Jake Kellie is right at home amid smoke and fire. The former head chef of Singapore’s flame-focused Burnt Ends now runs Arkhe in Adelaide, a restaurant with fire at its heart. “Cooking with fire – that’s the mainstream cooking that we do at Arkhe,” Kellie says. “We have a big two-and-a-half-tonne, dual-cavity wood oven which generates coals for our elevation grills, and then a big open hearth. It’s a bit of a playground for us.”
Given the chef’s reverence for open-fire cooking, a delicate macaron recipe might strike you as a little out of place. But those typically fiery flavours still make an appearance, with the macaron receiving a little char on the outside, and Laphroaig 10-Year-Old Whisky added to the sticky salted-caramel filling. Influenced by the elements of peat, salt and fire, the Islay single-malt whisky is known for its intense and earthy, smoky flavour – the resulting dessert is a fine blend of sweet, salty and smoky flavours.
The dainty macarons were on the menu at Kellie’s pop-up dinner at Brisbane institution Agnes, alongside chef-restaurateur Ben Williamson. It’s part of Laphroaig Tales of Fire, a collaboration series that sees Kellie popping up in top restaurants across Australia, cooking flame-led dishes that go well with Laphroaig whisky.
Macarons have a reputation for being tricky to master, so Kellie is giving the green light to use something premade – ideally from a reputable local patisserie – if you’re not feeling up to it.
If you’re making your own, he has a couple of tips. “Make sure you don’t over-mix it,” he says. “That is key, because if you overmix it, it’ll become quite runny and you’ll get little pizza doughs rather than a nice little macaron.” And once those macarons are piped, Kellie preaches patience. “Make sure that you leave it for half an hour or 45 minutes before baking to let it get a skin, because that helps it bake when it’s in the oven, that skin on top.”
The caramel itself should be easy enough for most home cooks to master, though Kellie urges caution when reducing the ingredients. “When you’re heating the sugar, vinegar and water, just make sure you don’t take it too far,” he says. “You’re really looking for a nice golden caramelisation for the sugar … if you take it too far, then you’ll get this really bitter caramel.”
Besides the macarons and the headline-grabbing Laphroaig caramel, Kellie ups the sweet, toasty flavours with his chocolate ganache made with buckwheat. “You extract all these amazing toasty, nutty and caramelised flavours out of the buckwheat, and they work wonders mixed with the chocolate and the salted caramel.”
Once those three components are ready to go, all you need to do is put them together. “You’re getting a macaron – either blowtorching it or toasting it – and then just turning it up the other way,” he says. “Then we pipe the ganache around the outside of the macaron in a twirl motion and then pipe the caramel on the inside of that, using the ganache as a little stopper so the caramel doesn’t leak out.”
Recipe: Jake Kellie’s charred macaron with roasted buckwheat ganache and Laphroaig salted caramel
Makes 17 small macarons
Prep time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 13 minutes
Ingredients:
Macarons
150g almond meal
150g pure icing sugar
110g egg whites, divided into halves
37g water
150g caster sugar
Roasted buckwheat ganache
100g buckwheat
50g sugar
300g cream
230g milk chocolate
Laphroaig salted caramel
500g sugar
5g white-wine vinegar
125g water
250g cream
30g Laphroaig 10-Year-Old Whisky
Pinch of salt
Method:
Macarons
If you are making your own macarons, start by lining trays with baking mats.
Combine almond meal and icing sugar. Add to food processor and blend to a fine powder, then sift into a large bowl and put aside.
Put half the egg whites in a mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment and turn mixer to 3⁄4 speed capacity.
Add water and caster sugar to a medium-sized saucepan heat slowly until dissolved. As the mixture reaches boiling point, turn up the heat to medium and cook to 118°C–119°C.
Immediately remove saucepan from heat and allow 10–15 seconds to let the bubbles disappear. Pour sugar syrup into egg whites in the mixer in a continuous, steady stream down the side of the bowl.
Allow meringue to form. As the mixer whisks, the mixture will cool down. Once it cools to 50°C–60°C, it’s ready.
Taking a third at a time, combine cooled meringue with the almond meal mixture using slow folding method. Continue folding mixture until the full amount of meringue is incorporated and you’re able to draw a continuous figure eight.
Transfer 1⁄4 macaron mixture to your piping bag. (Don’t transfer the entire mixture, as this will make it difficult to control the piping.)
Pipe 3cm–4cm circles on your trays, leaving enough space between macarons to allow heat to circulate evenly. After piping, smack tray firmly on the bench to pop any air bubbles and ensure no cracks form on the macaron shells.
Preheat oven to 150°C. Meanwhile, allow macarons to rest in a dry environment until they develop a skin. This should take around 30–45 minutes, but you can test by touching the macaron with your finger (make sure your hands are dry).
Bake macarons for 13 minutes or until you can press down on the shells without the feet squishing. Allow your macaron shells to come to room temperature before peeling off your baking mat.
Roasted buckwheat ganache
Place chocolate in a bowl.
Toast buckwheat over a low heat.
Make a dry caramel by melting sugar evenly over a low heat until golden. Be careful not to burn. Add toasted buckwheat and deglaze with cream. Turn off heat and allow the ingredients to infuse for 5 minutes.
Bring to a boil and strain infused cream over the chocolate. Allow to sit for 3 minutes, then use an immersion blender to incorporate. Transfer to tray with cling-wrap contact.
Laphroaig salted caramel
Combine sugar, vinegar and water in a pan and bring to the boil. Heat until sugar is golden. Remove from the heat and whisk in cream and then Laphroaig whisky. Add a pinch of salt.
Putting it all together
Grab two of your macarons and blowtorch the tops until golden brown. Turn upside down. Take shells one at a time and pipe ganache around the outside in a twirling motion. Then pipe the salted caramel into the centre. Place macarons side by side and serve.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Laphroaig Whisky.
