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I heart Macarons (updated 3rd July 2011 with Rosewater Buttercream Macarons)

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

I heart Macarons (updated 3rd July 2011 with Rosewater Buttercream Macarons)

My recent obsession with Macarons. No actually, I've been obsessed with Macarons for quite sometimes...but my first attempt at making macarons was a total disaster. So much so that I dreaded making them again. It took me another year to come up with enough courage to give it another try.


I still remember the first time I bit into my very first macarons. It's from a french patiserrie in The Rocks, Sydney. It's passionfruit macarons...and it just taste sublime and so heavenly....umm macarons, my new best friend.


My first attempt making hem was absolute disaster. The batter was too runny. They weren't cooked. They stuck to the paper. They were all broken. It simply put me off making them almost forever.


Somehow, I regained my urge to try making them again....this time around with better luck, better tools, better educated. I must say that macarons are not that difficult to make.


I found some similarities between making bread and macarons. Both are consisted of basic ingredientsthat always presents in them. Bread --- flour, water and salt. Macarons --- almond meal, egg whites and sugar. Both start with the basic and you can improvise and let your creativity guide you...to develop flavours that you like.

 
Both are quite technical..that if you get the basic technique right....you can almost always get the predictable result. Both taste sublime and both are my two favorite things in baking arena. And my life would be miserable without both of them:)
My journey so far.....


First attempt (second attempt actaully, after the very first disastous one)

Second attempt....lemon macarons with lemon curd

Third attempt....rosewater macarons with white chocolate ganache

 slowly rising and the feet slowly appearing

 resting before being sandwiched together

 and say hello to my little friends:)

Update 12/11/2010

For more information and reading about Macarons you can visit my three posts below:

- Basic Macaron Recipe using French meringue technique - a simpler French meringue technique where sugar is gradually mixed into whipping egg white.

- Basic Macaron Recipe using Italian meringue technique - a little more complex method where cooked sugar syrup is gradually poured into whipping egg white. More tools and processed involved, but the result is more predictable and give shinier crust.

- I heart Macarons - my  macaron adventure & journey and love affair with Macarons

Latest concoctions: updated 3-July-11

Rosewater Buttercream Macaron - Macarons with rosewater Swiss buttercream (made with egg white). It was light, delicate and very fragant.

Recipe and full post is here.

Toasted Coconut Pandan Macaron - French macaron with Asian flair - macaron with toasted coconut pandan chocolate ganache filling

Recipe and full post is here.

Lemon Cheesecake Macaron - Macaronwith slight tart lemon curd and cream cheese filling.

Recipe and full post is here.

 

Pistachio Buttercream Macaron - A French classic flavour with ground pistachio macaron shell and pistachio buttercream filling. 

Recipe and full post is here

Passionfruit Macaron - Pairing coconut and passionfruit together, with coconut in macaron shell and passionfruit milk chocolate ganache. The sweet & toasty flavour from coconut matches well with subtle flavour of passionfruit. It was the first macaron I ever tasted, passionfruit macarons. Another bite of this macaron made me relive that special moment. 

The full post and recipe is here

Blueberry Cheesecake Macaron - Combining two of my greatest loves in one bite, Cheesecake & Macarons, nothing can go wrong (for me anyway). The macarons are filled with blueberry cream cheese filling. It's heavenly...my mouth is still watering thinking about it:) The full blog post and recipe is here.

Cherry Ripe Macaron - Macaron with coconut in shell and the cherry-coconut-chocolate ganache as a filling. Coconut smells heavenly when baked and bitten. The recipe and more photos are here.

Black Sesame Macaron - One of the yummiest macaron I made so far. The shells were made with mixture of almond meal and ground black sesame seeds, which provides fantastic aroma and the nuttiness of sesame seeds. The filling was also made from ground black sesame seed mixed with white chocolate ganache. Recipes and more details is here.

Salted Caramel Macarons - Really what can go wrong with caramel, that heavenly caramelised sugar with cream and butter. And with a little bit of salt, sandwiching the almond meringue cookie together. It's pure heaven! Recipes and more details is here.

Raspberry Chocolate Macarons with hearts - macarons with raspberry chocolate ganache fillings, chocolatey with subtle raspberry flavours. The shells were sprinkle with sugar-hearts (cup cake decorations). They'll make a perfect treat for your Valentine's.

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/02/raspberry-chocolate-macarons-with-heart.html

Heart Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream - First time I tried making macarons into other shape. Instead of the usual round macarons, I did them in heart-shape and fill it with strawberry buttercream filling to celebrate the upcoming Valentine's Day. But well, we ate them all a week before the day. I guess everyday is a Valentine's Day:), everyday day is a macaron day! For recipe and how you can make a heart shape macaron, you can follow below link:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/02/heart-macarons-filled-with-strawberry.html

Orange Macarsons - Red macarons filled with orange cream filling to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Combining two auspecious things together (Orange for wealth and Red colour for good luck), I was hoping to get into the Chinese New Year spirit and welcome good fortune into the new year:) For recipes you can follow the link below:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/01/orange-macarons-filled-with-wealths-and.html

Rosewater Macarsons - Rosewater is simply a beautiful flavour and it matches the delicate texture of macarons perfectly well. I found floral flavour to work really well with macarons and rosewater is no exception. For recipes and more photos, you can follow the links below.

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/01/rosewater-macaron-seriously-beautiful.html

Red - Raspberry buttercream macarons - another macaron follow-up for Christmas series macarons, RED with raspberry buttercream filling. It is so delicious and has now become my most favorite! You can find more details and recipe by following the link below:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-series-macaron-red-raspberry.html

 

Orange blossom macarons  - macaron filled with orange blossom white chocolate ganache. It has a sweet and distinctive aroma from orange blossom. I find the floral flavour works quite well with macarons. You can find more details and recipe following the link below:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/evoke-your-senses-with-orange-blossom.html

 

Dark chocolate mint macarons - Let's get festive with candy cane macarons filled with dark chocolate mint ganahe and crushed candy cane sprinkle. It has a strong minty flavour that is perfect for aftermeal treat. For recipe, you can visit http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-macarons-chocolate-mint.html

Jaffa macarons: macarons with orange dark chocolate ganache - macarons filled with my favorite chocolate flavour, dark chocolate and orange. This is one of my favorite. The bittersweet orange marmalade works really well with chocolate, as well as the macaron shells. I mix my homemade marmalade through chocolate ganache for the filling.

You can find the recipe here ... http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/jaffa-macarons-with-orange-dark.html

Chocolate macarons - though simple, but never boring. I guess we all understand why chocolate is one of the most loved food. These macarons are perfect for chocolate lovers.

You can find the recipe here .. http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/chocolate-macaronsbest-for-chocoholics.html 

 

Lavender macarons - infuse the cream with lavender before making the ganache filling. My place was very aromatic when they were being baked...lavender smells wonderful.

You can find the recipe here:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/10/lavender-macarons.html

Y

The crumb

Caramel peanut macarons - I included ground peanut into the shell mixture and peanut praline into the caramel filling.

Full recipe is here:

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/10/snickers-macarons-heavenly-caramel.html

Green tea macarons....my favorites..

full recipe is here: http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/10/green-tea-macarons.html

For more details, you can visit my blog, http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

Sue

Comments

arlo's picture
arlo

Macarons can be rather fickle, but thankfully your patiences paid off and you were rewarded with something wonderful in the end!

Have you seen David Lebovitz's post on ketchup macarons? Rather interesting combo...

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thank you arlo....

Yes, I saw that blog of David. The flavour sounds a bit odd....but I think it's from Pierre Herme who is the master of macaron flavour invention. Though it sounds interesting, it won't make into my list to try. My next project will be grapefruit white chocolate ganache and green tea in that order.

 

Crumbly Baker's picture
Crumbly Baker

Ond thing I love about TFL are the surprises that await me when I login to my email!

Bravo for these macaroons!  Was it Lionel Poilaine who spent years striving for the 'perfect' macaroon?

Now I must have the recipe please!

njbetsy's picture
njbetsy

Would kindly post the recipe?  They look amazing--I love the feet!!

Betsy

shallots's picture
shallots

As well as inspirational

Now about recipes and any comments you might make about the age of the egg whites.....

grind's picture
grind

Lovely.  Nice job.  Tony.

hanseata's picture
hanseata

I like the idea with the rosewater.

Karin

alabubba's picture
alabubba

As it happens I bought a bag of Almond Flour yesterday with plans on attempting these tempting temptations! I too would be interested in your recipe.

TIA

allan

turosdolci's picture
turosdolci

Looks like you have met the challenge and succeeded.  This is one of the recipes I have been wanting to try but haven't because I always had them available at Sprüngli's in Zürich.  But I have been seeing everyone's posts and they look so beautiful that I really want to make them.  Great job!  I have had the green tea flavor and loved them.

 

Regards,

Patricia

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thank you all for kind comments.

I was doing quite a bit of research on the Net and sort of mix and match recipes, techniques, and oven temperature from various recipes and websites. So much so that I am kinda blur which part of my recipe or technique are from:) But below is the link of few major sites from which I borrow the recipes and technique from->  

 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s2895326.htm

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/10/french_chocolat.html

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/macarons2.htm

and here is my adaptation:

Rosewater white chocolate ganache macarons (make about 2 dozens)

Ingredients

100 g egg whites (about 3 xl eggs) (aged and at room temperature)

60 g caster sugar (fine sugar)

110 g almond meal (ground almond)

185 g pure icing sugar  (powder sugar)

5 drops red food coloring (approx)

Rosewater white chocolate ganache

100 g white chocolate

50 ml thickened cream (35% fat)

1 teaspoon rosewater

few drops of red food colouring

METHOD

1. Sift almond meal and icing sugar through fine sieve and set aside

2. Whip the egg white until it become really frothy. While beating the egg white, gradually add caster sugar (fine sugar) one tablespoon by one tablespoon. Continue whipping the egg white until it almost reaches its peak. The egg white should be stiff and glossy. Put the food coloring in and mix just to combine.

3. Put the almond meal & icing sugar mixture into the whipped egg white. Stir vigorously for the first 10 stokes or so. Then continue to mix the mixture until fully combined. At this point, you might wonder if you have deflated your meringue. Don't worry, we're not after the air and texture of meringue. It's more important that the batter is totally blend-in and combined. The batter should have the consistency of thick cake batter and have the ribbon-like consistency...or many website described it as "magma-like consistency".

4. I follow the method of Emmanuel that leave the mixture on the bench for about 10 mins before piping. So, I use this 10 mins to get organise with my trays and piping bag. Line the baking trays (you might need about 2 large trays for this recipe) with silpat or non-stick baking paper.

5. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag, using 1cm piping tip. Pipe into 3cm round size. Leave 3 cms space between each shell.

6. Leave the tray out in the room temp for about 1-2 hrs until you can touch the top of the shell without it sticks to your finger. (I usually put them in the oven that is swiched-off).

7. Preheat the oven to 200c, just before you put the trays in, reduce the temp to 150c (fan-force) and bake for 15-20 mins. Please note the timing is depend on the size of the cookie and your oven. So, I usually keep a close eye on them after 15 mins. The cookie should be dry and crisp but not colour.

8. Remove the shells from the oven, leave them cool on tray for few minutes. Gently remove them into the cooling rack.

9. Making ganache --- heat the cream in the saucepan until it just comes to the boil. Take off the heat, put the white chocolate in, keep stirring until the chocolate is melted and become glossy. Put in rosewater and food colouring and keep stirring until it's combined. Refridgerate the ganache for 15-30 minutes. (I find that the ganache is easier to spread to the shells when they're firm).

9. Spread the ganache into the shell and sandwich them together.

10. You can taste the fruit of your labour straight away. But I find that macaron taste better and achieve its chewy texture after it's been in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Put the macarons in an air-tight container and refridgerate them. I believe that they keep well in the fridge for about a week. However, my macarons never last that long..lol....so, I can't be 100% sure on that ... but so far, it still tastes good after 4-5 days in the fridge.

some notes:

  • Egg-whites --- most of the recipe ask that they're aged, by leaving them out for at least 3 days, some even says a week. I still don't have the gut to leave my egg white in the room temp for that long...covered or uncovered. What I did is leaving my egg white in the fridge for at least 2 days, and take out of the fridge about few hours before I start making macarons.
  • Many recipes also mentioned that we grind (regrind) almond meal together with icing sugar until it become really really fine. I didn't do that. I find that sifting also seems to do the job as good.
  • The feet usually happens in the first 4-5 mins of the bake. I also turn my baking tray half way through the bake.

Hope that I cover most of it.....as I'm typing from my memory....feel free to let me know if my recipe doesn't make sense or if I have left out any of the info.

Umm....time for a cup of tea with my macaons....cheers,

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

as it covers everthing that I would llike to know and learn about baking, bei it bread or pastries.

Here's my first attempt at making macarons.  This was done at the baking class where the class room is nice and air conditioned and the egg whites supplied by the school so I'm not sure if I would be able to produce the the same result.  However, I found it to be extremely sweet and I'm hoping to find a filling that can counter-balance the sweetness of the macaron.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

That looks great, jslouey! The colour is quite intense. Did they use the colouring powder?

I find that lemon curd macarons work really well. It got the tang from lemon to cut through the shell sweetness. However, if I'm gonna attempt the lemon curd macaron again, I'll make sure that the curd is more solid so that the shells will sandwich together better.

I'm going to make the grapefruit macarons this week....and will report back if the taste works.

I love TFL too. This site is great.

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

Yes, we used liquid food colouring but just a very tiny bit. I don't like to use food colouring so I can only use cocoa powder or perhaps coffee essence to give it a natural taste.  If you could share th recipe for the grapefruit filling or lemon curd, that would be great.  Many thanks.

I came across a very nice filling suggestion on the internet  - prunes soaked in Armangac/cognac if you don't have armangac, mashed and then mixed with some melted dark choc.  sounds good...

Judy

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Judy....here is the recipe I used for lemon curd...it's from Stephanie Alexander....if I'm going to do this recipe again, I'll try adding 1 tbsp of plain flour in the mixture to help thickening the curd a bit more....so that it can works better with macarons.

http://www.cuisine.com.au/recipe/lemoncurdspread

With grapefruit, I'll use the same white chocolate ganache recipe, but I'll add a couple of tablespoon of grapefruit jam into the ganache mixture. I still haven't tried this yet. Will experiment it this week and will report back how it goes.

Matcha (green tea powder) flavour could also work well without food colouring.

I also read it somewhere about using beetroot as a natural red food colouring...this could be another option.

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I noticed there are also a wide variety of fruit flavoured essences available in the market but as I've never used them, I'm afraid that they may be a little too artificial tasting.

What filling would you suggest for a Matcha flavoured marcaron...just plain white choc. ganache and what is thickened cream?  Is this the same as whipping cream (I've used this to make a choc. ganache for a choc. Sacher Torte) so I guess whipping cream could work too. 

I look forward to your feedback re grapefruit filling as I love grapefruit. 

As for the green tea powder, would this be mixed together with the icing sugar and almond meal or should this only be  added  into the meringue batter? I'm afraid it may get lumpy if this is not folded in properly and too much folding and stirring may cause the eggwhite to collapse. 

shallots's picture
shallots

We get a lot of flavor from lemon and orange zest and I have sometimes used lime zest.

So why not try either finely grated grapefruit zest or infuse the cream and or sugar with very thin pieces of the rind of the grapefruit (after scrubbing it free of shipping wax, etc.) that you've removed with a pealer or zester?

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Personally, I wouldn't do fruit essence. For any citrus flavour, it can be easily achieved by adding finely grated zest and a little of juice. I also add about 1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest into my macaron shell batch, into the egg white at the end of the mixing.

For matcha flavour --- I would put about 1-2 teaspoon of powder into the dry ingredients, also sifting it together with almond meal & powder sugar. And I would also try adding matcha powder into the white chocolate ganache as well, may be one teaspoon.

Yes, I think thickened cream is the same as whipping cream (we call 35% fat content cream a 'thickened cream in Australia).

 

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

Am I correct to assume that when you add grated zest and in particular, the juice, you're referring to the filling and not the macaron shell mixture?   I understand I can add dry ingredients i.e. green tea powder/cocoa powder  in small qty to the mixture but not too much liquid except for the few drops of colouring if being used. I'd hate to make a mistake and mess up the consistency of the meringue.  Thanks. The lemon curd would be perfect combination as I can use the whites for he shell and the yolks for the curd w/o wasting the eggs.  I'm also taught to add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites to ensure that it stays stiff. 

Judy

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

Am I correct to assume that when you add grated zest and in particular, the juice, you're referring to the filling and not the macaron shell mixture?   I understand I can add dry ingredients i.e. green tea powder/cocoa powder  in small qty to the mixture but not too much liquid except for the few drops of colouring if being used. I'd hate to make a mistake and mess up the consistency of the meringue.  Thanks. The lemon curd would be perfect combination as I can use the whites for he shell and the yolks for the curd w/o wasting the eggs.  I'm also taught to add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites to ensure that it stays stiff. 

Judy

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

You can add zest & juice in both macaron shell batch & ganache. I added zest into the shell batch to get some tang...and also some lemon juice to help stabilize the egg white.

Most of recipes will tell you to try minimising the amount of liquid in the macaron shell batter....also suggesting using colour powder instead of colouring liquid. I didn't use colouring powder...I just made do with the liquid colouring that I got .... and my macarons turned out fine, no problem with the moisture or anything like that.

I could be wrong but I think macaron won't have the same consistency of meringue....and we shouldn't aim to achieve that meringue consistency either. Macaron should have a light, thin and crisp shell but really chewy in the middle (with almond meal & icing sugar)....not the mashmellow-like you'd expect from meringue.....

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I too would agree that colouring liquid would be easier to incorporate into the batter. To be able to use lemon zest/ juice in the macaron batter  would be neat as this would take away some of the intense sweetness. I have so many projects on the pipeline I don't even know when I can work on this but this will be on my agenda.

A little tip that you may not need if you're a whiz with the piping bag.  The baking class taught to draw  a row of 5/6 circles on a thin strip of parchment paper with one end sticking out from under the parchment paper where the macarons are piped and as we reach the end if tge cookie sheet, to move the end of the strip further down so you get evenly sized/spaced macarons.  This simple method worked well for me as I'm not very dextrous with the piping bag due to lack of practice.  :)

Crumbly Baker's picture
Crumbly Baker

Hi all, I love a challenge, so I had a go at these macs today - oh dear, what a mess!

I separated my whites three days ago,and left them in the fridge as suggested.

But today I found that there was only 100g of ground almond in the pack, so I made up the difference in weight with icing sugar.  That was before I weighed the whites and they came in at 112g!

So what I ended up with was all nice and fluffy in the mixer, but when I added the almond and the caster sugar the mix was rather sloppy.

Never mind, i thought, just carry on.  Well, no soon had I filled the piping bag had the mix started dripping out the bottom!

I did my best with it all, but it was hopeless really.  Still, I left it set for an hour and baked off at 150 for 20 mins.  When cool, the macs were delicious!  If a little ugly and useless to take any further.

So, I guess I had too much liquid in the shape of whites, and not enough almond to stiffen the mix up, yes?

It was pretty dis-heartening, but the falouve and texture were lovely, so I will have another bash sometime.

Thanks

Tim

 

ps, something I didn't type was that I put the mixture onto Dr Oetker's edible rice paper (actually made from potatoes starch), thinking that this wouldn't stick, but I'm afraid it did somewhat.  I found this surprising, as when I have bought a shop macaroon, they have had a rice paper bottom.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Crumbly Baker...

From what I read on the Net, overmixing also contribute to the loosen-mixture as well. In your case, I think you probably are right that too much egg-white, too much liquid in there in proportion of dry ingredient.

I'm still experimenting about macarons and try to find tune with the recipe and methods.

What I tried this week is aged my egg white few days in the fridge. On the day I plan to make macarons, I then take the egg white out of the fridge and let it sit at room temp for about 7-8 hrs (with cover).

I also increased almond meal in the recipe (from 110g to 120g). I found this time, the crust started to form quicker. It took less than an hour and my piped macarons is dry to touch.

And yes, you're right....macarons will taste sublime in any shapes or forms.....good luck with yourfuture bake:)

alabubba's picture
alabubba

One thing of note, I believe it is not customary to refrigerate eggs in France. If used withing a reasonable amount of time they don't need refrigeration, That said, there is usually a dozen of eggs on my counter. I wonder if this is what is meant when they say to use "aged room temperature eggs".

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thanks Judy....I never thought that I would get a compliment about my piping skills....as I'm really a novice on this....I find that a good or right equipment does help tremendously....I used the plain tip no. 11 (about 1-1.5 cm round tip).

 

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I'd like to share my recipe with anyone who like to try it...the qty of the ingredients are smaller so you won't waste too much even if you fail at it first time.

125 grm icing sugar (sifted tog with almond meal)

60 grm almond meal

60 grm egg white

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

25 grm sugar (to be added gradually to egg white and before mixing in icing sugar & almond meal)

a few drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Bake at 170C for 15 min

The rest of the steps are the same i.e. pipe and let stand for 30 mins until dry to the touch before putting into oven.

 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Daisy, I remembered that Cooks Illustrated had some advice on this subject: 

"Temperature plays an important role in the behavior of an ingredient. Here are the most important tips and techniques we use to ensure successful results when baking.

Cakes and cookies often require softened butter (65 to 67 degrees) and room-temperature eggs and milk. Softened butter creams easily, and room-temperature eggs and milk are more easily incorporated than cold. The additional mixing necessary to incorporate cold ingredients may adversely affect the batter and, ultimately, the texture of the
baked good."

If you want to warm up eggs quickly, just put them in a bowl with 110 F water for 5 min.

Karin

RobynNZ's picture
RobynNZ

I laughed when I saw Deeba's title for her contribution to MacTweets this month and thought the macaron obsessives here might enjoy her post too:

http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/08/baking-no-feet-pray-love-oooops-i-mean.html

It's worth checking out MacTweets archives for inspiration for flavour combinations too.

Robyn

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Hi Judy....

Finally, I made the macaron with the grapefruit ganache. I mix about 2 tablespoon-full of my homemade grapefruit (citrus) marmalade to dark chocolate ganache....however, I forgot to put zest in the macaron shell. The ganache filling is really nice...but it just lacks a little tang from the zest that I'd like to cut through the sweetness.

My grapefruit marmalade also not as tangy and bitter as I would imagine. I wonder if this is because I used ruby grapefruit. I also mixed one small navel orange & lemon into the marmalade as well. The marmalade turned out very much like orange marmalade. It tastes really nice. So, I'd rather call this macaron version as Jaffa Macaron than the grapefruit one.

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

They are awesome and your marmalade looks good too  I have some bottles of homemade kumquat marmalade laced with a bit of Grand Marnier that maybe I could use with the choc. like what you have done.  Did you just stir the jam into the choc ganache and what did you do with the orange peel? Just leave the pieces in? What colour did you use for the shells?

The macarons we have here cost a bomb @ HK$20 each which is approx. GBP 1.5 each and good for two bites only if you're a dainty eater.  Crazy!

 

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

Did you use any pectin with yr marmalade? 

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Yes, I just stir the jam into the ganache....and left the peels in there. At first, I was also thinking that the peel might not blend-in nicely and I might need to mash the jam first. But turn out, the peel just blend in with ganache quite nicely, you still can feel a little speck of soft peel in the ganache...but it was quite nice and add something to the texture.

 

The intended colour for the shell is orange....I put liquid colour of red and yellow in, hoping to get orange...but, the red just overpowering yellow ...and all I get is pink....

 

I don't use pectin in any of my jam. I find that the jam will set nicely without it...as fruits do have the natural pectin themselves, together with sugar...they will set beautifully....I do, however, put lemon juice in every jam that I made to help with the setting.

 

I heard the story from my girlfriend when she visited HK how expensive the macarons are overthere. She was excited with the colours and the looks of them, picked quite several, and was shocked when they are all tallied up.....a small bag of cookies that costs her a small fortune..lol....

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

if you'd like to try it out.  I made some mini mint choc. sandwich cookies today at baking class and we were given a sprig of fresh mint leaves which we finely chopped up and infused in the whipping cream and then pour into the 61% dark choc. which I found was way too strong and overpowered the mint.  You could try with more than 1 sprig and strain the mint leaves before pouring over the coarsely chopped choc.  I also made double choc. cookies but there was a lot of choc. which made it very fudgey and rather difficult to handle. They don't look very appealing at all but it's a very rich choc. cookie if you like them very dark. Personally I'd reduced the choc used to 200 grm and mix some 50%+ choc. to the 70% that we were given.  Let me know if you'd like to try these. 

The sandwiches are very thin sponge-like cookie and could looks like a choc. macaron gone very wrong :) I didn't put too much filling in between so it doesn't look too good.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Those cookies look sinfully yummy too. Thanks for sharing this, Judy

Mint chocolate ganache sounds very interesting....I think I saw the recipe for this somewhere as well....and this ganache can also work well with the macarons....I'm thinking mint-chocolate macarons in the next couple of weeks.

One of the reason I love making macarons, as much as bread making...is that we can be quite creative about the flavours and fillings....you can come up with so many different recipes after you've nailed the basic skills & techniques of making macarons and/or bread.

Sue

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

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jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I love the lime green colour of the green tea.  Did you mix green tea powder into yr white choc. ganache as well? I'm araid I havent picked up the courage to make the macarons at home yet but I have printed and filed your recipe for the lemon curd and choc. ganache for future reference.  I've been busy trying to improve  my bread making skills but did make some double choc cookies again, this time much better looking the ones I posted. 

You've really become a pro at making macarons. 

Judy

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Thanks Judy....I'd say practice makes perfect (not quite), with the tempermental little beauties, wil have to add 'precision + practice'.

I do add about one tablespoon of green tea (matcha) powder into the shell mixture, sifting it together with icing sugar & almond meal. With the ganache, I mix about one teaspoon of matcha into the cream (about 100ml), but I think I can actually add one more teaspoon for more intense green tea flavour.

 

 

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

with your macarons.  I still havn't plucked up the courage to make them at home ut have kept your recipes for all the fillings as an inspiration if ever I decide to make the macarons.

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

with your macarons.  I still havn't plucked up the courage to make them at home ut have kept your recipes for all the fillings as an inspiration if ever I decide to make the macarons.

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

I've been having fun making macarons, and try to grab any opportunities where I can practice making them...gifts for friends, work functions, family gathering. It's joy to see people enjoying these little gems.

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

saltandserenity's picture
saltandserenity

Thanks for sharing Judy.  I am about to make macarons for my mom's 75th birthday celebration and all your practice is going to make my job very easy.  Your macarons are gorgeous, and the "feet"rock!!

jyslouey's picture
jyslouey

I'm sorry but I can't take credit for the lovely macarons created by Sue. I only made the shocking pink ones that are nothing compared to what Sue has made. :-)

MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

You're welcome, saltandserenity. Hope all will go well with your macarons. Happy birthday to your mom too.

Judy - :)

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

fmlyhntr's picture
fmlyhntr

Can one use frozen egg whites? (I'm about to make a bunch of lemon curd, and I usually freeze the left over whites). I have used frozen whites for regular meringue.