest temperature that can be set. We put a baking sheet, closed the door and wait. It is clear that you will also sit with trepidation and look through the glass and wait to see if this very skirt will appear or not. At about the fifth minute, it began to emerge in my Makaros, gradually becoming more and more. So everything was done correctly and the Macaron cakes were a success. After 16 minutes from the start of baking, I already took out a baking sheet (the crust at the halves became dense, and the bottom easily moved away from the paper) and set the second to cook (I deposited these blanks immediately after the first batch). Remove hot cakes from the baking sheet immediately so that they do not dry out.

And here you can take a closer look at the kids. You see, the surface of the halves is flat, smooth and glossy. The skirts turned out to be simply amazing - so fluffy and quite tall.

The macaroons come off the parchment easily and the underside is smooth and light. We bake the second batch of blanks and let them cool completely. In total, I got 56 halves, but not all of them made it to the final - I was so eager to take a sample. Ready-made macaroons can be easily stored in an airtight container for several days, and only then filled with the filling.

Well, now it's time for the ingredients for the filling. It can be made from almost anything: jam, custard, confiture, jam, thick sauce - whatever your heart desires. The main thing is that the filling is not liquid and keeps its shape. Since I made the cakes without dyes and flavors, I also decided to make the simplest filling - chocolate ganache. This will require chocolate and cream. I have, of course, bitter (regular readers probably know about my love for this particular species), but milk or even white is perfect. I used cream of 10% fat, but you add those that you want and that are available. You can even use butter.

Step 1: prepare the flour.

Step 2: prepare the dough.

We send the finished flour semi-finished product in a plastic bag and leave it there for 15-30 minutes to rest, after that it will be easier to work with him.

Step 3: roll out the dough.

Step 4: form and dry the homemade spaghetti.

Step 5: serve homemade spaghetti.

Ready spaghetti can be completely dried and stored in a plastic or paper bag in a dry place until requested;

If you want to make spicy spaghetti, add some fragrant dried herbs and spices, for example, sage, mint, savory, lemon balm, to the flour before kneading the dough, and these are just a few of all possible options;

If you plan to use spaghetti after cooking for cooking other dishes, then it is better to subject them to primary heat treatment not for 5, but for 2-3 minutes, even if they are a little damp, they will still reach the desired level during baking or stewing;

Any pasta cools down very quickly, therefore they must be served immediately and preferably on preheated plates;

To cook 100 grams of spaghetti, you need at least 1 liter of purified water.