Chocolate Easter Egg Macarons

This month's Mactweets theme is Decadently Chocolate. Our macs had to have chocolate and "something, anything which will accentuate, complement the chocolate flavor and make for one spectacular mac!"

These are chocolate macarons with a...

As I was walking around the little local supermarket trying to think of my super-exciting flavour, I came upon the chocolate/sweets aisle. This seemed like a suitable hunting ground for Easter. Then I spotted my POP - popping candy! 

So these macs are egg shaped chocolate Italian macarons filled with a dark chocolate ganache and strawberry popping candy and finally piped dark chocolate on top. 

Because I matured them most of the pop was unfortunately gone. You had to stop chewing and concentrate to detect the sensation. Still, they tasted lovely. 

I tried a few other ways of using the candy too: I sprinkled some popping candy on the shells before baking but it melted and lost its fizzle. I also tried sticking some to the dark chocolate on top which worked fizzle-wise but looked a bit weird. I wondered about trying to somehow insert some into the shell after baking - or perhaps just pipe a circle of ganache and sit the candy in the middle.  Another time. 

Happy Easter! Hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Once again I adapted this Italian method recipe, scaled to 80g egg whites. I subbed 1 tbsp cocoa powder for 1 tbsp icing sugar. I then filled them with a simple 100ml/100g dark chocolate ganache and some of the popping candy. The feet are a bit small and I had a few problems with overcooking on one side of a sheet but otherwise pretty good. 

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. 

Macarons

Nothing has made me feel worse in the kitchen than macarons. I know they have plagued many a home baker but I thought I would tell my story anyway.

I am a perfectionist. Sometimes this is a great asset and serves me very well but often it just produces crushing dissapointment. Oxford is a punishing place to be a perfectionist. It just isn't possible - something had to give, and that was my confidence. I will be very happy when I finally finish at the beginning of June. Don't get me wrong - I love my degree and tutors and Oxford is a lovely place in many ways - but it has been tough for me. 

I decided to tell you about my macaron failures (and even publish the awful pictures) as part of a plan to accept them and to be kinder to myself. I can strive for my best, but I need to stop beating myself up about failure in all parts of my life. Learning to bake should be a process of accepting failures and faults and understanding them so you can improve.

I first tasted a macaron sitting on the sides of the Arc de Triomphe in blazing sunshine. It was September 2009 and my housemate Sarah and I were on a trip to Paris. We had picked up a box each (above, though this was Sarah's) from Ladurée and after a slow walk up the rest of the Champs-Élysées we settled down to our tasting.

They were delicious, but I have to admit I had expected more after the hype. They're not my favourite pastry to eat. 

The photo below shows my first ever batter resting before baking. It was last April and I decided that I finally had gathered enough courage and information to attempt a batch. A few days before I had admitted in this first blog birthday post that I wanted to train as a pastry chef. Now, surely, I had to show that I could do it and make macarons. 

I bought special powdered food colouring for my berry macarons and flew it home. After much deliberation, I chose to make them through the French meringue technique as I wasn't experienced with Italian. I looked through many recipes until I decided to try Tartlelette's recipe from her useful guide. I was so excited - surely they would be pulled out of the oven with a flourish looking just like Helen's. 

A lot of hope rested on them as I placed them in the oven.

Would you like to see what I pulled out? It still pains me. 

Later that day I tried again with another batter, below. I have to admit that I cried - despite the slight improvement. I know it's pathetic to cry over a deformed macaron - especially only on your second attempt - but I did. 

Mum pointed out that some of them look like human cheek cells, complete with cell wall and a nucleus. She always knows how to bring a smile back to my face. 

Two more botched bright pink batches later, I tried a plain batter with no colour or flavouring. These came out mildly better again, with more compact feet. Yet still they were nowhere near what I wanted. For the first time I bothered to fill them with some raspberry puree mixed with yogurt. They were too sweet even with the filling. 

At this point, Mum told me I had to stop. I was only upsetting myself. 

This Christmas I tried again (after yet another attempt last term) and made some chocolate macarons with a bitter chocolate ganache. These came out better again. I actually let people other than my mum see and eat them. 

Finally, I tried out the Italian method a few days ago. From the beginning it just seemed to work. I much prefer this method. 

I chose to make lemon macs as I had spare curd and I thought I would prefer something that cut throught the sweetness. This is the first batch I actually enjoyed eating. Though I do have a sweet tooth (obviously), I like my food to taste of more than icing sugar (which, incidentally, is my main problem with a lot of cupcakes). 

They're still not perfect.

Blogging has taught me to be incredibly critical of macarons. Even professional ones often have some flaws.  With practice I'm sure I can remove some - and that should be part of the fun.

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This time I used Ms Humble's recipe for lemon macarons and her three guides to Italian macarons. I then filled them with leftover lemon curd made with David's wonderful recipe.