Home › Pastry Desserts › Macaroon Cream
Macaroon Cream
1/4 box gelatine or 1 tablespoon granulated gelatine 1/4 cup cold water 2 cups scalded milk Yolks 3 eggs 1/3 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup pounded macaroons 1 teaspoon vanilla Whites 3 eggs Soak gelatine in cold water. Make custard of milk, yolks of eggs, sugar, and salt; add gelatine, and strain into pan set in ice-water. Add macaroons and flavoring, stirring until it begins to thicken; then add whites of eggs beaten stiff, mould, chill, and serve garnished with macaroons.
A gelatine-set Bavarian cream in the standard pattern of the period: cooked custard base, gelatine, crushed macaroons, beaten whites folded in at the moment of setting. The timing of that fold is the whole trick.
- The hinge: fold at the right momentThe whites go in when the custard "begins to thicken" — syrupy, just holding a faint trail from the spoon. Too early and they sink into a dense layer; too late and the gelatine sets in lumps that will not blend.
- Gelatine quantityThe recipe equates 1/4 box with 1 tablespoon of granulated gelatine, roughly 7 g, i.e. about one modern envelope. That much sets about 2 cups of liquid to a soft mould; here it must also carry the beaten whites, so measure accurately.
- Scalded milkHeat to about 180F, when the surface shivers and bubbles ring the edge of the pan. It need not boil.
- Cooking the custardTake the yolk custard to 170–175F over low heat or a water bath, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a spoon. Above about 180F it curdles; straining afterward, as directed, catches any threads.
- MacaroonsThese are the crisp almond macaroons of the period — amaretti or hard Italian-style almond biscuits — not the soft coconut macaroon or the French macaron. Crush 2/3 cup fine in a bag with a rolling pin or pulse briefly in a processor.
- Raw whitesThe beaten whites are never heated. If serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized egg whites or carton whites, which whip adequately with a little extra patience.
- Moulding and chillingRinse the mould with cold water or brush it very lightly with a neutral oil; turn out onto a chilled plate after 4 hours, or overnight. A dip of the mould in warm water for a few seconds releases it.
- YieldRoughly a quart of cream, enough for about six, though the recipe states no yield. Reserve a few whole macaroons for the garnish before pounding the rest.
Macaroon cream belongs to the large family of gelatine Bavarian creams that fill the dessert chapters of American cookbooks between roughly 1890 and 1920. Two things put them there: granulated gelatine sold in measured boxes, which replaced the tedious business of boiling calf's feet or clarifying sheet isinglass, and the domestic-science movement's fondness for dishes that could be made ahead, moulded, and turned out looking composed. Crisp almond macaroons turn up repeatedly in the puddings, charlottes and trifles of the same books, crumbed as often as served whole. The construction here is the textbook one of the era: cooked custard for richness, gelatine for structure, beaten whites for lightness in place of the whipped cream a later cook would reach for.