Rose Macarons - Straight from the Heart !

So pretty. So yummy. So dainty. So pink !

I love macarons. That meringuey shell with the chewy almond middle and soft buttercream. What's not to love ?

Macarons are know for being notoriously difficult to make and achieve a good "foot" on the base.

Actually, it's REALLY not that hard..... with the right recipe.

I made macarons for the first time about a year ago. However, I think the basic recipe Astral uses is much better. This involves boiling sugar syrup and pouring into whipped egg whites - much like making marshmallows. 

RECIPE

180g icing sugar

160g ground almonds

4 large egg whites, separated into two equal batches -

160g caster sugar

80ml water

1 tsp rosewater

2 tsp pink food colouring

Sift the almonds and icing sugar together. Add the rose water and food colouring to two egg whites and put this on top of the icing sugar / ground almond mix.

Heat caster sugar and water together until they reach 110deg C. Whip 2 egg whites to stiff peaks and then slowly drizzle and whip in the hot syrup to these until it becomes shiny and stiff. Avoid getting any syrup directly on the beaters if possible !

Fold the whipped egg white / syrup mix gently into the other bowl of mix. I started by adding a spoonful and mixing that through to loosen it up and then folded the rest in.

Transfer this into a piping bag. Pipe into small rounds on grease proof paper or silicone baking sheets.

I did both to see the difference. Both the silicone baking sheets and the greaseproof paper gave the same results.

You need to stand the macaron mix like this on the sheets for about an hour so the surface drys out BEFORE you bake it. Otherwise, your shells are likely to crack and the finished result really isn't the same (been there - done that !) Put on some sprinkles (if using) now. I used some pink hearts with pink edible glitter

Pop into a 145 > 150deg C oven for approx 15 minutes. Remove and immediately slide silicone sheet or greaseproof paper off the tray onto the work surface. 

Leave to TOTALLY cool before removing. If even slightly warm, the insides of the macaron will leave themselves stuck to the paper or silicone sheet.

For the filling, I made a simple buttercream with icing sugar and butter and added some rosehip syrup. Sorry - I forgot to weigh ingredients for this.... Simply mixed the three together until right consistency was achieved and sandwiched between the shells

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did ! 

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com, August 2011