spoon

Recent Recipes

Macarons with White Chocolate & Raspberry Ganache

8

Category : , ,

Masterchef inspired lots of us to make things we had never made before. A few weeks ago, I attempted the art of macarons. Having just bought the latest edition of the Australian Gourmet Traveller because of it's gorgeous looking macarons on the front cover, I was keen to give them a go. Although, for some stupid reason I decided I was going to make them at 8.30 at night, which meant I was rather rushed. But I figured, if the Masterchef contestants could make macarons, pannacotta and a passionfruit slick all within 1.5 hours, surely I could do it too!

The Australia Gourmet Traveller website has a lovely history of macarons, if you wish to read, click here.
I ran out of time that night, so I had to make the raspberry ganache the following day and sandwich the macarons together.

They aren't the best looking macaroons, they were meant to look like this:

Photo courtsey of the Australian Gourmet Traveller website

But for my first attempt they had the gooey centre and the macaron taste. I know alot of people that have thrown out their first batches of macarons so I was stoked that most of mine worked out! The hardest part was sifting the icing sugar and almond meal 3 times. Almond meal is very hard to sift, so my arms got a nice work out.

Next batch mine will look like the picture and I will take a photo to show you all, but for now, it's on with the recipe!

Macarons with White Chocolate & Raspberry Ganache
Alice Storey

130g pure icing sugar
110g almond meal
105g eggwhites (about 2), at room temperature, left out overnight
65g caster sugar
4-5 drops rose food colouring

White Chocolate & Raspberry Ganache
50ml pouring cream
100g white chocolate
45g raspberries, coarsley chopped

1. Process icing sugar and almond meal in a food processor until finely ground, triple-sift into a large bowl and set aside. Whisk 90gm eggwhite in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (1-2 minutes). Add caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously until incorporated and mixture is thick and glossy (2-3 minutes), then add food colouring. Stir in almond mixture in batches until incorporated and mixture slowly slides down sides of bowl when bowl is tilted. Add remaining eggwhite to loosen mixture, spoon into a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle, pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays, stand until a crust begins to form (4-5 hours).

2. Preheat oven to 140C. Bake macarons until firm but not coloured, swapping trays halfway through cooking (10-12 minutes), set aside, cool completely on trays.

3. Meanwhile, for white chocolate and raspberry ganache, bring cream just to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stand until melted (5 minutes), stir until smooth and glossy. Refrigerate until firm yet still pliable (45 minutes-1 hour) then stir until smooth. Add raspberries, stir to form a ripple effect, then spoon a teaspoon of ganache onto half the macarons. Sandwich with remaining macarons and refrigerate until set. Macarons will keep for 1-2 days refrigerated in an airtight container.

Note If fresh raspberries are unavailable, substitute defrosted frozen raspberries.

This recipe appeared in the July 2009 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Serves 40.

Voila! Bon Appétit!

8 comments:

Oh these look great! I, too, have yet to take the macaron leap but I agree, MasterChef has been good at reassuring people that hey, you can do anything!

Except perhaps making risotto with champagne and strawberries.

lol.

Hi Helen,
Thanks! I was rather impressed, I ate waaaay too many!

I will not be making that risotto either! It's a shame no bloggers have tried it ;)

I boought the same magazine with the intention of making the macarons... but chicken out after reading the recipe "stand until a crust begins to form (4-5 hours)." Yours look good. Now I am reconsidering my decision to make them... soon.

Hi Ellie,
I didn't do that step, I didn't have time to let them sit out for that long, else I would have had to get up at like 2am to bake them!! Give them a go!
x

Hey Shellie, I love your attempt. It's much better than my first half dozen attempts. Mine were always flat, but still yummy though. Recently I've been using the recipe that Matt moran used available from the masterchef website, it worked =D the good thing about that recipe is that you don't have to be super cautious.

Hi Linda,
Oh I will have to try Matt Moran's recipe then too! They are such an artform!

I really didnt want to let them stand for 4 hours either! I was afraid that they would turn into dehydrated biscuits. I'm glad to see that they worked really well by skipping that step!

Hi Maria - I will be trying the standing for 4 hours next time to see if it actually makes a difference!

All images and text is property of Iron Chef Shellie. These reviews are based on my opinions and experiences.
Permission must be granted before using any images or text from this website.

Feel free to contact me:
ironchefshellie [at] gmail [dot] com