" Macaron " Sweet & Savoury ... Pretty on the plate and the perfect gift

"Macaron," Lift your spirit up with a batch of these sweet little gems. They can be topped and dressed to look like Xmas baubles and they will taste fantastic too.And, let’s not forget that the fruits of your hard labour, would be ideal for parties and for gifting. Trawl the shops, the Internet if you prefer, for pretty wrappings, papers, ribbons and boxes or even the odd antique Cup and saucer wrapped up in cellophane.
They can be both sweet or savoury. What give Macarons their flavour, apart from the shells of course is mostly the fillings ( ganache) and the shells freezes really well too.
Full fill your artistic urges with the millions of combinations and change them to go with moods and fashion. I definitely like to keep my colour schemes in tune with what's on the catwalk. 

 

Macaron                                                                                              Makes about 70 shells

For the Cookie shells dough

• 510 grms of ground almond
• 510 grms of icing sugar
• 170 grms of egg whites

For the Italian Meringue

• 200 grms of egg whites
• 510 grms of caster sugar
• 140 grms of water

Pre heat oven to 150 ^o_c.

Stage1  ; For the cookie dough

•   Mix the ground almond and icing sugar  and blitz in a Food processor until you obtain a fine powder. Spread out on a tray and allow to dry .
•   Mix with the egg white to a smooth paste .

Stage 2 : For the Italian meringue

• Whisk the egg whites on a high speed to stiff peaks .
• Make a sugar syrup by adding the sugar to the water and dissolve . Bring to a slow boil until it reaches 121 ⁰_c on a sugar thermometer .
• Pour the sugar syrup onto the meringue on low speed , turn back to high speed and continue to whisk until cooled down .  The meringue should be thick , smooth and glossy .
•   Add your food colouring ( powder form or paste ) Do not use liquid colouring

Stage 3 :

• Add ¼ of the meringue to the almond paste and mix well to loosen up .
• Add the remainder of the meringue and beat with a spatula.
• Fill in a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle and pipe over greased proof paper to required shape and sizes . ( Make a template by inverting a small glass onto a sheet of paper and drawing around it. Slide this template under the greaseproof paper and it will help in obtaining uniform shapes . ) Do remove the paper template before baking.
•   Tap your tray lightly  on a hard surface covered with a kitchen towel  to release any air pockets and flatten out the points .
• Set aside to dry for 30 mins.
•   BAKE AT 150^O_C  for 10 - 15 mins . Your macaroon should have puff up with a little feet to them .
• Do not overcrowd the oven . Bake in batches 2 trays at a time .

As soon as they are out of the oven , Slide the baking paper on to a work surface  and allow the shells to cool down .   This is important as if you leave them onto the tray , they will go on cooking .

 PASSION FRUIT GANACHE (sweet)

180gr Cream (heated) 

100gr Passion fruit puree 

30gr Butter 

520 gr Melted White Chocolate 

70gr Glucose 

1 Vanilla pod

METHOD 

1. Boil cream, fruit puree, vanilla and glucose and set aside. 

2. Whisk the butter into the melted chocolate. 

3. Whisk in the heated cream and passion fruit mix to the chocolate until smooth and glossy. 

4. Pour onto a line tray and cover with a skin of cling film and chill until set. 

5. Put into a piping bag and pipe a generous dollop to sandwich the macaroons shells together.

Variations on the same theme: raspberry, black currant, pistachio, coffee, caramel,lavender,violet, chocolate, lemon....

Try those savoury fillings for a touch of decadence & perfect for cocktails. Happy Xmas . x

OLIVE OIL GANACHE  ( savoury )

350gr White chocolate 

150gr Cream / Creme fraiche 

½ Vanilla pod 

225ml Extra virgin olive oil 

30 Green olives (chopped into little cubes)

GRAPEFRUIT & CAMPARI GANACHE ( sweet )

20ml Lemon juice 

110ml Grapefruit juice 

45ml Orange juice 

50ml Campari 

420gr White chocolate 

30gr Candied Grapefruit finely chopped

RED PEPPER & PARMESAN ( savoury )

300gr Raspberry puree 

1 Roasted red pepper (de seeded and pureed) 

300gr White chocolate 

50gr Grated Parmesan

AVOCADO & LEMON GANACHE  ( savoury )

2 Very ripe avocado (pureed) 

50ml Lemon juice 

100gr Cream / Creme fraiche 

Zest of ½ Lemon 

500GR White chocolate

GRAPEFRUIT & WASABI GANACHE  ( savoury )

40ml Lime juice 

300gr Creme fraiche / Cream 

375gr White Chocolate 

20gr Wasabi Powder / Paste 

50gr Shelled Green Pistachios finely chopped

To Decorate you will need :

·         Edible liquid glue

·         Metallic food paint

·         Rainbow dust

·         Dark & White Chocolate

·         Assorted sugar pearls

All of the above are available at :

 DECOBAKE ( Sugar craft & Cake decoration shop )

Bachelors Walk , Dublin 1.

KITCHEN COMPLIMENTS
South Anne Street, Dublin 2.

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