Raspberry Macarons

For a while now I have been playing around with different raspberry fillings for macarons. So far I have explored raspberry white chocolate ganache, raspberry mascarpone cream and a raspberry jam buttercream however none of them have truly hit the mark. 


Personally I found the raspberry white chocolate ganache far too sickly sweet especially when combined with the already sweet macaron shells. 


The raspberry mascarpone cream was delicious but just too wet for macarons as even overnight storage would turn the macarons into a texture similar to Wheet-Bix left to soak overnight so not really the nicest option.. 


To make the raspberry jam buttercream I combined raspberry jam with frozen raspberries until slightly reduced and thick then strained the mixture to remove the seeds. I chilled the raspberry then whipped it through the buttercream to create the filling. I think this mixture was close to what I'm looking however the raspberry mixture just didn't want to emulsify with the buttercream which created a strange ripple effect (and not in a pretty way!).


Tonight I made a batch of pretty green shells with the intention of filling them with a lime buttercream (I recently picked up some lime oil from The Essential Ingredient and I have been dying to use it) but when I piped them out the green didn't seem like the right shade for a lime filling so I decided to give another raspberry filling a go.

This time I used powdered freeze dried raspberries to flavour the buttercream and the result was fantastic. Velvety smooth,not too sweet and perfectly combined. I guess it also doesn't hurt that the raspberry buttercream looks so pretty against the green shells. Enjoy!

Chocolate peanut butter & chocolate hazelnut macaron

This weekend I decided to play around with some different flavours for my Monday orders. Well played around as much as I could because I think I would have a lynch mob after me if I didn't include salted caramel! 


So I thought I would play around with a chocolate & peanut butter ganache as my mum used to make us chocolate & peanut butter fudge when we were kids and it was amazing. I think it must be the American in me but I loooooove chocolate & peanut butter together. Mind you I did shudder a little sacrificing my beautiful 50% cocoa Lindt couverture to being combined with crunchy peanut butter however the result was magnificent. Chocolaty, sweet, peanutty with a hint of saltiness hit the spot perfectly. 


So please enjoy some photos of some of my orders for Monday (with my pretty new boxes!).

L-R Chocolate shells - chocolate hazelnut, chocolate & yellow shells - chocolate peanut butter, white shells & light filling - lemon mascarpone, yellow & white shells with brown filling - salted caramel

Love the new boxes

  

Can't resist the plug - I will be making some in time for Mother's Day wrapped with pretty ribbon next Sunday so if you would like to order some please let me know buy Wednesday evening. $20 per mixed dozen and at this stage it is Sydney orders only. Sorry!

Orders, orders, orders

This weekend I was kept relatively busy filling orders for Monday morning. I'm still playing around a little with fillings and have stumbled across a few of crackers. First amazing combination is a lemon mascarpone filling which is just beautifully light and creamy with a definite lemon zing to it. The second one which I tested out only about half an hour ago is a passionfruit mascarpone, I never would have thought it would taste so good but I think I'm now firmly on the passionfruit in baked goods bandwagon! 


So without further ado please enjoy some pics of the flavours in my mixed dozen:

(L-R) passionfruit mascarpone, fairy bread, lemon mascarpone, choc peppermint & salted caramel

Baby shower Macarons: salted caramel perfected & choc peppermint

My lovely friend who is 7 months pregnant and house bound (eek!) had her baby shower today and I though it might be nice to take along some Macarons to share (and also to get some people to try out a new flavour!).


I remade the salted caramel ones from earlier on this week:

Salted caramel. Still a winner.

Especially with pretty yellow shells

Choc peppermint

Macaron Madness

My apologies for neglecting the blog this week, I have been spending way too much time in the kitchen making things to even think of getting on the computer to write it! Let me just say that I'm in love with the Macaron and the Macaron bug has well and truly bit me. I think the most appealing thing about Macarons is that in terms of flavour the sky is the limit. 


My mind is just buzzing with the possible flavours and textures that I can play with and I can't wait to make them all. At this point I think it's only fair that I say a big thank you to my flavour Guinea Pigs (family, long suffering colleagues & husband's colleagues) who have devoured more than their fair share of Macarons this week without complaint. 


My Macaron breakthrough occurred on Tuesday evening when I decided to give a different shell recipe a go and for some reason everything fell in to place, suddenly making these seemed like the most simple, natural thing in the world. Making Tant Pour Tant (or TPT as it is known which is simply a mix of equal parts icing sugar and almond meal) which is then mixed with a fresh egg white, heating a sugar syrup to 115 Celsius, whisking egg whites to soft peaks, slowly adding the hot sugar syrup to the egg whites, then beating the meringue until it is impossibly thick and glossy, folding the meringue through the TPT paste, piping the shells out, leaving them to rest, baking and matching them up. 


Then comes the fun part where you get to play around with the flavour and texture of the filling. This week I've played around with making caramels, ganache & buttercreams, experiencing their different feel in the mouth, level of sweetness and adaptability. Personally I think that the salted caramel I made on Sunday was an absolute winner and very hard to beat in terms of flavour. White cholocate ganache is a little too sweet for me especially when combined with the already sweet Macaron shells but others seemed to love it. I believe the overall winner in terms of a brilliant vessel for other flavours would be the buttercream mainly because there is the ability to mediate the level of sweetness relative to the other flavours in the Macaron. Having said that I'm keen to explore the use of flavour infused marscapone, citrus curds & fruit jams. 


So without further ado please enjoy a few shots of what I have made so far this week.

White Chocolate & Raspberry Macarons

Tasty but the white chocolate made the ganache a little too sweet for me. But they do look perfect!

Fairy Bread Macarons

The idea for these actually came from a colleague of my brother's girlfriend and I have to say that they are very appealing to me, who doesn't secretly still love fairy bread?!

The little ones resting and forming their crust, I was a little concerned that the colour of the 100's & 1000's would bleed on to the mixture.

But luckily it didn't! I just love how whimsical they look.

Filled with a vanilla buttercream with more 100's & 1000's mixed through.

Yum, nuff said.