I have been baking macarons for a while and I have found that the best recipe for the shells is the Adriano Zumbo one but I like to play around with different filling recipes and create my own.
I sprinkled some heart shaped confetti over the shells before they cooked to add some valentine's spirit but that's totally optional if you don't have any or are just baking these at any time during the year.
It's your turn!
Italian meringue macarons
150g caster sugar
37g water
55g egg whites
1g egg white powder
150g almond meal
150 icing sugar
55g egg whites
Dark chocolate and coconut ganache
132g coconut cream
180g dark chocolate
30g desiccated coconut
15 fresh raspberries, halved
Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir
until sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil until it reaches 118°C.
When it is getting close to the temperature put 55g of
egg whites and the egg white powder into an electric whisker and whisk until
frothy.
Once the sugar syrup has reached the right temperature add
it to the egg whites in a steady stream while whisking. Continue whisking until
warm, about 8 minutes.
Put the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor and
process to a fine powder, then sift into a large bowl.
Add the extra egg whites to the dry ingredients and then add
the meringue and use a large spatula to fold them through until combined.
Continue mixing until the mixture fall of the spatula
slowly.
Transfer mixture into a piping bag with a 7mm round nozzle,
pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays.
Sprinkle with confetti and then set the trays aside for 30-60 minutes or until
a light skin has formed and the shells are not sticky to touch.
Bake the shells in a pre-heated oven of 135°C for 15 minutes, until
they have a firm outer shell.
Carefully remove shells from the tray after 2 minutes and
set them aside to cool.
Put the coconut cream in a saucepan over medium heat and
bring to the boil. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Pour over the hot coconut cream
and set aside for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth and fold in coconut. Allow the
ganache to cool and become firm enough to pipe.
Fill a piping bag with a 1cm round nozzle with the ganache
and pipe onto the flat side of half the macaron shells.
Press half a raspberry into the ganache, top with more
ganache.
Top with the remaining macaron shells.
Enjoy!
Eat sweet, be sweet :)
