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Pour the icing sugar and sifted ground almonds into a mixing bowl, then add the 85 g egg white (unwhisked) and mix well.
In a thick bottomed saucepan, bring the water and sugar to the boil and heat to 121 °C.
Start whisking the 60 g egg white to stiff peaks when the sugar reaches 118 °C. When it gets to 121 °C, pour it into the whisked egg white and continue whisking. Leave the mixer running until the mixture is just tepid. This will produce an Italian meringue.
Fold the Italian meringue into the sugar-almond-egg white mixture and incorporate well.
Mix the colour into a small portion of the macaron mixture and gently fold back into the rest of the mixture.
Cooking
Preheat the oven to 150 °C. Pour the flavoured paste into a piping bag with a no. 8 nozzle and pipe macarons 3.5 cm in diameter onto a baking tray covered with baking parchment (or an indented silicone tray). Lightly tap the top of the tray to eliminate any peaks, and this will result in macarons that are 4 cm to 4.5 cm in diameter. The small macarons do not need to rest before being baked. Bake for 12 minutes in the oven at 150 °C. Leave to cool.
The crémeux must be prepared at least the night before so that it can set; otherwise the filling will run out of the macarons.
Heat the cream in a saucepan. Pour the glucose into a second saucepan and bring to the boil. Incorporate the sugar in 4 stages: add a quarter of the sugar first without mixing and leave it to melt (if you notice it starting to colour, give it a stir), then add a second quarter of the sugar in the same way, and repeat until it is all added.
Once the caramel has a good reddish-brown colour, wait for bubbles to start appearing before pouring the hot cream into the caramel. Do this carefully to prevent the risk of spattering. Heat the mixture to 103 °C. Leave to cool to about 45 °C and add the butter. Mix well to give a smooth caramel. Cover it with cling film, making sure the film makes good contact with the surface, then set aside in a cool place.
Assembling the macarons
Turn out half of the caramel flavoured shells onto a dish. Put the caramel filling into a piping bag fitted with a no. 8 nozzle and put a small blob of filling on the upturned caramel shells. Cover the macarons with the remaining shells and lightly press down. Set aside for 1 night in a cool place before using.
500 g dark or milk couverture chocolate for coating
Melt the chocolate to about 50 °C. Stir the chocolate well until the temperature has reduced to about 27-28 °C. Then raise the temperature to about 31-32 °C, heating in the microwave oven in 10-second bursts. Maintain at that temperature for coating or moulding.
If you are right-handed: place the container of tempered chocolate in front of you, with the uncoated macarons to your left and a tray covered with baking parchment to your right. Take a macaron in your left hand, dunk it in the chocolate to coat it and then, using a dipping fork, find the macaron in the chocolate, bring it to the surface and agitate slightly to remove the excess chocolate with an upward motion. Then slide the macaron off the fork onto the baking parchment. Repeat for all the macarons.
You may dust the macarons with gold powder before the chocolate sets. Leave them to set in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and store straight away in an airtight container, to prevent condensation, in a cool, dry place.
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