Experimenting with Macarons

Recently had this discussion (it's come up many times for myself) at work. Macarons or macaroons? These French beauties are macarons. Those Australian blobs of coconut cookies are macaroons. The only thing they have in common is the egg whites! 

I came up with the idea to make Irish Cream (aka, Bailey's) ganache. I wanted to actually use white chocolate to do it with but all the posts I've read online and research pointed to dark chocolate. So I started with that. I think I was a little heavy-handed with the liquor. It was quite... fragrant. But it was really nice. Will definitely use and add to my flavour list!

Egg yolks are a forgotten ingredient in making macarons. And this time, I decided to make some lemon curd to use up some of the yolks. We have some beautiful lemons in the garden so it was perfect. And even better by putting them in our macarons. Tangy and sweet. Now to think about what to do with the rest of it! Delicious on scones, I know!

Also made our "signature" Salted Caramel Macarons. 

A tip though... Macarons are temperamental morsels. Always measure your ingredients with a scale. Whip up your egg whites slowly and don't forget to add the sugar into the whites as they foam up or else you will ruin your batch! Was too busy talking today and completely forgot about adding sugar into the egg whites until I had already made my macronage. It was a bit late by then. Total sacrilege! Ended up with these crater looking almond cookies. But hey, they taste good with coffee. ;)

I always end up with pink macarons! And yellow for Lemon Curd :) 

Packaged and ready to be gifted to lucky recipients. 

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