{"id":291,"date":"2025-01-17T18:54:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T18:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sefovirtuve.lt\/?p=291"},"modified":"2025-01-17T18:54:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T18:54:59","slug":"coloured-macarons-filled-with-white-chocolate-ganache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sefovirtuve.lt\/?p=291","title":{"rendered":"Coloured Macarons Filled with White Chocolate Ganache"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I’m super excited to share this particular post with everyone!\u00a0 Homemade macarons!\u00a0 We love macarons so much but then who doesn’t, amirite?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These dainty meringue based sandwich cookies have stolen the world’s sugar encrusted heart.\u00a0 So what could be better than to be able to make these at home, right?\u00a0 We’ve previously successfully made scrumptious chocolate<\/i> flavored macarons at THKC however, every time we tried to make other coloured macarons we have failed.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Onwards in time…and this Christmas my little girl and I decided to participate in her school Xmas bazaar and thus needed to bake up a seeming truckload of cookies to sell.\u00a0 And one of the cookies that my little girl really wanted for the bake sale was macarons coloured\u00a0 in red and green, all the Christmas colors.\u00a0 Yiks!\u00a0 Could I do it?\u00a0 Note sure but like a good and hopeful mama, I said yes to coloured macarons.<\/p>\n

Ahhh…a challenge laid down.\u00a0 Dear readers, the cookie game was afoot!<\/p>\n

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Let me start this food adventure with a quick review of my previous attempts at coloured macaron making.\u00a0 I had carefully followed a few recipes that popped up on the first page of Google search results for ‘macaron recipe’ as well as a couple from my macaron cookie recipe books.\u00a0 And each time I could not successfully make coloured macarons.\u00a0 No feet, cracked tops, wrinkled tops, etc…you name it, I did it with these colored macaron recipe attempts.\u00a0 Sobs into pillow…<\/div>\n

So what to do now?\u00a0 Dang it all, with the cookie challenge laid down, I was pretty nervous.\u00a0 Could I even make red and green coloured macarons?\u00a0 I rather frantically started researching.\u00a0 Did y’all know there are approx. one billion<\/strike>\u00a0trillion macaron recipes online?\u00a0 And they all promise great results.\u00a0 What the heck was a girl to do?<\/p>\n

Finally something caught my eye.\u00a0 Someone on a forum airily mentioned a no fuss, no muss method of making macarons using a certain recipe.\u00a0 Humm…\u00a0 A no fuss and no muss method certainly sounded really good at this point.\u00a0 Most macaron recipes\/tips are rather convoluted.\u00a0 And then, scrolling further down I realized that the recipe referred to was one from the bravetart website.\u00a0 OMgosh, bravetart!\u00a0 I used to read about dessert\/pastry stuff on bravetart all the time!<\/p>\n
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When I finally located the original recipe (on web archive here as for some reason the actual bravetart site has been taken down<\/i>) I saw that it was as promised, no fuss and no muss.\u00a0 So, nervous but hopeful, I was ready to try bravetart’s macaron recipe out!<\/div>\n

The recipe starts with almond flour.\u00a0 Best to buy almond flour as it will already have skins removed and be milled to a fine powder.\u00a0 I’ve tried using whole almonds to make my own almond flour, first blanching to remove the skins and then using my spice\/nut grinder to grind the almonds down to a powder.\u00a0 It’s rather hard to make the powder uniformly fine while not over grinding it so that it turns to nut butter.\u00a0 I would recommend buying the almond flour as it saves a lot of time.<\/p>\n

To prepare for making macaron, the only thing to do with the almond flour is to sieve it to remove any larger pieces of almond.\u00a0 You want the flour light as possible so that you get a good rise on the macarons.<\/p>\n
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But wait, you will also need to sieve the powdered sugar so might as well do it together.\u00a0 Weigh out both almond flour and powdered sugar and sieve to remove any large pieces and lumps.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

By the by, if you’re serious about making macarons or just about making pastry in general, get a food weight already if you don’t have one.\u00a0 It’s really important to measure accurately if you want good results!<\/p>\n
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See how fine the sieved mixture looks?\u00a0 No more lump or bumps and perfectly light for our delicate macaron batter, so much the easier to allow the macaron to rise and form those wee feet!<\/p>\n

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The other half of the batter is egg whites whipped up to form the meringue that makes the macarons oh so light.\u00a0 Myths swirl about the issue of egg whites used in macarons .\u00a0 Egg whites must be fresh, egg whites must be not fresh, be room temp, be straight from the fridge, be a few days old, be a couple weeks old, etc.\u00a0 What the heck, amirite?<\/p><\/div>\n

Stella’s (that’s the awesome pastry chef lady behind bravetart<\/i>) approach to egg whites was pretty laidback.\u00a0 Egg whites- „temperature and age not important!”\u00a0 Whoa, a big turn around from all the other careful advice!\u00a0 I mean I’ve previously tried room temp to a couple days old to a couple weeks old egg whites.\u00a0 Apparently all that fuss is NOT necessary.<\/p>\n

So what did I do then?\u00a0 I almost followed Stella’s advice except I did do what I normally do when baking: I let my eggs sit out until they reached room temp.\u00a0 Then I separated my egg whites from the yolks and added salt and sugar.\u00a0 Note that you must be sure that there are absolutely NO egg yolks in your egg whites!\u00a0 Even the tiniest bit of egg yolks mean game over for your meringues.<\/p>\n

Tip<\/b>: The littlest bit of fat can negatively impact whipped egg whites.\u00a0 So before whipping it’s a good idea to wipe down your bowl and whip with a bit of vinegar to remove any trace of fat.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Time to whip the egg whites.\u00a0 Here the simple yet specific method of whipping is what I think most helped me to finally successful macarons.\u00a0 Stella says to whip for 3 mins at medium until foamy.\u00a0 The photo above shows the results after 3 mins.\u00a0 Some bubbles really.\u00a0 I think this part is just to loosen up the egg white.<\/p>\n

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The next stage of whipping kicks it up to medium high speed for another 3 mins.\u00a0 You can see that the egg whites are quite fluffy now.<\/p>\n

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Now kick up the speed to the highest and give it another 3 mins.\u00a0 This part surprised me, I don’t think I’ve ever whipped my egg whites to such stiffness before.\u00a0 Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing wrong all those times before?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyways you gotta whip those whites until, when you stop whipping, a whole lot of whites are collected inside<\/i> the whip, as you can see in the photo above.\u00a0 If you stop and your whites are still all in the bowl you ain’t whipped those darn egg whites enough yet.<\/p>\n
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It’s time to add color and flavor!\u00a0 Regarding food coloring to use for colour in these vibrant little macarons, a couple of thoughts:<\/p><\/div>\n

First of all, don’t waste time using the cheap water-based food coloring that you can find at the grocery store.\u00a0 These will add unnecessary liquid to your batter and the coloring ability is weak.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To achieve the vibrant colors that define macarons use either food colouring gels or food coloring powders that can be purchased at baking supply stores.\u00a0 Both gel and powders will give you bright vibrant colors without adding too much liquid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another problem with food coloring in macarons is that sometimes it seems that the colors brown as the macarons bake.\u00a0 What’s actually happening is that the colors are fading, not browning.\u00a0 It turns out that not all food colour gels are created equal!\u00a0 Some are specifically made for icing use, which means they are not meant for baking.\u00a0 So check out the label of the food gels carefully and if it says ‘icing color’, don’t use it for macarons.\u00a0 Americolor gels seem to work well with baking.\u00a0 The best<\/i> color that I got, lush and vibrant, was with food colouring powder.<\/p>\n

For the flavoring the macaron use a bit of non oil based flavoring of your choice.\u00a0 We used a bit of both vanilla and almond extract.\u00a0 The choices of food flavor extracts are endless these days.\u00a0 You don’t even have to add any flavor, the almond flour is already pretty darn yummilicious.<\/p>\n

Okey dokey, lecture over, back to the present, we’ve added our colouring and flavoring.\u00a0 I love this next bit of Stella’s instructions.\u00a0 She say to „whip for a final minute on the highest speed, just to show it who’s boss.”\u00a0 Who’s the boss, indeed.\u00a0 Make sure to whip that baby until the batter once again collects inside the whip as per photo above.<\/p>\n

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Now it’s time to mix the wet with the dry.\u00a0 This part has a fancy french word for it, ‘macaronage’.\u00a0 This is another part of the making of the macaron that has a lot of myths surrounding it.\u00a0 How to make the strokes, how many strokes, what the texture should end up as, how it should flow when ready, etc.\u00a0 Seems so specific.\u00a0 What if you overdo it or underdo it?<\/p><\/div>\n

Get your bendy silicone spatula out and get ready to macaronage!<\/p>\n
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Mix the eggs white and almond flour together using longish strokes that go over as much batter as possible.\u00a0 Stella gives a guide of 25 strokes to a „quite lumpy and stiff texture.”\u00a0 Then another 15 strokes to „just about right.”\u00a0 The problem is, what is just about right when you don’t know what is ‘just about right’?<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a simple test you can do to check which I think is very helpful to let you know what is ‘just about right.’\u00a0 There is a guide line of about 35 strokes total.\u00a0 So let’s say you go to 30 strokes.\u00a0 Then simply check by scooping up a bit of batter and dropping on a surface in a round blob.\u00a0 Then wait 20 secs or so to see what the batter does.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does it stay stiffly in the same blob shape that you dropped it in?\u00a0 It’s under mixed.\u00a0 Mix a couple more strokes and retest.\u00a0 Does it spread out a lot as flat as a pancake?\u00a0 Oops overmixed.\u00a0 Go ahead and bake up some slightly fugly but still totally scrumptious macarons and better next next time.\u00a0 Does it flatten and spread just a little bit?\u00a0 Perfect!\u00a0 Advance to GO!<\/p>\n

Another test is the disappear back into the batter test.\u00a0 Drop a bit of batter back into the bowl.\u00a0 Your batter is ready if it disappears back into the batter after 20 secs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Here is our final macaron batter after macaronage.\u00a0 Folks usually say that at this point the batter should flow off your spatula like lava or soft serve ice cream.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

To be honest, judging the doneness of the macaronage is kinda a bitch place to be.\u00a0 We made three successful batches of macarons with this recipe and each time I totally thought that we overmixed it.\u00a0 I think understanding macaronage comes with experience.<\/p>\n

Another mixing tip that is really useful is to make sure that during the approx. 35-40 strokes for macaronage, do be sure to mix all<\/i> the meringue and flour together.\u00a0 If you leave any unmixed lumps it will show up as you pipe and then cause your macaron to crack or bump up as they bake.<\/p>\n

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With the macaronage ‘just about right’, it’s time to pipe.\u00a0 Half the batter goes into a big piping bag with a big tip installed.\u00a0 And, as I cannot for the life of me pipe in equal amounts of roundness, I prepared piping templates to fit my baking trays using a pencil, sheets of parchment paper and the round cap of a bottle as a guide for drawing the circles.\u00a0\u00a0Just remember that the sheets must be flipped over so that pencil marks are not touching any batter.<\/p><\/div>\n

Pipe to fill the circles only 85-90% full, as they will spread a bit more.\u00a0\u00a0As I think I overmixed the macaronage it was hard to stop the flow of the batter when I finished piping.\u00a0 I ended up using my finger to stopper the batter before moving on to pipe the next macaron.\u00a0 Really fancy finger work, I know, but thank goodness our macarons still came out beautiful.<\/p>\n

The next step is super fun!\u00a0 Take your trays of piped macarons and slam down on a table.\u00a0 All frustrations gone!\u00a0 This will get the large bubbles out of your cookies.\u00a0 Large bubbles can cause cracking so don’t miss this step.<\/p>\n

The final step before baking is the all important ‘rest’ session.\u00a0 Stella says that she doesn’t even rest her macarons (so cheeky!) but I just didn’t dare to miss this step, especially as I felt I had overmixed the batter.\u00a0 The resting allows the batter surface to air dry until not sticky.\u00a0 \u00a0This forms a skin around the batter which, when baking, helps the macaron top to push up in one go, allowing legs to form below.<\/p>\n

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I love this part of baking.\u00a0 It’s OvenWatch!\u00a0 Watching the the oven as your goodies bake inside, it’s a time honored tradition for bakers!\u00a0 We also did a macaron rising video for those of you who really love to OvenWatch.<\/p>\n