Banana, Toffee and Chocolate Macarons...

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea continues in our tearoom this week. Last week, we managed to raise over $500 for the Cancer Council, and this week my contribution was inspired by leftovers in my kitchen...

I had a small, over ripe banana in my fruit bowl - hardly enough to make a banana cake or some banana muffins, so I thought I'd see if I could use it for a ganache.

I started with a dry caramel - by heating ~100g of sugar in a pan until it liquefies and then turns a golden brown. I then added some cream, folded in my mashed banana, and then added some dark chocolate. I wish I could tell you the exact quantities, but to be honest, I didn't measure anything!

Unfortunately, the ganache didn't set hard enough, so I added some more dark chocolate. The result was quite surprising - the banana flavour was so strong it almost tasted like I had added banana essence into the mixture.

For the shells, follow the generic macaron recipe here.

Ferrero Rocher Macarons for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

In case you aren't aware, Australia's Biggest Morning Tea was held last week. At work, we decided to have a cake stall in our tea room all week to raise money for the Cancer Council.

I made Ferrero Rocher Macarons as my contribution.

For the shells, use the generic macaron recipe here. I sprinkled them with feuilletine to add the wafer-like crunch. You could also sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts.

For the filling, make a ganache with 100g dark chocolate and 100g cream. Fold through 2 tablespoons of Nutella. You can also add crushed hazelnuts if desired.

Baklava Macarons...for Mother's Day

I've been meaning to make these for a while and today's rainy weather was a good excuse to stay inside and have the oven on all day.

Baklava can be made with pretty much any kind of nut, but I chose walnuts as they're probably the most traditional baklava nut.