MacAttack 5 - Blood Orange Macarons

My Entry for MacAttack on Mactweet Round 5. Theme: Spring Flowers

Spring is in the air or is it? Well I hope for it really, have had enough of grey weather.

I was in the market with my family in laws and saw these gorgeous red/orange skin blood orange. Coming from a tropical country, that was my first time seeing blood oranges. Out of curiousity, my husband bought me a few to taste. And my next thought was - Blood orange macaron with vibrant colour to brighten up this miserable grey time.

So there I was creating some macarons with colours that resemble the few first spring flowers. Not tasting flowery - but instead bursting with spring - vibrant colours!





FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon of Orange food colouring powder
1/4 teaspoon of Red food colouring powder

Powder food colouring

Method:
1. Put ground almond & icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. Roughly mix through the dry and wet ingredients. It's ok if you still see some lumps, but just make sure the dry and wet ingredients are well combined.

After roughly folding the mixture

6. Devide the mixture into 2 bowls, one you'll add in the orange colouring, while the other with red colouring.


7. You'll now fold the colouring into the mixture for each bowl, until you get smooth shiny, magma flow consistency.

8. Line the baking tray with the parchment paper.

9. We wanna achieve a marble effect here, so scoop one orange batter in the piping bag follow by the red batter. Alternate this until you have no more batter left.




10. Pipe your macaron (about 2 cm diameter) it should spread a bit as it settles. The point should slowly disappear if the mixture is the right consistency.
If not you could hit the bottom of the tray with your hand to smooth the point out)


11. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

12. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)



13. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.


FOR THE BLOOD ORANGE WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Ingredients

50g cooking white chocolate
Half blood orange ( Squeeze to obtain juice)
Zest from half blood orange (use organic whenever you could, or wash very well before using)


Methods

1. Squeeze out the juice of the half blood orange in a small pot.

2. Warm it up over low heat

3. Once it start to boil slightly, remove from heat. Add white chocolate and stir constantly until they all melt. If the mixture had turned too cold and you still have some lumps, warm up a pot of water, put the chocolate mixture on top and stir.

4. Add in the zest, mix well. Cover up with cling wrap, put in the fridge for 1 hour.

5. Pipe the macarons and keep chill. The macatons are best to be eaten the next following day. Put out of fridge 10-20 mins before serving.

Lime Macarons

FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon lime green food colouring (powder)

Method:
1. Put ground almond, icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Mix just until you roughly incorporate the mixture.

6. In another bowl scoop out 1 table spoon of the batter, fold until the consistency of the lava is obtained. Set aside (Used to draw white lines on macaron)




7. Add the lime green colouring powder to the rest of the batter. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth shiny batter that flows like magma.





8. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

9. Pipe the macarons.

10. When finish piping the macarons, I use one chopstick and dip into the plain white batter, with a help of a spatula to push it down, I slowly draw over the piped macaron.





11. When all macarons are drawn with white lines, hit the bottom of the baking tray, so that the white colour will 'sink' into the green.

Before hitting the baking tray. The white batter is kinda 'pop' up

After, they kinda sync together with the green mixture

12. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

13. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)



14. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.


For the Lime White Choco Ganache

Ingredients

10g lime juice
zest from half lime
50g white cooking chocolate


Methods

1. Warm the lime juice over the stove, until it boil very slightly.

4. Remove from heat, add white chocolate, mix until the chocolate is melted completely and a smooth texture is obtain.

5. Add in the zest, mix thoroughly. Set aside in room temperature for 1 hour.

6. When the ganache is ready (not too runny, not too hard), pipe it on the macaron shell, close with another macaron shell.




7. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.

Tri-Colours: Blueberry White Chocolate Ganache Macarons

I was surprised to get some responses from some visitors of my blog about the dual colour macarons. Thank you all so much for your kind compliments.

Some of them asked for more explaination about using 2 freezer bags. I know that with words only it's very limited and hard to explain properly. So I had done some tri-coloured Macarons today, and taken some photos. Hopefully this would help :)


FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon dark blue food colouring
1/4 teaspoon aqua blue food colouring


Method:
1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Mix just until you roughly incorporate the mixture.

This roughly mixed batter is fine, I now divide into 3 parts.

6. Divide the mixture into 3 parts. Add the dark blue food colouring powder in one part, add aqua blue food colouring in the second part. Leave the third part without colouring, continue folding until the batter flow like magma, do the same with other 2 parts.


7. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

8. I use 3 plastic freezing bags, fold the bottom side up to the right, so that I can fill up the bag via the opening.I get a triangular which will make a cone when open up. Staple along the side. You will fill the batter in the opening of the freezer bag

Fold the bottom side (sealed side) to the right. Staple along.

9. Fill up each freezing bag with each colours.


10. Cut the bottom of each freezing bags

11. Put those 3 bags carefully in the piping bag , pipe your macaron (about 2 cm diameter) it should spread a bit as it settles. The point should slowly disappear if the mixture is the right consistency. If not you could hit the bottom of the tray with your hand to smooth the point. The first few macarons piped might not have 3 colours, depending on how well those 3 bags are positioned. but don't worry they'll come eventually




12. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.




13. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)

15. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.




For the Blueberry White Chocolate Ganashe

Ingredients

10g liquid cream
50g white cooking chocolate
20g blueberry (fresh or frozen)

Methods

1. Warm the cream over the stove, until it boil very slightly.

4. Remove the cream from heat, add white chocolate, mix until the chocolate is melted completely and a smooth texture is obtain.

5. Add blueberries into the ganache Mix well. Let cool in room temperature for about 1-2 hours, check back from time to time. The ganache should be soft but not runny.


5. When the ganache is ready (not too runny, not too hard), pipe it on the macaron shell, close with another macaron shell.


6. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose their texture.

Violet Dark Chocolate Ganache Macarons

FOR THE MACARON SHELL
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon violet colouring
1 teaspoon of crystalised violet petals (crushed)

Method:
1. Put ground almond and icing sugar in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely.

2. Sift the blended mixture and set aside

3. With an electric beater, Beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles)

4. Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak.

5. Mix the dry ingredients into the egg whites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. Mix just until you roughly incorporate the mixture.

6. In another bowl scoop out half of the batter. Add the violet colouring powder. Continue to mix until you obtain a smooth lava flow batter. Do the same to the other half of the batter, only this time, we left it without an food colouring.

7. When you get smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the lifted mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe.
if you're unsure, you could refer to my basic macaron recipe as a guide HERE

8. I use 2 plastic freezing bags, fold them half on one point to get a triangular which will make a cone when open up. Staple along the side.

9. Fill one freezing bag with the plain mixture, another one with the violet colour mixture.

10. Cut the bottom of each freezing bags

11. Put those 2 bags carefully in the piping bag , pipe your macaron (about 2 cm diameter) it should spread a bit as it settles. The point should slowly disappear if the mixture is the right consistency. If not you could hit the bottom of the tray with your hand to smooth the point. You should get macarons which are half violet, half white





12. Sprinkle half of the Macaron shell with some crushed crystalised violet.


13. Let your macarons sit for about 30minutes. This will depend on the humidity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

14. Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check.

(This is the method i found the best that works for me after few trial and error. I baked with heating the oven top and bottom and i had crack macarons. Having said that, every oven is slightly different than another, so please adjust accordingly)





15. Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.


For the Violet Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

10g liquid cream
50g dark cooking chocolate
1/2 teaspoon of crush violet
1 teaspoon of violet syrup

Methods

1. Warm the cream over the stove, until it boil very slightly.

4. Remove the cream from heat, add dark chocolate, mix until the chocolate is melted completely and a smooth texture is obtain.

5. Add the crystalised violet and violet syrup into the ganache Mix well. Let cool in room temperature for about 1-2 hours, check back from time to time. The ganache should be soft but not runny.

5. When the ganache is ready (not too runny, not too hard), pipe it on the macaron shell, close with another macaron shell.

6. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.