Strawberry macarons

Following my previous blog post on sesame macarons, I felt this time around I should be creating something that’s more sweet, cute and fun. Strawberry macarons ticks all three boxes, and it’s not that hard to make. I wanted to really mimic a strawberry, so I had to shape the shells so that it wasn’t all round, and added a bit of fondant to decorate the top for its leafy effect. Follow the recipe below and give it a shot for yourself. Hope you enjoyed these strawberry macarons.

Strawberry macarons recipe

Macaron Shells
(Adapted from Pierre Hermé pastries recipe book)
220g  fresh egg whites
300g  almond meal
300g  icing sugar
300g  caster sugar
75g   water
To decorate: red powdered/gel food coloring. (as your prefer)

Preparation
Line baking trays with baking paper and prepare pipping bag fitted with a plain #11 pastry tip. (If you are not confident with your pipping skills, you can use template as your guide.(SHELLS TEMPLATE GUIDE)

To prepare the egg white and almond meal mixture:
Blitz both the almond meal and icing sugar in a food processor, pause to remove any lumps. Sift well into a bowl.

In the same bowl, add 110g of egg white and set aside without mixing. Pour another 110g egg whites into an electric mixer bowl.

Methods

1. In saucepan, add the water, caster sugar and food colouring and boil to 244 °F (118 °C). Don’t stir.
2. As soon as the syrup reaches a temperature of 239 °F (115 °C), immediately whisk the remaining egg whites (110g) in the electric mixer (prepared on step 1) at medium speed till they are still fairly wet but can hold a peak (soft peak).
3. Pour the saucepan of sugar syrup cooked to 244 °F (118°C) over the whipped egg whites in the mixer bowl.
4. Continue to mix and allow the egg whites to reach a hard peak, and removed from the electric mixer; let it cool down to 122°F (50°C), then add into the egg white and almond meal mixture which we have prepared earlier from the preparation stage.
5. Now incorporate everything together, and mix until the mixture is smooth, uniform and gently flowing. This may be a tricky because if you mix too slow, the mixture may not be uniform, but if you mix too fast and too much, the mixture might be too runny; so aim for something in between.

Pipe and bake
Fill the mixture into a piping bag, and get ready to pipe.

Let the macaron shells sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden (you may test the shells by touching the mixture, and if they don’t stick onto your finger then they’re ready to be baked).

Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C). Bake for 12- 15 minutes, depending on their size. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Let your macarons sit out on counter for 30 -60 minutes, to allow a crust to form.

For the jam
500 g        strawberries
400 – 500 g  sugar
2 tbsp       lemon juice

Preparation
Wash the strawberry thoroughly. Cut into small pieces if they are large.

Methods

1. In a medium size saucepan, combine strawberry, sugar and lemon juice.
2. With low heat, use wooden spoon or spatula to stir until sugar has dissolved and strawberry are softened.
3. Blitz the pieces of strawberry with hand held food process until very fine.
4. Increase the heat and continue to boil until jam reach thicken.

Remove from heat and leave the jam to cool for 2-3 minutes.

Buttercream filling:
5         egg whites
200g      caster sugar
226g      butter (cut into small cube size, at room temperature)
To taste  strawberry jam
Optional: red powdered/ gel food coloring

Methods

1. Combine and whisk sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a double boiler (ensure the water in the double boiler is only at a simmer).
2. Whisk constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is quite hot to the touch 160 °F (°C). (to test your sugar is fully dissolved,  dip your fingers into the mix and rub some between your fingers, If gritty, keep cooking!)
3. Then pour mix into an electric mixer and start whipping the egg whites on high speed until it reaches stiff peaks (light and wonderful – like marshmallow).
4. At this point start adding butter piece by piece to the meringue. Be sure to add the butter slowly and make sure the each piece is completely incorporated before adding the next. ( If the buttercream becomes soupy after all of the butter is incorporated, put in the fridge and let it cool for 5- 10 minutes before whip it again, also might try adding few more of butter.)
5. Add jam, keep whipping it until soft and incorporated with the flavor .

For Leaf fondant

leaf cutter
green food colouring (I used the Ameri Food Gel)
pure white fondant
cornflour
Method

1. Roll fondant into a ball, kneading until it’s soft and pliable.
2. Add a dash of food colouring into your fondant ball until colour is evenly blended. Roll it and knead it until your fondant ball becomes fully coloured.
3. Sprinkle some cornflour and roll flat the fondant about 1 inch thick (as your likely) , use leaf cutter to cut.

To decorate

Brush some egg white on the top edge of macarons shell, place the fondant leaf piece by piece. Finally, use skewer stick or toothpick , add dots of green on the shell.





taken by : http://www.cupcakes-n-macarons.com/strawberry-macarons/