Macaron Madness

There is something strangely magical about Macarons. I was totally inspired by a beautiful book The colour of tea . The Author of this book also has a blog, and last weeks blog post was about beautiful Macrons. I still haven’t worked out if they are meant to be called Macarons or Macaroons – it’s one of those things where both can be right. Looking at the picture in Hannah’s post, mine were definitely not nearly as beautiful or perfect - but a good start.






Recipe

Ingredients Macarons
300 grams ground almonds or almond meal
300 grams of icing sugar
5 egg whites
cream of tartar
red, yellow brown food colouring

Ingredients Filling
250 grams unsalted softened butter
150grams of icing sugar
Orange macarons - orange zest, Small amount of juice
Pink strawberry macrons - fresh strawberries pureed
Coffee macarons - shot of espresso / or if you don't have access to a coffee machine, instant coffee and water to dissolve.


Piping in Filling

Directions for macarons
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they are foamy. Add a pinch (or tip of knife) of cream of tartar and whisk till soft peaks form. Add the icing sugar in batches, continue to whisk. stir the meringue into the Almonds. split into 3 sections and tint one with brown food colouring, one with orange and one with red. Depending on the fillings you can also make them green, or yellow or whatever.

Spoon each of the mixtures into piping bags with about a 5mm nozzle. pipe into 1.5cm rounds (I think mine were a little smaller), onto baking paper lined trays. Repeat with all the colours.

Preheat the oven at about 150 degrees and bake them till they are firm to touch (mine took about 15-20 minutes).

Remove from oven and cool.

Directions for fillings
Using the thermomix beat the butter until its pale and fluffy. If you don't have a thermomix just beat them with an electric mixer. once pale and fluffy beat in the icing sugar until combined.
Transfer the mixture into 3 bowls and add the flavourings.
Strawberry - thermomix 5 strawberries till pureed and beat into the mixture
Orange - add the zest and juice (i found that beating this in with the electric mixer meant that it did not separate, it can also be done in the thermomix, but as i had the strawberry going in the thermy, i used the electric mixer)
coffee - add some of the espresso or dissolved instant coffee, whisk in to combine.

Place the mixtures into piping bags and pipe onto the appropriate coloured macaron and sandwich together.