Thanks soo much Ser Qi and Katy for hosting me this visit to Sunnyvale CA!! First time visiting and almost like little snippets of the apartment life we talked about when we were growing up. So much fun to get a chance to bake macarons together this trip
All I need all captured in this picture = Totoro (fluffier the better), fancy gem plushie, pink macarons with fresh raspberries made with girlfriends old and new 😀
The raspberry filling is from this delicious looking recipe on Youtube, adapted from Home Cooking Adventure. Loved the ruby red tones and how the ganache will blend with the shells. Modified the proportions a little and it ended up just the right amount – as a reference for next time this makes around 24 medium-large sized macarons.
For the shells, we picked a double color so that we could make swirls out of it. An easy hack is to place separate colours in 2 piping bags, and place that into a large piping bag, so that when you squeeze it’ll come out neatly in 50%/50% proportions. Depending on the way you angle your wrist and create the final piping twirl you can create the different designs. Had lots of fun doing that + banging the shells on the counter after that! :p another crucial step to bang out the small air bubbles that may be accidentally formed. The drying process took around 20 min in California!
One of the batched ended up slightly overbaked, but surprisingly after >24 hours in the fridge they also softened up nicely, though the lavender hue was lost Oh well! The white chocolate raspberry ganache tasted really yummy and despite the sweetness from the while chocolate the raspberry flavours still managed to come through. – especially those that had fresh raspberries in the middle – those were like gem-like surprises which made us super excited haha.
Makes 30 macarons
| Raspberry Basic Macaron Shell adapted from How To Cook That
165 cup icing sugar White Chocolate Raspberry Filling 100g fresh raspberries (or frozen) Decorations Extra raspberries! |
To make White Chocolate Raspberry Filling
Place raspberries and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until thickens and remove from heat. Sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside. Place the sieved raspberry jam, cream and chocolate in a small saucepan. Place over low heat to melt the chocolate. Add freeze dried raspberries and red food coloring if used. Transfer to a small bowl, let cool completely and refrigerate before using. To make Raspberry Macaron Shells Preheat oven to 320F (160 degrees Celsius). Use a thermometer to be exactly precise. (I usually start to preheat the oven while I wait for macarons to dry) Sift together the icing sugar and almond meal using a coarse sieve (if you use a fine sieve the almond meal will not go through). Discard any gritty bits of almond meal that do not go through. Beat together the egg whites and caster sugar on high speed until they are stiff enough that you can turn the bowl upside down without them falling out. Beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add the almond icing sugar mixture and fold in using a rubber spatula. Add in the burgundy and lilac food coloring. Keep gently folding until the mixture looks like lava, it should have some movement but not be runny. While you are folding periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the spatula to make sure everything is mixed uniformly. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe small circles of mixture onto non-stick baking paper. For two toned macaron colors, use the method described here, by placing 2 piping bags within one. Slide onto a baking tray and bang on the bench firmly several times on each side. Allow to dry until a shell has formed around the macarons, and then place in the oven. Bake at 160 deg C until a foot has formed and the shells are crisp. This took roughly 10 minutes. Try not to open the oven during the cooking process as this will cause a drop in oven temp and may make your macarons hollow. Cool and then gently peel off the baking paper (if you can’t do this easily the shells are not done yet) and pair similar sized shells. Sometimes I like to flip the macarons over to prevent hollows as it cools (not sure how effective it actually is but no harm) To assemble To whip the ganache for frosting, let the white chocolate raspberry ganache from the fridge come to room temperature. It should be soft but still thick. Beat in a stand mixer or with a hand held mixer, until the ganache is fluffy and has lightened in color, about 1 or 2 minutes. Pair together similar sized macaron shells (cooled), and pipe ganache in between. Sandwich and enjoy! Place in the fridge for at least 24 hours overnight to let the flavors blend and mature, and to soften the macaron shell – crucial step! Enjoy 🙂 |
My Dose of Sugar 