Festive Choco-Spiced Macaron to celebrate the end of 2010!

2010 came and going to end so soon.

I could hardly make myself believe that 2010 is really going to end in 2 weeks time!! 2010 was a year that I had always looked forward to for our honeymoon in last September. Time passes so fast and everything arrived and finished in a blink.

2010 has been a memorable year for me. We brought home 2 rabbits earlier in the year - Myrtille and Réglisse (Blueberry & Licorice). They had brought us so much and by observing them we learn a lot. They also had opened my heart and eyes in a new window. I was always preferred to ignore or deny, well should I say, wasn't even awared of animal cruelty in everything I use in daily life. I am now a lot more concious about this issue and make my choice when doing my shopping very carefully.

Our honeymoon in Australia also brought me many great precious memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life : Cuddling up an orphan baby wombat, being in complete wilderness with only sound of the ocean, watching stars in southern sky with plenty of wild wallabies eating next to us....

2010 is definitely a year when my life goes into a whole new dimension. Oh well, it's soon time to say good bye to 2010, so let's do that by celebrating it!!

Enough story telling and now straight to the macs. they're inspired by the end of year 'Pain d'Epice' (spiced bread) for Festival of St Nicolas celebrated in north part of France & Europe in 6 Dec everywhere.

The savour of the chocolate : hint of cinnamon & orange zest, top up with candied nutmeg that I brought back from Malaysia. I hope you'll like it.

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I won't repeat the recipe for the shells in this post since the method is always them same. The only difference is that I painted them with help of a pre-cut shape paper when the macarons are baked.

For the Choco Spiced Ganache

Ingredients

1. 50g dark chocolate (chopped up)

2. 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
3. 2 tablespoon of fresh cream

4. enough candied nutmeg (I use 2 small pcs for each macs)

5. shaved organic orange zest (please use ONLY untreated orange as most fruits skin are sprayed with pesticide)

Method

1. In a small pot, over low heat, add in cinnamon, orange zest & cream, warm up the mixture up lightly

2. When the mixture is warm enough, remove from heat. Add in chocolate and stir constantly until a smooth texture is obtained

3. Let sit in room temperature for 30min - 1 hour to cool down.

4. Fill your macaron shells and top up with candied nutmeg before closing it with another shell

Enjoy your festive macs!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thanks every followers in my blog and all others that spend time to visit my blog. Special thanks to MacTweets for making baking macarons so much fun every month!!!

Have a Merry Xmas and wonderful New Year!! See you all in 2011