Tiramisu Macarons...

This idea came from a couple of different people, and I finally got around to making these last week.

Essentially the flavours come from the white chocolate ganache, coffee ganache, and the cocoa powder on the top. Perhaps next time I may add a splash of marsala or some other liqueur to the white chocolate ganache to add an extra kick.

For the shells, see the generic macaron recipe post here. Colour the shells with a tablespoon of cocoa powder (remove 1 tablespoon of icing sugar from the shells). Dust the shells with cocoa powder once they are baked and cooled.

For the white chocolate ganache, heat 100mL of cream and pour over 200g of good quality white chocolate. Allow to sit for a few minutes then mix until it becomes a smooth, glossy mixture.

Decant about 1/3 of the white chocolate ganache into a separate bowl. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of instant coffee in the smallest amount of hot water you can to make a paste - add this to the smaller bowl of ganache and mix until combined.

Cover the macaron with white chocolate ganache, and pipe a small circle of coffee ganache in the centre. Sandwich with another macaron and leave in the fridge to mature for at least 24 hours.

Valentine's Day Macarons - Pink Marshmallow Hearts

This year for Valentine's day, I thought I'd re-visit the heart shaped macarons from last year. I had to make these in a hurry (at about 9pm on a Wednesday night) so I used my trusty quick macaron recipe (AKA French meringue method) and whipped these up in a couple of hours. The only downside of the French meringue method is that you don't get many macarons for the ingredients you put in...

These are made with a marshmallow filling (see previous post for recipe).

I decided to make these heart shaped at the last minute, so I didn't use a heart shaped template to pipe them - I just piped a circle, then dragged the piping nozzle downwards to make one side of the heart, then repeated on the other side. Be careful not to make the hearts tilt to one side (unless you pipe half of them as mirror images to tilt to the other side) otherwise you won't be able to sandwich them together!

Give it a try and see how you go - it's a lot easier than you think!

Piped macarons, resting before baking

Straight out of the oven

Supermarket Macarons...

I started making macarons for home consumption about 5 years ago, because if you wanted a macaron in Melbourne, your only choice was a stale, hard and crunchy one from Laurent.

Yesterday, as I wandered through the aisles of my two local supermarkets, I realised how much things have changed.

I found (in the pie section, strangely) a box of macarons - imported from France, with an expiry date of the 12th of Feb (by which time the macarons would be hard enough to crack a tooth, no doubt)

Then, whilst walking in the freezer section, I come across this: (surely it just tastes like passionfruit ice cream?)

Then, after having the "don't knock it till you've tried it" line thrown in my face, I decided to give in and try the Donna Hay Almond and Chocolate Macaron packet mix and see how it went.

Considering this packet mix is made with powdered egg whites alone, I wasn't entirely convinced it would work. Needless to say, it didn't...

Not only were the almonds so coarse that the macarons were bumpy in appearance, and the egg whites such a strange consistency that they were almost impossible to pipe, but the instructions are misleading.

If you thought that "dropping spoonfuls" of batter onto a baking tray was going to result in uniform round macarons that look like the ones on the front of the box, forget it! I piped mine but still ended up with a tray of dud macarons which had soft tops you could push your finger through.

I didn't bother sandwiching the macarons as I couldn't think of anyone who would want to eat soggy macarons!

So in conclusion: now I have tried it, I can knock it, and I wouldn't recommend anyone wasting $7.95 on a packet.