If you are feeling a little down or uninspired during such unprecedented time, try making these cutesy macarons. I had some egg whites leftover from my previous baking sessions and thought it would be a good idea to try something fun, like these little piggies to cheer up my day.
Old room temperature egg whites is always the best when making macarons that does not crack as easily during baking. In the near future, I will be writing up a post purely on the tips and tricks in making perfect macarons. Meanwhile, for those of you who love all things adorable and to enjoy some decadent sweet treats, join me in this macaron fun!
For more macaron ideas, check out my post on "Raspberry Ruby Ganache with Lychee Soju Macaron"
RECIPE
Macaron
Makes 30- 35 Medium complete macaron
Tant pour tant 400 g
(200 g almondmeal + 200 g Icing Sugar)
Egg Whites (1) 70 g
Castor Sugar 200 g
Water 70 g
Egg Whites(2) 70 g
Cream of tartar 2 g
Food Gel Colour (Orange) QS
Method:
1. Place TPT in a clean bowl and mix with egg whites (1) until it forms into a paste, ensuring that there are no dry bits in the mix. Place a cling film over the almond paste to avoid it from drying out and set aside until ready to use.
Note: if the almond paste dries out too much it can cause the macaron to crack when being baked in the oven.
2. In a clean pot, place water and castor sugar and mix well. Ensure that there is no sugar granules on the side of the pot. Place the pot over the heat and bring to a boil until it reaches 115ºC, take it off the pot, it will continue cooking. We want the sugar syrup to reach 117ºC.
Note: If you have granules of sugar on the side of the pot, using a really clean brush dipped in water, brush off the sugar at the early stage before the syrup starts to boil.
You want the sugar syrup to cook to a soft ball stage at 117ºC. As the sugar will keep cooking when you remove the pot from the heat, it is best to turn off heat at a slightly earlier stage to avoid overcooking the sugar syrup.
3. Meanwhile, place egg whites (2) in a stand mixer bowl attached with a whisk. When the sugar syrup reaches 110ºC , start whisking on medium speed until the egg whites becomes foamy and there is no sign of watery egg whites.
When the meringue reaches the desired temperature, turn the mixer to the lowest speed and slowly stream in the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Make sure that you avoid the sugar from hitting the whisk so that they do not splatter and set on to the sides of the bowl.
4. Keep whisking the meringue and when it reaches soft peak, add in the gel colour and continue whisking until it reaches stiff peak.
5. Place 1/3 of the meringue in to the almond paste and mix until the paste softened and are well incorporated and there are no dry bits.
6. Then mix in the rest of the meringue with a spatula and keep mixing until when you drop some of the macaronage (macaron mix) with your spatula on top of the rest of the mix, it starts to very slowly flows flat together with the rest of the macaronage.
I call it s 5 seconds flow test. When you drop some macaronage on the surface of the mix and counts to 5, the mix should gradually start slowly flowing flat in the bowl by then.
If the mix is not flowing at all, you need to mix a little more. Try not to over mix. If the mix is too runny, your macaron will not produce a feet when baked. If under mix, the macaron will not be smooth and have a tendency of cracking. It is recommended that you do the flow test every few mix to prevent overmixing.
7. Transfer the macaron mix in to a piping pastry bag fitted with a 5 mm round tip nozzle, pipe individual and uniform discs on to a parchment paper.
Leave the macaron to dry out. If you can tough the surface of the macaron without it sticking to your hands, it is ready to bake.
8. Bake at a preheated oven at 140 ºC placing the tray at the lowest deck part of the oven and bake for roughly around 12 to 15 minutes.
Note: every oven is different so it is advisable that if you are doing this for the first time, that you start with a low temperature first and if you are not getting too much kick to produce the feet in your macaron, you can turn the oven up a notch. 140ºC seems to be a perfect temperature for most home oven that I have tested. In this recipe, I use a Miele oven set at Conventional heating.
Note: To make the little details like the nose and tail, save a small amount of the macaron batter and add some pink coloring gel to it and mix to combine. Using a small piping tip, pipe the desired shapes on top of the macaron. For the eyes and details, I used an edible sugar pen that you can get from any baking craft store. If you do not have access to the edible pens, simply use melted chocolates.
Orange Vanilla Ganache
Fill Cream 35% fat 50 g
Orange Puree/ juice 50 g
Trimoline 5 g
White Coverture 115 g
Cocoa butter 25 g
Vanilla Bean 1 Pod
Orange Zest 1/2 Orange
Method:
1. Place cream, trimoline, vanilla and orange zests onto a pot and heat to 75°C -80°C.
2. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 1 to 2 minutes.
3.Mix with a spatula, transfer into a jug. At temperature between 35°C - 40°C, stick blend the ganache until smooth without incorporating any air.
4. Wrap with cling film touching the surface and let it set to a pipeable consistency. The resting period can take up to 12 to 24 hours depending on the temperature in the kitchen. For faster setting, leave in fridge to set.
5. Transfer into a piping bag fitted with a small round pastry tip and pipe one macaron shells, then pipe a spiral of Apricot confit, sandwich the fillings with another macaron shell.
Note: If you are unable to find trimoline, simply replace it with glucose.
Apricot Confit
Orange puree 50 g
Apricot Puree 50 g
Water 50 g
Pectin NH 2.5 g
Castor Sugar 75 g
Lemon Juice 2 g
Method:
1. Heat purees and water to 40°C in a pot.
2. In another bowl, mix the castor sugar and pectin well. Gradually add and whisk in the pectin mix.
3. Keep whisking the mix over medium heat to a boil for 2 minutes. Add in the lemon juice
4. Transfer in to a flat tray and leave to cool and slightly set overnight.
5. When ready to use, whisk or stick blend the confit until smooth and transfer into a pastry bag.
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