Guess what made me so excited this week ? Holiday season ? Naa... I was looking and browsing at Blurb.com and suddenly somthing caught my eyes. It was my Macaron Fetish book being featured on the front page as Staff Pick !! I never thought this would happen heheh, just so so happy to see that.
So what's up in this cold and grey months of December? I had been thinking to experiment new macaron flavours with some French candies... Here's the first one - Arlenquin (for those who isn't familiar with the term, Arlequin is a Franch candy that is sour and fruity at the same time). I was itching to try out 4 coloured macaron shell as I wasn't suscessful on the first trial. Pair up with white chocolate the sourness and sweetness blended perfectly.
Hope you like the entry. Enjoy!
For the shell
1. 40g egg white
2. 30g almond powder
3. 50g icing sugar
4. 30g castor sugar
5. yellow, red, green, white colouring
1. Prepare4 freezer bags, 1 piping bag and 3 extra bowls. To see the illustration on how to prepare the freewer bags please follow the link .In a blender, mix up the almond powder and icing sugar, sieve it and set aside.
2. Beat the egg white until frothy, add in half of the sugar, keep beating till you get a soft peak and then add in the rest of the sugar. Beat to stiff peak.
3. Add the blended dry ingredients to the stiff egg white. Mix until the mixture is roughly combien. Devide the mixture into the extra bowls. Add each food colouring in each bowl, start folding.
4. Keep folding until you get a mixture that flow slowly like lava. This should take about 50-60 folds. The mixture should be uniformed and shiny. When lifted, it should flow down and form a thick ribbon.
5. Pour each colour in each piping bag. Press down slightly to remove air. Snip off the tip of the begs before placing them carefully together in the piping bag. They might be needed to be adjust slightly so they are at the same level in the piping bag. Pipe the mixture.
6. Let the macaron sit until a shell is formed and it's no longer stick to the fingers when touched. Depending on your room temperature, and air humidity this should takes somewhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour.
7. Pre-heat the oven on 150 C with top and bottom heating.
8. When the oven is heated up, put in the piped macarons. Increase to 160 C after 2 minutes and continue baking for about 4-5 minutes, be sure to work with your oven and you might need a few test to know how much your oven heats up. The feet should already be forming after 4-5mins. Decrease the temperature to 150C, open the oven door quickly to allow hot air to escape. bake for another 6-8 minutes until the shells are baked.
9. To know if your macarons are baked, you could try it by gently touching the shells, when it's baked it should no longer slide against the feet.
10. If the macaron shells are not well baked, extend the baking time by 1 minutes and recheck.
11. Let macaron cooled before removing them from the baking sheet. You could speed up the process by lightly wetting your working area with a sponge and drag the baking sheets over.
12. Match up all the similar size shells, and get the ready for filling.
Ingredients
1. 5 Arlequin candies
2. 1 tablespoon water
3. 50g white cooking chocolate
4. 20g fresh full cream
Methods
1. Crush the candies with a pestle and mortar.
2. In a small pot, melt the candies with some water. Watch closely so it doesn't burn.
3. When the candies are melted, add in fresh cream and warm it up.
4. Remove the cream from heat, pour over white chocolate, mix until the chocolate is melted completely and a smooth texture is obtain.
5. Let cool in room temperature and set in the fridge for about 1-2 hours, check back from time to time. The ganache should be soft but not runny.
6. Fill up the shells. The macarons are best eaten the next day.
