French Macarons
These are part of the culinary soap cuisine cookie platter. I came up with these while envisioning magical fluffy soap. This recipe contains a fair amount of cocoa butter and extra water. Cocoa butter in a recipe makes it softer but also creamy and stable and super conditioning. Too much and you have a greasy, messy bar of soap, but just the right amount and you can make soap fluff that can be shaped and used in myriad ways. I used 38% distilled water to ensure the soap would remain pliable throughout my creating process and not start gelling.
This recipe is fun and can be colored in any way you choose. I’ll share with you a variety of natural colors I use and my technique.
Additional supplies:
Disposable piping bags or a ziptop bags
Herbal colorants (for ideas check out the charts on page 83)
Bitter almond scent, if desired*
Ingredients:
Day 1
7.60 oz distilled water
2.79 lye
3 oz castor oil
7 oz olive oil
5 oz coconut oil
5 oz cocoa butter
Day 2
3.8 oz distilled water
1.49 oz lye
1.5 oz castor oil
3.5 oz olive oil
2.5 oz coconut oil
2.5 oz cocoa butter
*Traditional macarons smell of bitter almond so I add 10 drops of bitter almond essential oil, but you can add 2 tablespoons of extract instead.
Method:
SAFETY CHECK!
Weigh your water in a heat-proof, non-reactive bowl and weigh lye in a separate container. Take these outside in a well-ventilated, safe area and add your lye to your water, mixing thoroughly with a non-reactive spoon. Set in a safe spot to cool.
Meanwhile, weigh your oils and cocoa butter and set over medium heat until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat, and add essential oils or extract for scent if you are choosing to do so.
Check that your lye and oil temperatures are both around 100°F to 110°F and blend your lye/water into your oils. Mix these thoroughly with a stick blender until you have reached trace then keep blending until thick and fluffy. This will allow your mixture to reach the point where it starts gelling together, but if you keep mixing it, you will reach a nice whipped stage that is perfect for macaron piping.
Choose your colors and separate this mix into as many containers as colors. Add colorant to each batch and blend thoroughly. Starting with just one color at a time, scoop the mix into your piping tube and cut off about ½ inch for a nice, round piping tip.
Pipe this onto your pre-lined cookie sheet into macaron-shaped dollops.
Do this with each color. If your soap starts to set, just mix it some more until you work out the chunks. Set all this aside for 12 hours.
After 12 hours have passed, pull each “cookie” off the parchment and set aside. Cover one cookie sheet with fresh parchment and set aside. Make your Day 2 batch of soap according to the previous instructions.
Add the mix to your piping tube. Take two “cookies” and spread a thin layer of soap into the flat surface of one “cookie,” and then gently press the flat surface of the second cookie onto the “filling” and set aside on lined cookie sheet. Continue this with each color of “cookies.” Set aside to set overnight and then cure for 4 weeks.
Hooray! Macaron soap cookies are great for your skin and waistline!
