Address: 12/F, 28 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Telephone: 23255663

Price: $688

https://www.facebook.com/chefs.official

https://the-academics.com/

星期六我到了由甜心先生Chef Jeffrey Koo開 的CHEFS上了一個馬卡龍製作班。其實我有時在家都會做馬卡龍，但這次的做法是的店鋪用的做法，比我在家用的方法較複雜。馬卡龍混用了新鮮的咖啡粉來製 成，課程還包括了的一個咖啡品嚐環節，由導師教我們品嚐三種不同的混合咖啡。重後，我們試了馬卡龍和咖啡配對，以前從來不知道用馬卡龍點咖啡是那麼匹配， 實在太美味了!詳情請參閱 CHEFS及caffe HABITU的網站。

There are very few things I love in this world more than macarons and coffee, so when there was a coffee macaron class available at CHEFS, I barely hesitated before signing up!

This is my second time taking a class at CHEFS. I was here last time making calzones (my review here), and I am back again at this bright, spacious studio again, doing what I enjoy the most – cooking and eating food! (It seems like my friend C in the background was as happy as I was!)

I have previously taken macaron classes before and I also make macarons at home sometimes, but there are two things special about this class: firstly, it includes a coffee tasting and pairing session, and secondly, the method that is taught at this class is the method used by professional macaron shops, which is more complicated than the method I use for home-baking.

Carol, a barista and trainer at Caffe HABITU Coffee Academy & Roasting Studio and The Coffee Academïcs (you might recognise her from my latte art class here), introduced three types of coffee beans that we could make our macarons with.

There were 3 types of coffee blends to choose from:  JWF has a fruity character with notes of passionfruit, and has a high acidity; TCA House Blend has a cocoa character and medium thickness, and Classico No. 3 (the coffee blend served at all outlets of caffe HABITU) has the strongest espresso flavour amongst the three and is also the least sweet. I had a little debate with the other coffee lovers at the class about what characteristics would work best in the macarons, but I decided on the Classico No. 3 in the end as I simply really enjoy drinking it at caffe HABITU!

Chef Jeffrey Koo, the mastermind behind the creative desserts at black n white and also a local cooking tv show host, was the teacher of our class.

Ingredients:

Macaron shells

– 150g icing sugar

– 150g almond powder

– 110g egg white

– 15g coffee powder

– 150g (normal) sugar

– 35g water

Vanilla butter cream

– 270g butter (room temperature)

– 40g water

– 135g sugar

– 66g egg

– 27g egg yolk

(1) We blended the almond powder, half of the egg white, coffee powder and icing sugar in the blender until fine, to make an almond paste.

(2) Then, we beat up the other half of the egg white until it formed soft peaks.

(3) We cooked sugar in water up to 110°C, and slowly poured it into the egg white mixture and continued beating. We beat the egg white for a total of around 7 minutes.

(4) We folded the meringue carefully into the almond paste. It was important that we didn’t over-stir the mixture, as the macarons would otherwise lack body and chewiness.

(5) We piped the macarons using a piping bag, and then left it in front of a fan so that the surface dried off. You can see that the macaron shells we made had different shades of colour – this was due to the different coffee beans used!

(6) We then baked the macaron shells at 140°C for 15 minutes. After that, we put the shells in the freezer while we made the vanilla butter cream.

(7) Chef Koo demonstrated to us how to make the vanilla butter cream. He first mixed the eggs and egg yolks together. Then, he heated the sugar in water at 110°C and poured it int the egg mixture and continued beating. He added the butter and mixed until smooth, and that was it!

(8) Due to time constraints, some vanilla butter cream was already made for us. Chef Koo then showed us how to pipe the fillings. He taught us a little trick, which was to make a dent in the macaron shell with our fingers, so that there would be more space for the vanilla butter cream filling!

(9) When our beautiful, gorgeous macarons were done, the first thing to do was obviously to eat several (or many) of them! This perfect batch below was not made by me, but by Chef Koo himself.

After making macarons, we moved on to coffee-tasting. Carol made some hand-drip coffee for us, while explaining to us the characteristics of each of the three coffee blends and also the techniques in making hand-drip coffee.

Carol suggested that we tried dipping our macarons in the coffee, and it was such an incredible revelation to me! I had never, ever realised how utterly delicious macarons dipped in coffee was! The mild bitterness in the coffee perfectly complemented the sensuous sweetness of the macaron, and I was simply amazed. I don’t think I can ever go back – this is way better than dipping Oreo in milk!

I packed up the macarons I made in a paper box to bring them home. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, and I truly enjoyed the macaron-making desserts and coffee-pairing. Maybe, one day in the distant future, I’ll open my own cafe! 🙂

For more details, please visit the CHEFS and caffe HABITU web sites.