Apricot Macarons / Macaroons with Curaco Liqueur Buttercream - RECIPE - www.siliconemoulds.com

I really have not baked much at all in recent months - apart from the odd celebration cake here and there..... so for this reason, my blog has been rather sparse for some time.

Most regular bakers will, I'm sure, agree - that controlling their weight whilst baking lots of yummy things can become a problem. Bloggers even more so. After all, there is no point in posting recipes if you have not actually tasted and eaten the food from the recipe you are posting. My only real solution is to not bake so much, resist the temptations or both. I'm in the both camp. If it isn't there, I do not have the urge to eat it - but I miss the therapeutic side of baking.

Creating celebration cakes is not a problem. I can happily make those with no temptation of nibbling off cuts. It's not for me. My recipes are tried and tested, so I have no need to taste. Off-cuts either go to work colleagues or straight in the bin. As a regular baker, the safest place is straight to the bin and eradicate any temptation to want a sneaky piece.

Macarons on the other hand, are a different story. I love ADORE making macarons. 

I love the smooth, shiny surfaces, their little ruffled feet. I love seeing lots and lots of shells, all perfect in size and shaped lined up in little rows. I like to make them just a little bit different almost every time. To box them up oh so pretty... and then photograph them. Yes. It makes me smile inside - without so much as taking a bite,

I mean - how darn adorable are these little apricot macarons with their blushing cheeks. You'd think they would be really hard to make - but no - it isn't that hard or as scary as you may think.

I made a Youtube tutorial (several years and stones heavier) if you want to watch how I make them.

Since then, I've adjusted things a little....

During the months of high humidity, I have previously had problems with batches of macarons cracking. I went though a spell of making them during the day in high humidity a couple of summers ago. Batch after batch and tray after tray of cracking macarons. I couldn't understand it at all. Settling for nothing other than perfect, they all went in the bin.

I was literally at the point of chucking the towel in one evening and made a last ditched attempt. Humidity had dropped to much lower than during the day and those macarons were perfect.  I could replicate this and knew the humidity was my ultimate problem, but it took a while to suss out the solution.

I've now increased the sugar content a little in my shells. Not a lot. 

When they bake, the shells come out a little drier. Especially if I want to make really pale coloured shells like these and not have them discolour at all around the edges. What this means is that when you eat a plain shell, it's more crispy and less soft and chewy in the centre, which isn't good. The solution ?  Well, most places that make macarons in France cook them so the shells are quite dry like this. 

The secret is to fill them at least two or three hours before serving if filling with buttercream and jam. Leave overnight if filling with ganache. The moisture in the filling re-hydrates and restores the centres. If you want to make macarons the easy way - give them a little time to "mature" after filling rather than eating them off the baking tray.

The other good thing about shells which are on the dry side is that they keep quite a while in an airtight container unfilled. Once filled, store in the fridge, but serve at room temperature. Best used within 3 days of filling.

RECIPE

180g of ground almonds

200g of icing sugar (220g if humid)

180g of egg whites - split into two lots of 90g

200g caster sugar

80mls water

Grind together the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor or spice grinder until smooth. By grinding both together, you get a much finer powder and much nicer texture.

To the above, add one lot of 90g of egg whites and mix thoroughly to form a stiff paste. 

If colouring your macarons, add gel paste food colouring now and mix in thoroughly. Add enough gel paste to roughly get the colour you want and then double it... at least ! Macarons will lighten a lot on baking and you still also have the other ingredients to add. For vivid macarons, I often add up to 1/2 a small tub of Wilton gel paste colour to just one batch. These were to be pale and I still used at least 1/2 tsp minimum (mix of golden yellow and rose to create a medium orange colour before baking)

For fan oven, set to 140 deg C for pale, 150deg C for bold colours.

Put the sugar and water in a pan. Bring to the boil without stirring. When temperature reaches 110 deg C on a sugar thermometer, whip the second batch of egg whites to stiff peak.

At 118deg C, take the sugar syrup off the heat. Whip the eggs at high speed with a hand mixer whilst pouring in the sugar syrup and whip until lit looks like meringue and the outside of the bowl is warm but not hot.

Mix 1/3 of the meringue into the almond / sugar / egg white paste to loosen, then gently stir in the rest. Pay attention to mixing in thoroughly so there are no streaks and the mix is even. It should be thick but just pourable and lava like.

I like to put the mix (macronage) into a disposable piping bag. I work with about 1/2 the mix at a time. One batch is enough to fill 3 tray loads of macarons using the large side of the revolutionary macaron mats

I pipe centrally, to within 5mm of the outer ring. As the mix relaxes, it will perfectly fill each cell.

Pop the trays in the oven for 5 minutes with the oven door ajar. This creates the skin and sets the macarons without the need for leaving them for ages on the kitchen worktops. After 5 mins is up, close the door and bake for a further 20 mins at 150deg C or 22 / 23 mins at 140deg C

Remove the trays from the oven and allow to totally cool before removing.

FILLING

To fill these macarons, I made two batches of the buttercream below. Pipe a ring round the inside edge of the bottom of a shell and plonk a teaspoon of jam in the centre. I used Lidl's Apricot jam - which I really like as they add a little citric acid which means it's a little more tart than most apricot jams.

230g icing sugar

65g salted butter

30mls Curaco (or other orange liqueur)

Beat together until smooth. If a little stiff, add a little more Curaco. If too soft - add a touch more sugar. I usually make buttercream by eye - but on this occasion I weighed it specially for you.

The stalks are little pieces of broken pretzel inserted between the shells.

The shells were dusted with dry powdered food colourings and a brush, a little like applying blusher. Couldn't be simpler.

Have fun !

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - April 2015

Macarons ! Double Chocolate and Cherry... (Recipe)

Hey - it's been a while since I last made macarons. Too long actually. When a fellow cakey person was having some trouble, I decided it was time to knock up a batch to try and troubleshoot the problems and give her a comparison to try.

I love making these pretty, dainty macarons using our double sided macaron mats. The beauty is that they all end up identical in size and pair beautifully. They look divine packed several together and stood up straight like soldiers in a line.

RECIPE

 makes 75 shells (so you'll need 3 mats or to do 3 bakes) = 37 macarons plus an extra shell

180g powdered (icing) sugar

180g of egg whites - split into two 90g batches

40g good quality cocoa powder

180g ground almonds

200g of caster sugar

80mls of water.

Preheat fan ovens to 160deg C

Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into a blender and blitz until powder fine consistency.

Add this to a large bowl with 90g of egg white, the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Mix together to form a thick, sticky paste.

Put the caster sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil until temperature reaches 110deg C. At this point, start whipping the remaining egg whites to firm peak.

Remove sugar syrup from the heat at 118deg C. Whipping the egg whites at full speed, slowly pour in hot sugar syrup. Whip until this is meringue like in volume and the bowl is warm but not really hot.

Take a good spoonful of the meringue mix and stir well into the almond / egg white / cocoa mix to loosen. Fold the remaining meringue mix in with a spatula until it's a lava like consistency and a trail merges into the rest within about 30 seconds.

Pipe onto the large side of your REVOLUTIONARY DOUBLE SIDED MACARON MATS available from www.siliconemoulds.com (these baking sheets are available in several colours)- to within about 5mm of the outside of each cell. The mix will relax to fill the cells. 

Pop into the oven at 160deg C for 5 mins with the door a few inches ajar. Then, close the door and bake for a further 20 > 22mins.

I filled these with white chocolate ganache and a very nice cherry preserve. I also filled some others with the same ganache and ginger preserve.

Creating a wall of firm but pipeable ganache helps to stop the preserve oozing out. 1/2 a tsp of preserve is plenty in each centre. Sandwich together and chill overnight before serving

One is a treat, two would be a total indulgence ! I have to confess.... on THIS occasion  we didn't scoff all these macarons. These are macarons - though some still call them macaroons. No comparison to the coconut variety ! Some were gifted to some very lovely people we met last week at the NEC Spring Fair.

Our stand was directly opposite Alan Silverwood Ltd - they have produced the new range of bakeware for DELIA SMITH and very nice it is too ! All UK manufactured and available from independant retailers from this month.

Delia Smith was doing demonstrations in the cookery live theatre and Kathryn was brave enough to ask her to sign the hard back copy of my blog book (2012 recipes). A little confusing though as it's now 2013 ! Bless her.... exciting time for both Silverwoods and Delia at the moment and we wish them both lots of success.

We took lots and lots of stuff with us - but unfortunately there was not enough space to take everything !

Our range of large number silicone birthday cake moulds are proving very popular and we are looking forward to launching many new product lines in the next couple of weeks  - including our new registered design chocolate tractors mould

Sarah-Jane Nash - SiliconeMoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialists

Matcha Green Tea Macarons & Double Sided Macaroon Mat

I love making macarons. If I'm honest, I like making them more than I like eating them (though they are yummy too !) Some people still call these macaroons - but macaroons are very different (though just as tasty) and made from dessicated coconut.

I adore the pretty colours and being able to make them all so uniform and perfect in size and shape. It's so satisfying when things go right to pull two trays of perfect macarons from the oven. Baking on our Revolutionary Double Sided Macaron Mat means you can make every macaron identical in size.

Sometimes it may take you a few attempts to get the hang of baking macarons. The key is making sure that the batter (macaronage) is neither under or over mixed.

You'll find my Youtube video tutorial on making Macarons here.

Recipe (makes 75 x 2" dia shells = 37 macarons)

180g ground almonds

200g icing sugar / powdered sugar

2 tsp Matcha green tea powder

180g egg whites (split into two batches)

200g caster sugar

Preheat your oven to 150deg C fan.

Grind the ground almonds and icing sugar together until very very fine.

Add these to a large bowl with the matcha powder and 90g of egg whites. Mix to form a thick, smooth paste.

Put the caster sugar in a pan with 80ml of water and boil to 118deg C without stirring. When temperature hits 110 deg C, start whisking the egg whites to firm peak.

Slowly pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites, whipping constantly. Continue to whip until thick and shiny and cooled - but a little warm.

Fold the whipped egg whites / sugar mix into the paste making sure not to leave any streaky traces of paste mix of white meringue. It's ready when a ribbon trail of the macaronage starts to disappear into the rest of the mix within about 20 seconds.

Pipe on to your double sided macaron mat to within about 5mm of the ring of each cell. Please refer to my video tutorial in the link above if you need to see how to do this. The macaronage will relax to fill each cell.

Rap the tray on the worktop a couple of times to help release air bubbles.

Put trays in the oven and bake for 5 mins with the door open. Shut the door and bake for a further 20mins.

Allow to cool thoroughly before removing from the mats.

Fill with white chocolate ganache or vanilla buttercream.

To make white chocolate ganache, use 3 : 1 ratio of melted white chocolate and scalded double cream. Allow to cool until thickened but pipe-able or spreadable.

Here is Oliver in the office with Spencer bear and a macaron. 

Spencer is the bear from nursery, and Oliver was lucky enough to be chosen to bring Spencer home and look after him for the weekend.

Oliver was very proud to bring Spencer home. Daddy and Oliver showed Spencer how to light our stove and make the house lovely and cosy.

Unfortunately Spencer had a little accident and got sopping wet when Oliver dropped him in a great big puddle. He had to spend a few hours on the fire guard drying out whilst Oliver and I took the motorbike (powered by feet) that he got for his birthday out for a ride.....

As always, we stopped off to see Bess the dog just down the road. She's such a sweetie. Even she seemed puzzled by why Oliver was still partially dressed as a pirate !

Typically - EVERY puddle was for splashing in. This kid was SOAKED more than Spencer by the time he got home....

Reflecting on Raspberry Macarons.....

This batch of raspberry macarons surprised me. They didn't behave the way I thought they would...

I've read so many times in various books that fruit juice can only be incorporated into macaron shells if in powdered form. I once decided to try making the syrup with apple juice rather than water. My batch was a flop ... cakey type shells that were very very cracked and distorted. I only ever had that one go to incorporate fruit juice and then gave up.

More recently, I actually found fruit juice powder (freeze dried raspberry, mango and pomegranate) and thought I'd have a go incorporating it into macaron shells.

Well..... I used a 1/4 cup / 60ml dry measure of the raspberry powder and incorporated this into my macaronage. The mixture had a lovely pale pink hue. I guessed if I baked it at a lower temperature than normal, I should be able to preserve the beautiful pale pink colour without the need for food colouring.

I GUESSED WRONG.

On opening the oven door, all I could do was STARE. The shiny smooth shells in front of me were not at all as I had imaged .... They'd turned out a caramel / toffee colour !!! 

Had I baked chocolate macarons or toffee .... or coffee - I'd have been as happy as a pig in mud BUT raspberry macarons just don't look right that colour !

Don't get me wrong, they smelled like raspberry and tasted like raspberry, they just didn't look raspberry. My attempts at salvation were in decoration. A (new) artists brush dipped in a little gel paste colouring with a couple of drops of alcohol allowed me to brush a pretty pattern on the tops and I filled the centres with some buttercream with added powdered raspberry juice. I don't know. They tasted good - but the macaron purist in me says they still aren't raspberry. I'll let you decide. The recipe is below.

200g ground almonds

200g icing sugar

2 x 90g egg whites

60g raspberry juice powder 

200g caster sugar

80g water

Blitz the ground almonds and icing sugar together until a very fine power. 

Put the ground almonds, icing sugar, raspberry powder and one lot of egg whites in a bowl. Mix to combine.

Boil the caster sugar and water until a temperature of 110deg C is reached. At this point, start whipping the whites to stiff peak. At 118deg C, remove the syrup from the heat. Slowly add it to the second batch of egg whites whilst beating at high speed.

When cooled, add to the sugar / almond / raspberry juice paste mix and fold in.

Pipe on to a Revolutionary Double Sided Macaron Mat. This volume did 50 of the large shells (25 large 2" / 50mm ) macarons and about 20 or so on the small side. Bake at 160deg C with the door open for 5 minutes, then a further 20mins with the door closed.

Wait until fully cooled before removing from mat. Fill with normal buttercream, with raspberry juice powder added to taste.

For full instructions on making macarons, see my YOUTUBE TUTORIAL

These photos were simply taken on a mirror in the garden, so the blue background is the sky.

Sarah-Jane Nash., June 2010 - www.siliconemoulds.com 

Salted Caramel Macarons

Oh my goodness. These macarons were to die for. 

I made these for my husband to take as part of the refreshments for a training day for 4x4 response people after a navigational challenge. I think they were all in need of a hot cup of coffee and a sugar rush when they arrived - it was a seriously miserable wet day.

I only had one. I was almost vexed to give these macarons away. They tasted so, so good !

RECIPE

200g icing sugar

180g ground almonds

180g egg whites (split into 2 batches)

1 tablespoon black treacle

1 tablespoon Camp Coffee 

80ml water

200g caster sugar

Finely grind the almonds and icing sugar together until it no longer feels gritty when rubbed between your fingers. Sift into a large bowl. Add one batch of egg whites, the treacle and camp coffee. Stir to combine into a thick paste.

Put the caster sugar and water into a pan and boil until the syrup reaches 110deg C.

At this point, whip remaining egg whites to firm peak.

Remove sugar syrup from heat when it reaches 118 > 120deg C. Pour this in a slow stream onto the egg whites whilst whisking constantly. You will need a hand or stand mixer for this. I prefer to use my hand mixer when making macarons. Whisk until thick and shiny and fairly cool.

Fold into the paste with a spatula until a ribbon of mixture fades into the surface within about 30 seconds.

http://siliconemoulds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/wild-blueberry-lemon-macarons-with.html

Pipe on to on of our revolutionary double sided silicone macaron mats. We now also have these mats in bright red and they should be on the website next week.

You want to leave about 5mm space around the macaronage on the mat as you pipe. Once it's sat and relaxed for a little while, it will spread.

Normally, when making macarons you need to add a lot of food colouring to retain a good coloured shell. By that I do mean a seriously hefty amount of food colouring. You will find however that the macaronage here will look very pale as you pipe it out. Once in the oven, the camp coffee and black treacle seemed to work some kind of magic and the shells came out a glorious caramel colour.

I sprinkled the tops with a few Maldon Sea Salt Flakes prior to baking.

Put in a preheated fan oven at 160deg C for 5 mins with the door open, then close the door and bake for another 18 > 20 minutes until done.

I've no idea what happened to the 3 or 4 shells on the top tray at the back left hand corner. These cracked - and I haven't had a macaron shell crack in months !

For the filling, I made some vanilla buttercream. Replacing the milk in the buttercream with double cream gave it a very smooth and somewhat lighter texture than normal buttercream despite adding a few more calories. 

Seriously. If you are going to make these, don't think about calories. You'll have nightmares.... They may be small, but calorie content has to be worse than you could imagine.

Allow the shells to totally cool before removing from the mat. This takes longer than you might think !

For the salted caramel filling :

400g of extra thick double cream

250g golden syrup

add sea salt flakes (such as Maldon) to taste

This will make about double the required caramel you need - but it will store in a covered container in the fridge easily for a couple of weeks (if you can leave it alone!)

Put in a pan and boil together until coating the back of a spoon quite well. Takes about 10 minutes and will thicken more when cooled.

If when cooled it is too runny, pop back in the pan and boil a little longer.

The vanilla buttercream was totally made by eye. 

Combine about 100g of softened butter with powdered icing sugar, 1tsp vanilla extract and a little double cream and beat until you have a thick, fairly stiff buttercream. You only want to make about 1 > 1.1/2 cups finished amount.

Pipe a ring of buttercream on to one macaron shell. Add about 3/4 of a teaspoon of the caramel in the centre. and then sandwich the two together.

The purpose of doing this is to retain the caramel in the middle. I like a decent amount of filling in macarons. You won't keep much caramel in the macaron without the buttercream retaining walls as the caramel will loosen at room temperature, whereas the buttercream will gain a hardened surface on the exterior and stay creamy and smooth inside.

These will keep 1 to 2 days and the recipe makes 25 macarons (50 shells) of 50mm / 2" diameter.

I also made two dozen of Oliver's favourite chocolate cupcakes (see blog for pirate cupcakes) - each with 1/2 and Oreo on top. I hope everyone was suitably refreshed !

One cupcake didn't make it that far.....

Coconut Macaroons (NOT Macarons !) - The Cookie Type

Not to be confused with Macarons....

Both are truly delightful - but in very different ways.

Macaroons are kind of coconut heaps. Crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. Rustic looking Childs play to make. Make these and I promise you, they'll stay in your recipe book forever and ever and ever.

Macarons are made with ground almonds and are a meringue like shell which is crisp on the outside, but chewy when you bite in. Typically filled with some kind of buttercream or ganache. Known for being pretty, petite, daunting to make and easy to ruin - and often really bright colours. Actually - they aren't that bad ! I've got loads of recipes on this blog.

Recipe

225 > 250g dessicated coconut

175g caster sugar

2 large egg whites

75g milk chocolate

75g plain chocolate

zest of 1/2 a lemon, finely grated

Whip the egg whites with the sugar to combine. They won't fluff up - but will look a bit foamy.

Combine the 200g of dessicated coconut. Add enough to combine with the egg whites until it looks dry and holds together when you squish it in your hands. I needed 240g this time.

Form into semi-flattened balls. This batch made nine macaroons.

Bake in a fan oven at appxo 160deg C (180deg C for normal ovens ) for 10 > 12 minutes until golden. Allow to cool.

Once cool, remove from the silicone sheet.

Melt the milk and plain chocolates together. I use half and half as good plain chocolate is too bitter for my taste, but milk can make them a bit overly sweet.

Dip the bases in the chocolate and leave them sat upside down until the chocolate hardens. Drizzle or pipe some more chocolate over the top and if desired top with a glace cherry.

These keep well in an air tight container for several days.

It's been a busy couple of months and I'm very behind in blogging. Ironically, I'm blogging my new stuff just done before the other things I've photographed and not shown you yet - so things may get a little out of season shortly !

Here is Oliver 15/4/12 with his new training bike.

No pedals - it's to promote balance and no need for stabilisers. He was whizzing around on it with his feet off the floor inside a few minutes. Despite the sunshine, it was bitterly cold and a very windy day !

Chocolate and Coconut Macarons

Well - it's been a while since I blogged about macarons, and since I've got so many photos and recipes backlogged, it's about time I do.

I made these around mid / end of February and they were a huge hit. One of my favourite flavours to date (along with the blueberry and lemon ones). The coconut filling really packs a punch.

I baked them on the double sided macaron mat and this produced one sheet of large shells (50mm diameter) and one sheet of small cells (30mm diameter).

 More recipes for macarons can also be found on my blog via the drop down menu.

180g icing / powdered sugar

180g ground almonds

40g cocoa powder

180g of egg whites (split into two batches of 90g)

80ml water

200g of caster sugar

For full written instructions for method, see this previous blog post.

Alternatively, see this blog post for video tutorial

Coconut filling :

40g desicated coconut

50ml milk

30ml Malibu (coconut rum)

300g icing sugar

75g butter

Add the Malibu to the coconut and leave to sit for an hour or so.

Make buttercream filling in the normal fashion. Add all the ingredients together and beat for about 5 minutes until smooth and fluffy.

This produced plenty to fill all the macarons and a little left over.

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com

Revolutionising Macarons - My Exciting New Secret !

Lemon macarons with lemony white chocolate ganache filling

I've been itching to share news on this for a while.... and I guarantee it will be new to all of you.

Macarons are the most wonderful little almondy meringue cookies with a chewy centre - often recognised in leading patisseries for their little ruffled feet and being displayed in a wide range of often lurid colours. They are notorious for being hard to make (which actually is not true). Macaroons on the other hand are normally little coconut cookie moulds.... which I really must get round to making again soon.

The real problems in making macarons lie in the mixing - mixing too much, not mixing long enough and also in the baking times. I was very lucky and my first ever batch turned out really well. Since then, I've had many successes and a few failed batches which have taught me valuable lessons in baking macarons along the way. 

One thing that really irritated me was the fact that I did not have enough oven space to bake an entire batch of macarons at one time. My big bug bear was getting them all exactly the same diameter. The OCD in me (obsessive compulsive disorder) was finding a way to get ALL my macarons exactly the same size !

The accepted way for pastry chefs to do this is by drawing circles out on a piece of baking paper, turning it over and then piping on the reverse. You need to leave about 2" / 50mm between the macarons as once the mix is piped it will spread. It's a darn good idea and most macarons will be near enough the same size once you get the hang of it. However, me being me, I had my digital calipers out measuring every macaron to make sure they were absolutely the same size to within quarter of a mm before pairing them together.

I found that the perfect size for macarons (in my opinion) is 50mm..... but I also like teeny weeny ones too !

Don't worry - I'll share my various macaron recipes very soon.

NOW - WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SEE IS A NEW DESIGN CONCEPT. 

 (This product is patented to us and these will be available for sale from early next month.) At the moment, I have the only two in existence and have been using them LOTS with superb results every time.

Dr Tim Kinnaird of Macarons and More has kindly assisted me in initial testings before product development. He'll be getting the very first one available as soon as they arrive, and we'll be launching them at the SPRING FAIR trade show at the NEC in Birmingham next month.

I've designed a DOUBLE SIDED MACARON MAT. The mat is 300mm x 300mm and fits on a standard cookie sheet. Cookie sheets are widely available from all baking shops and most supermarkets at a low price - generally around £2.99 in the UK. If you want to splash out, I can personally recommend the slightly bigger (about 14" square) Bakingenius vegetable roasting tray from Lakeland (as shown below) which is far more robust.

This is what it looks like on a baking tray. What you do is pipe your macaronage (macaron batter) into the centre of each cell until about 3/4 full (leaving a gap of about 5mm right round the mix).  The cells have a very tiny marked rim. As the macaronage spreads after piping, it should just get to the edges of each cell and give your macaron a perfect shape and size. It does take a batch or two practise piping and get it perfect every time.

This is what they looked like piped. The little ringed cells mean you can pipe more macarons on one baking sheet. On top of that, it's reusable too !

The large side makes 25 x 50mm / 2" macaron shells. See the picture below for a close up view, before they go in the oven. 

THIS IS THE VERY FIRST BATCH OF MACARONS I MADE ON OUR NEW PROTOTYPE MAT !

Here is what they look like baked - ok - a couple of slightly wonky ones, but it WAS my first attempt !

These ones were peppermint and I filled them with white chocolate ganache

I so wanted to share these photos and this recipe at Christmas - but I've had to wait. It's impossible to explain how hard it's been to keep a secret !

As if that is not enough, don't forget, our mats are double sided.

YES ! Flip it over, and you can use the other side to make little mini macs.

The other side lets you make SIXTY FOUR mini macaron shells ! This picture shows the mat on a 12" square cookie sheet.

I've found that one batch of macaron mix lets me make two sheets worth of macarons. Even better - make two batches and flip your sheets over to use the other side too before you bother washing up.

This is what 64 mini shells look like.... almost the same size as a two pence piece.

These were chocolate with dark chocolate orange ganache filling. Oh - and if you spotted an EDIBLE GIFT TAG..... you might have a clue at what else is coming very soon !

The double sided macaron mats will also be available in double size - ie 600 x 300mm (50 shell one side, 128 shell on the other) to suit larger commercial ovens.

All comments and shares are very welcome. I'm really excited about my new product design and will be giving a few away on arrival to some bloggers for product testing and reviews.

Happy Baking !

Sarah-Jane Nash, January 2012