Delicious Macarons - How To Make & Plate Them
13th Nov 2017
Bonjour bon ami,
We’ve turned French (*cue the accent*) for today’s post on the delicious and beautiful French cookie, the macaron. Macarons are undoubtedly the prettiest desserts on the block, but with a little more effort, you can make these scrumptious treats even more beautiful and literally too pretty to eat!
So let’s begin our tutorial on how to become ‘Picasso’ in the kitchen and make your macarons mesmerizing!
- Ultra glam unicorn macarons-
Use a colorful marshmallow twisty, to make the horn and with an edible ink black pen draw on the eyes of the unicorn. You can use multicolored chocolate sprinkles to further enhancing its look. - Garden of macarons-
Make a chocolate soil, using crushed graham biscuits, butter, cocoa and sugar; all mixed together. Create edible art using macarons (in pastel colors, preferably), edible flowers and cut fruits, skillfully arranged on a platter.
- Macaron bouquet
This one’s super easy. Place your favorite macarons (get all your favorite flavors so that you have a colorful variety) in a paper cup and attach it, on the tip of a skewer that you’ve painted green. That’s all… bundle them all up together and you’re good to go. You could put in some real flowers into your bouquet as well, to give them a grander appeal.
- Macarons with your photograph of them
This one barely requires any effort at all! All you have to do is log onto https://amazeology.com.au/ , where you can not only select the flavors of your macarons but also completely personalize them with a print of your photograph on them; by simply uploading your image via Facebook, Instagram or your photo gallery. In fact, if you have a party coming up; these bites of heaven can be customized to reflect your theme (be it a color, a movie or even a cartoon!) and become the center of attraction for your evening. Imagine that on your dinner table, Picasso himself would beam with pride!
Looks as you know can be very deceptive specially when it comes to these French delicacies- where these tiny treats may look simple, they are VERY difficult to make. But we can always try. For this week’s macron recipe; boy do we have something special for you!
Buttercream Popcorn Macarons
Ingredients:
- 85gms ground almond
- 150gms icing sugar
- 3 large egg whites
- 65gms caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the buttercream filling:
- 100gms caster sugar
- 38gms water
- 75gms beaten eggs
- 45gms egg yolks
- 200gms butter at room temperature
- 3gms sea salt
- microwaveable popcorn
Directions:
1. Prepare a baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
3. In a bowl, sift in the almond flour and icing sugar.
4. In another bowl, separate the egg whites and whisk them till they form fluffy peaks. Slowly, in batches, whisk in the caster sugar till the resultant batter is firm and reaches a meringue like texture. Lastly, add the vanilla extracts to this batter fold it in till it forms a homogeneous mixture.
5. To the batter gently fold in the almond and sugar mixture; a third at a time. ‘Cut and fold’ the mixture a couple of times, till you reach a ribbon like consistency.
6. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe out small circles onto the baking tray. Gently tap the tray on the kitchen counter to flatten out the piped discs. Keep the prepared tray aside for half an hour.
7. Bake the macarons for 10-15 minutes till they are cooked.
8. Let them cool before peeling them off the parchment.
For the buttercream filling:
1. In a bowl, beat the butter till it softens and set aside.
2. Make a sugar syrup by heating the water and the sugar in a saucepan.
3. In a bowl whisk the eggs (yolks and whites), once fluffy add the hot water and sugar syrup, whilst constantly stirring. Mix the batter till it thickens. Set aside and allow it to cool off to about 50degrees Celsius.
4. To the formed batter, add the softened butter a teaspoon at a time, till its well incorporated and there are no lumps in the batter.
5. Lastly fold in the salt into the batter.
6. Cook the microwaveable popcorn. Once cooked and cooled; churn and crumble the popcorn in a food processor.
To assemble; first brush the macaron cookies with a little melted butter and sprinkle the crushed popcorn on to them and allow them to cool off. You could also add the popcorn crumble to the buttercream filling, to add some texture.
Once the popcorn has set on the macarons, pipe the cream filling on the flattened edge of one cookie and cover with another… and you’re good to go! (Macarons are incredibly delicate too, so remember to be gentle with them)