So if you haven’t been able to tell I’m pretty much obsessed with macaron-making. Once I discovered that they are easy enough to make I have a hard time buying them. AND since summer is here I can use my egg whites for macarons and my egg yolks for ice cream. It’s truly a win-win situation if I do say so myself.
Passion fruit macarons are one of my faves so I figured it would be easy enough to recreate since passion fruit products are so easy to find. Or so I thought. I figured that between my usual grocery stops I could find either frozen passion fruit pulp, concentrate, or nectar. NOPE! I know the latino stores in Kensington Market would have it but I didn’t feel like venturing down there. Instead I settled for “passion fruit juice”. When it came time to make my frosting I tasted the juice and it was more sugar than passion fruit. I added some to my buttercream and it did not work at all. So I figured I’d try reducing the juice. Didn’t work either. At this point I had to do something so I headed out to my corner store and bought some overripe mangoes to turn my frosting into mango passion fruit buttercream. Crisis averted!
Oh! And I found a really quick and easy buttercream recipe that I will post below. Basically you make a roux and beat that into creamed butter and sugar. It turned out really creamy and smooth and you couldn’t even taste the flour!
For the macarons themselves I used the French technique once again so that I could avoid using a candy thermometer and dirtying more pans, bowls etc than necessary. This time for colouring I used gel food colouring. Most recipes say to use powdered food colouring but that is hard to find without trekking out to the boonies. I turned to my lovely baker friend Adjoa of prettysweet for advice and she said gel should work. And it totally I did! I used a few and achieved the desired colouring without having an effect on the properties of the meringue. Also note that the shells aren’t flavoured, just the filling.
I have to say, these macarons were the macarons that could not be killed. Some complain about their macarons never working out, mine work out even under crazy situations! After making 3 batches of macarons I was tired but had one more batch to go so I stuck them in the oven. Seeing as it was after midnight I inadvertently turned the oven off. I went back after 10 minutes and discovered the oven was off and that my macarons were barely good. I thought it would be a disaster but I figured why not turn the oven up and give the macarons a few more minutes in there. They came out perfectly! I thought I had totally ruined them but they were gorgeous.
The macarons turned out looking lovely but I found that that the flavour in the frosting dissipated after the second day. The flavour was more SWEET than mango which was not what I was going for. Next time I’ll look into other filling options instead of buttercream or maybe just upping the fruit content. What was also disappointing was that my shells tasted too much of confectioners sugar. I’m thinking next time I’ll make my own PURE confectioners sugar by blending some granulated sugar into a powder. We’ll see.
For recipes on making various macaron shells check out my previous posts here, here, and here!
Buttercream Frosting
Whisk together in a saucepan 5 Tbsp flour and a cup of milk. Cook over medium heat until starting to thicken and cook for a minute or two more– don’t let it get too thick or it will be too stiff when it cools. Turn into a flattish dish (like an old-fashioned soup plate) and let cool, stirring now and again. If the roux is lumpy when it cools, just press it through a fine sieve.
Beat together a cup of unsalted butter and a cup of granulated sugar until light (you really need an electric hand mixer or stand mixer for this). Beat in the cooled roux about two tablespoons at a time. As you beat and add the roux, the frosting turns creamy instead of grainy from the sugar. Add 1-2 tsp vanilla and beat some more until it’s light and creamy.
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{new blog entry} Mango Passion fruit Macarons http://goo.gl/fb/YTciD
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Delish! RT @wonTONfm: {new blog post} mango passion fruit macarons http://bit.ly/d9Qjfu
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I call NOT FAIR!! I need to have some lessons from you to see if I can learn the secrets of macarons that can’t fail!!! They’re beautiful!!
Those macarons look perfect!
My favourite color! Purple! RT @wonTONfm {new blog post} mango passion fruit macarons http://bit.ly/d9Qjfu
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Yum! I want one!! RT @wonTONfm {new blog post} mango passion fruit macarons http://bit.ly/d9Qjfu
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They look sooo beautiful, the colours are so vivid and lifelike… Almost a shame to eat them!.. This HAS given me a few ideas ‘though, ‘food for thought’ you might say.. 😉
Omgsh as soon as I saw the picture I wanted to try them. Lol they look delicious and I love the purple color. I don’t think I’ve ever had macaroons, so I might try and make those.