This recipe is long over due! I made these macarons with my mum when my parents came over for Christmas! They were to be given to my mother’s work colleagues on her return to Italy and they were a success! I have also been asked for the recipe… so ladies, here it goes! Apologies for being so late, but the truth is I had completely forgotten about them! Does it ever happen to you guys, to find some recipe in your archive that you thought you had already posted about only to discover you hadn’t??? I am hopeless in this kind of things… Anyhow, these macarons were pretty (or at least, I like to think so! hehehe) and delicious and they were filled with a white chocolate and raspberry ganache… keep in mind they had to travel from Sydney to Milan, so no buttercream or jam allowed!!! I hope you like them!
Ingredients (makes about 20 macarons)
For the shells – recipe adapted from Just Eat’s Le Macaron Royal recipe
63 gms – 2.2 oz. ground almonds or almond meal, sifted
50 gms – 1.76 oz. egg whites (aged) and brought back at room temperature
103 gms – 3.63 oz. pure icing sugar, sifted
30 gms – 1.05 oz. sugar
Pink food coloring (powder or paste)
For the white chocolate and raspberry ganache
100 gms white chocolate
50 gms heavy cream
2 tbsp raspberry syrup or a little essence
Red food coloring (liquid) – optional
To make the shells:
The first thing to do is to “age” your egg whites. You can either leave them in the fridge for 4 days or keep them out on your kitchen’s bench top for a couple of days. I covered mine with a sieve, to prevent small particles from getting in. Remember to bring them back to room temperature BEFORE whisking them. You can use your egg yolks in many other recipes… you could make a yummy Carbonara or some Genovesi Ericine for example.
On the day you want to bake your macarons, make sure you have everything ready, BEFORE you start making your shells. Prepare the piping bag with the right nozzle (a normal circular nozzle of about 1 cm – 1/2 inch in diameter) and line your oven trays with baking paper or with a silicone cookie mat.
Now you are all set to start making your macarons. Sift the almond meal and the pure icing sugar and mix them together in a large bowl. The next step is to make the meringue. Put the egg whites in a bowl and start whisking them with an electric mixer. Add the sugar and the food colouring little by little and keep whisking until you get very stiff peaks. The meringue has to look translucent and pearl like. Add the meringue to the almond meal and icing sugar mix and stir well using a spatula. When all the meringue has been incorporated, you need to do what is known as the “macaronnage”. Using a pastry scraper (or the same spatula that you were using to mix), scrape the batter back and forth against the bowl to remove air bubbles, until your batter ribbons off the scraper (or “flows like magma”).
Now you are ready to pipe it! Fill your piping bag and pipe out circles of batter on the lined baking tray/cookie sheet by squeezing the bag while keeping it in one spot. Here I got a little fancy and I sprayed the shells with a little red food colouring using a little brush. Let the macarons rest between 30 to 60 minutes or until they harden a bit.
If you have read my post on Macarons with White Chocolate and Mint Ganache and my post on Quince Jelly Macarons, you already know that baking the shells is actually what gives me the most problems. After replacing the heating element that broke, I found out that it was actually THE problem, as it was heating more than what it was supposed to. So, this time my shells did not change colour when I baked them! YAY! Anyway, depending on your oven, you can bake them either at 160°C – 320°F for about 12 minutes, or at 150°C – 302°F for 15-17 minutes… it is all about experimenting and getting to know your oven. I also suggest that you buy a small oven thermometer if you have problems, to check the actual temperature of yours!
When ready, take the shells out of the oven and let them cool down BEFORE attempting to detach them from the baking paper/silicone mat… if you try to detach them before, they may break and you will ruin those nice feet on the macaron! So be patient. If you still cannot detach them easily, you can also put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes… they will come off easily then.
Once cool, put them in an air tight container and keep them in the fridge till you are ready to assemble them.
To make the white chocolate and raspberry ganache:
Put the cream in a pot and heat until almost boiling. Add the white chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Add the syrup/essence (and food colouring – optional). Refrigerate until it thickens up and is ready to be piped onto the macarons’ shells.
Pipe the white chocolate and raspberry ganache on half of the shells and put the remaining shells on the top, like a sandwich. Tip: if the ganache is still a bit too fluid, put the shells with the piped ganache back in the freezer for a couple of minutes before attaching the other shells on top.
Store the assembled macarons in an air tight container in the fridge for at least 24 hours and remove them 2 hours before serving them.
These look gorgeous…that colour is really pretty!
These are beautiful!! Yum!
These look so delicious! I recently posted a macaron recipe too. I can’t get enough of them 🙂
http://claireabellemakes.com/2012/04/17/macaron-love/
Perfect macarons, and like the idea to fill them with chocolate ganache, like it much better than with some kind of buttercream. Some day I have to try again with the macarons.
These are so pretty! I’ve yet to tackle macaroons, but I feel like one of these days, I really need to give them a try.
Clever girl
Ooooh, that rose pink batter is so pretty…
OMG these look amazing! So pretty and the flavours…soo good!