Lime macarons

I'm always being asked by people whether I can make macarons that aren't so sweet. Unfortunately it's a fact that a good proportion of the macaron shell itself is made of sugar, and playing around too much with the proportions there is likely to lead to disaster.

One way to make them seem less sweet is to use a really tangy or sour filling. Although citrus curds make delicious macaron fillings, they don't keep very well.

Mince Pie Macarons

These are quick and easy to whip up...all you need is a star template and you're good to go!

Chocolate Passionfruit Macarons

These are my must have flavour when visiting Pierre Herme or Laduree overseas for macarons, so I was surprised to hear Kerry Vincent declare on the Great Australian Bake Off that the two flavours don't 'go' well together! You do need to be careful to use the right chocolate though - too dark and you'll overpower the passionfruit, and if its not dark enough it will be too sweet.

Lolly Bag Tower - Macaron Recipes

Before I start this post, for those who are wondering, the very cool backdrop to this "photo shoot" and the venue for the baby shower was Alice Nivens Cafe in the Melbourne CBD - check it out for great coffee and amazing cakes!

As promised, here are the recipes for the macarons on the tower. To make the individual flavours of the "Lolly Bag" macaron tower, use the generic macaron shell recipe and then the corresponding ganache (I've listed them all below):

Golden strawberry macarons for a bride-to-be...

I wanted to make some macarons for a morning tea to celebrate a workmate's last day at work before getting married.

I thought it'd be as good a time as any to try out my new Wilton gold spray and see how it worked on macarons. I wasn't sure if I should colour the shells or not, and ended up making white ones and spraying them gold, but I may colour them with some caramel colouring next time before spraying them.

Trick or Treat? Spiced pumpkin (shaped) macarons...

We don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia like the Americans do, but I was challenged by a couple of workmates to make some Halloween macarons for a bake sale this week to raise money for our work Christmas party.

Strawberries and Cream Macarons

I stumbled upon some freeze dried strawberries a couple of weeks ago and thought they could work well sprinkled on some macaron shells. I thought I'd take the opportunity to see how my oven handles white macaron shells while I was at it - it would seem I need to bake them for significantly longer and at a much lower temperature than usual.

So here they are, for my 100th post, Strawberries and Cream macarons…. Thanks to everyone from around the world who have visited and supported my blog!

Cassis Macarons

Those of you who know me will know that I've moved house again recently, which means that I have another oven to get used to!

These are the first batch of macarons that I have made in my new oven - I was happy that they turned out fine with exactly the same temperature and baking time as my old oven!

Irish Cream (Baileys) Macarons

I've finally gotten around to making Irish Cream (Baileys) macarons!

The ganache took a little experimenting - it's essentially a white chocolate ganache with irish cream in it, but I wanted to put as much irish cream in to have an intense flavour but still have the right consistency. 

Lamington Macarons

This weekend, I was looking through my pantry to see if I could be inspired to make a batch of macarons. Eventually, I found a bag of shredded coconut buried behind my cans of tomatoes and chipotle chillies and remembered why I had bought it - to make lamington macarons!

Given that half of the visitors to this blog aren't from Australia, if you're wondering what a lamington is, see here. It's essentially a lump of sponge cake sandwiched with jam, rolled in runny chocolate icing and covered with coconut.

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.

Macaron cake for Monie and Pandan Macarons for Karen...

My friend Mona had her last day at work yesterday before moving interstate to a new job. I made this macaron cake for her farewell afternoon tea.

For the cake, any chocolate cake recipe will do - an easy one is Martha Stewart's Devil's Food Cake, and you can find the recipe here.

I sandwiched the cake with a chocolate cream (whipped cream with Dutched cocoa and some sugar), then covered it with dark chocolate ganache (equal parts dark chocolate and cream).

For the shells, I just made one batch of the generic macaron recipe and divided it into bowls with food colouring - you can be smart with colours and add blue to pink once you've piped some pink ones to make purple, and add red to yellow to make orange, etc. Arrange the macaron shells on the cake whilst the ganache is still soft.

One of my other friends, Karen, had a baby last week and has been having cravings for pandan macarons for weeks.

For the shells, stick with the Generic Macaron Recipe here. Add green colouring to the mixture. If you have some shredded coconut handy, sprinkle some onto the shells before resting (unfortunately I couldn't find any in my pantry!)

For the filling, I cheated by using pandan essence which I bought from an Asian grocery store on Victoria Street in Richmond. You could probably use real pandan leaves and infuse some cream and make ganache from that.

I added the pandan essence to white chocolate ganache, and I'm told that they definitely tasted of pandan!

Greek Easter Macarons...

These macarons were inspired by the brightly coloured red dyed eggs that my Mother-in-law dropped off last night for Greek Easter.

The big question was: what ganache flavour to fill the red macaron shells with. I decided to go with Turkish Delight.

For the shells, refer to the generic macaron recipe here. I was a little disturbed by the amount of red and pink food dye I had to add to get the colour I was after, but at least they weren't going to be consumed by any young children!

For the filling, heat 100g of cream until almost boiling. Pour over 150g of milk chocolate. Stir through 1-2 teaspoons of rosewater and 1-2 teaspoons of orange blossom water (to taste). If you add more of the fragranced waters, you may need to increase your chocolate to ensure that the ganache sets.

Tiramisu Macarons...

This idea came from a couple of different people, and I finally got around to making these last week.

Essentially the flavours come from the white chocolate ganache, coffee ganache, and the cocoa powder on the top. Perhaps next time I may add a splash of marsala or some other liqueur to the white chocolate ganache to add an extra kick.

Christmas Macarons #2: Sticky Date, Ginger and Toffee...

I highly recommend these for Christmas - they're delicious!

Sticky Date Ganache:

For the filling, begin by covering ~100g pitted dates with ~250mL hot water and a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Put in microwave for 30 seconds, drain water and then squash dates with a spoon until a smooth paste forms. Stir in 1 teaspoon of ground ginger.

Pitted dates

Meanwhile, make a white chocolate ganache by heating 80g of cream and adding 200g of good quality white chocolate (I prefer Lindt's white to Callebaut's white). Add the date paste to the ganache and allow to cool in the fridge while you make the macaron shells.

Sticky date ganache

Toffee Sauce:

To make the toffee sauce, heat 100g of castor sugar in a pan until melted and golden. Carefully add 30g of cream and mix until combined. Set aside to cool.

Macaron Shells:

For the shells, follow the recipe here. Once cooled, carefully brush shells with gold shimmer powder

Adding gold shimmer dust

Pipe shells with sticky date ganache and a touch of toffee sauce.

Macarons can last a few weeks in the freezer if frozen immediately after assembly. To defrost, simply remove from freezer a few hours before serving.

Christmas Macarons #1: Jaffa (chocolate & orange) macarons for Cynthia's friend...

To make these two-toned macarons, make a batch of orange shells and a batch of chocolate (you can try doing both at the same time like I did but I ended up cursing the entire time and put myself in a bad mood!). The biggest problem with making two-toned macarons is getting the size of both colours exactly the same (each batch you make will spread to a different degree when piped).

The generic macaron recipe can be found here.

For the ganache, make your choice of a milk or dark chocolate ganache (equal parts cream and chocolate).  Before you allow it to cool, add some orange oil to flavour it. If you have an orange handy, you can add some finely grated orange rind in too.

Raspberry Macarons for Hazel

These macarons are for Hazel's first birthday.

The filling is made using only raspberries and white chocolate.

To make the filling, heat 100g of raspberries and use a fork or spoon to squash them until they form a juice-like consistency.

Add 120g of white chocolate and combine until all melted. Allow to cool in the fridge for a few hours.

For the shells, why not try the Italian meringue recipe:

•   110g egg whites

•   150g caster sugar

•   35g water

•   150g almond meal

•   150g icing sugar

Add caster sugar and water to a saucepan. Heat the mixture until it reaches 119°C (using a candy thermometer). 

Whisk 55g of the egg whites until frothy. Slowly add the hot sugar syrup and beat on until thick and glossy.

Continue to beat the meringue until it has cooled enough to touch the sides of the bowl.

Add a spoon of the meringue to the almond mixture to lighten the mixture, then fold through remaining meringue until combined and at the right consistency.

Pipe onto baking trays and bake at 130°C for 13 minutes (may vary with different ovens).

Allow to cool completely before removing from trays and sandwiching with raspberry filling.

Musk Macarons

Inspired by Cafe Vue's vanilla and musk macaron, made using musk sticks!

For the shells, use the generic macaron recipe, using pink colouring to colour the shells and to add speckled appearance (use a pastry brush and flick the colouring onto macarons before resting).

For the filling, melt 100g of musk sticks with 100g of cream in a saucepan. Add 50g of white chocolate and mix until smooth.

Macaron tips and troubleshooting

I often get asked about problems people encounter when making macarons and I thought I'd share a few here.

1. Macarons crack in the oven
• Don't be tempted to bake your macarons until a firm skin has formed on the surface of the entire macaron. If there is any part of the macaron which is still wet on the surface, cracks will form when you bake them
2. No feet form when I bake them
• Your initial temperature is too low - start baking at a higher heat and drop down once your feet form after a few minutes if you are concerned about the macarons colouring
3. Macarons have a bumpy appearance
• I always grind my own almonds from scratch - store bought almond meal is generally too coarse and thus will result in a bumpy surface on the macaron
• Grinding almonds alone in a food processor will result in a big lump of oily almond paste. To avoid this, grind equal quantities of almonds and icing sugar together - this prevents the paste from forming, and saves you sifting the icing sugar! This mixture is called a tant-pour-tant
4. Always follow the recipe you are using - there are two main methods (some say three, but we won't complicate things here):
• French Method: this involves raw egg whites being beaten to a stiff meringue with a small amount of castor sugar. A tant-pour-tant isn't used in this method as there is generally double the amount of icing sugar to almond meal used in this method. This method is faster and less of a hassle than the Italian method below, but is not suitable for making large batches and is pore prone to failure. Most of the amateur cook books and cooking magazines use this method (eg. Women's Weekly, Donna Hay etc.)
• Italian Method: this involves making an Italian meringue using a hot sugar syrup and half of the egg whites, and mixing in the other half of the egg whites with the tant-pour-tant. This method is favored by the likes of Pierre Herme and Adriano Zumbo and is great for making large batches (up to 100 macarons). The failure rate for this method is low.

Hopefully this helps with your next macaron attempt - feel free to email me with any questions I haven't addressed above!