Thursday 24 March 2011

Ginger and Apple Macarons

After posting about my many trials and tribulations with macarons (see here for the full story) I decided to join Mactweets. I'd had my eye on the group for ages but hadn't felt confident enough to join. I've been putting off making them ever since the theme was released - I've been really busy (hence not many posts) so it's been easy to persuade myself.

The Mac Attack #17  theme is 'Sugar & Spice and Everything... Fruity'.  Having seen these ginger macarons at Cherry Tea Cakes, I decided I wanted to make ginger shells. At first I wanted to fill them with a blood orange curd. I tried adapting a lemon curd recipe and reducing the sugar but the delicate flavour was lost and it didn't really work. 

Instead I decided to try some of my ginger and apple jam. Together with the spiced shells it created quite fiery macarons but you still get a hint of the fruity apple from the jam. 

I was pretty pleased with my batter as it went into the oven but I was worried about the tins mum has warping -  they're a lot thinner than mine. I watched through the oven door as nearly every shell rose lopsidedly. Thankfully a few were okay (though the feet are a bit weird on all of them). When paired up even the really lopsided ones sort of worked: 

I used this Italian meringue recipe from Not So Humble Pie, scaled down to 80g egg whites. I then removed one tsp of the icing sugar/almond mixture and added 1 tsp of ground ginger. Not sure if that was what I should of done but I was worried about upsetting the dry/wet balance. 

I sandwiched them together with some of my ginger and apple jam - recipe here. 

20 comments:

  1. I think they are wonderful! I love the colors, actually, the cream and gold. And it's funny but when I bake my macs the ones all around the edges of the baking tray come out warped though the lopsided is kinda funny, I must say. Thrilled you joined us for Mactweets with these fabulous macs!

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  2. I tried my first macaron ever a few days ago and I wasn't impressed. But I'm willing to give it another go just to be sure. But bakingmmy won is a whole other story. Glad you've overcome that hurdle and here's to many more macs!

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  3. So glad you jumped on the bandwagon and decided to join us at MacTweets!These are gorgeous flavours, and I love the rustic charm the lopsided ones offer. LOVE THEM!! I have plenty of lopsided ones too and I think Jamies hit the nail to say its the ones on the edge. Great flavour combination and perfect fit for the months theme!!

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  4. Hooray for joining Mactweetes. I love that last lopside one, they joined together perfectly, like you'd planned it all along. I made ginger shells too, and I just added the dry, ground ginger to the almond meal mix without bothering to remove any of it first. I think about 1 tsp or two here or there is fine, but I guess it depends on the ingredient. Spices seem to work ok but green tea does seem to warp the balance a bit. Looking forward to more macarons on your Mactweet journey.

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  5. Those are some lovely macarons and the lopsided ones are lovable! Apple and ginger is a beautiful flavor combination. Being part of MacTweets gave me the motivation to start making macarons. I still make tons of bad batches but mostly have fun doing it. I used to the failures and learned take them in stride.

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  6. Jamie - Thanks! These were the only 6 shells that weren't awfully lopsided so it wasn't just around the edges for me - ma needs new pans I feel. At least they taste the same!

    Sukaina - They're not my favourite pastry to eat either - I need something sharp or spicy to counteract all that sugar. They're a good challenge to make too.

    Deeba - Thanks for letting me join and your lovely comment :) It was a great theme - challenging but fun.

    shaz - Haha I know, I couldn't have made them do that if I tried. That's interesting, nect time I might try it that way. I remembered something Helene had said about powdered food colouring being a bad idea because of the extra dry.

    Lora - It's definitely good motivation - I would probably have left them for ages if I hadn't joined. Learning to accept failures is top of my to do list! Though I didn't get too upset about these actually.

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  7. Kudos to you for keeping up the macaron endeavors. I have only tried a couple times, with only marginal success, and then got discouraged and have gone into macaron retirement. Good thing even the ones that 'fail' still taste good! :)

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  8. I tasted these they were amazing...
    They melt in your mouth and leave a explosion of gingery tastes and tickle your taste buds!:)
    It is a mixture of flavours that just all work together so well...

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  9. Just like the leaning tower of Pisa - perfect!!!

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  10. What beautiful macarons! Those are great flavors.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  11. I just have so much fun experiment with various flavors... I use this one recipe that yields the best results each time, later I bought powdered egg whites and get a perfect macaron each time, but I still fail every now and then.. they are truly the most temperamental pastries.

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  12. I think subbing some of the icing sugar for ginger would be fine and wouldn't upset the balance, it certainly doesn't look like it has! Really interesting combination, yummy :)

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  13. Ha ha--we get lopsided macs, too. Your macs have a comforting flavor combination. Deliciously beautiful!

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