Rudolf Macarons Ginger spice latte macs for Christmas

Awe look at poor Rudolf the red nosed mac, all of the other mac's used to laugh and call him names......but then I took them to a party and someone ate them all:)

That'll teach 'em to be bullies, or not I guess.

Anyway I know I'm not the first to make Rudolf Macarons because like I always do when I get an idea I did a google search, you know not in a stealing ideas way but more in a 'are there already a stack of these out there cause if there are I'm not gonna do it way'.

I did find some pretty ones with little chocolate button noses and pretzel antlers HERE, but I thought my idea for a mini macaron nose was cute and different enough it was worth sharing, plus I had already made up the little noses and it seemed a great opportunity to use up some of those DIY royal icing eyes I make up :)

Because these are so Christmassy I am going to pop them over in the Mac Tweets Mac Attach # 25 Seasons & Holidays challenge.

I think this will be my last Christmas food post this year unless I get totally inspired by something that I MUST make.

and I know it's not cool to brag but I'm going to anyway - Although I do not normally make large cakes I can and I was featured on one of the most lovely cake blogs around Half Baked:The Cake Blog with my 3D ruffled Christmas Cake as one of the 12 cakes of Christmas. I was thrilled as there were a bunch of world renowned cake artists along side my cake, so if you love cake awesomeness you might want to pop over and check out the yumminess.

Rudolf Macarons

If your not into making your own macarons you could just use shop bought ones and they would still be as cute.....perhaps. Also you might then prefer to use red chocolate buttons (like M&M's) in place of the mini mac's.

Filled Macarons (recipe below)
Pretzels cut it half
Mini Red Macarons unfilled
1/2 cup royal icing in a ziplock back with a small corner cut out
edible premade eyes (make your own with left over royal icing see how HERE)
edible black pen - I prefer the americolor ones

Using a small amount of royal icing adhere the small red macaron 'nose' to the top of each macaron, then adhere the edible eyes. Push the half pretzels into the filling so it appears they stick out of the top to look like antlers.

Use the edible pen to draw on a mouth.

Alternatively you could ditch the premade eyes and just use the white royal icing to pipe a couple of circles for the eyes and then use the edible pen to draw on black pupils.

Macaron Shells makes around 20 filled macarons


190 gram (6 5/8 oz)almond meal (almond flour)
190 gram pure icing sugar (6 5/8 oz powdered sugar)
190 gram granulated sugar (6 5/8 oz)
48 grams water (1 5/8 oz)
140 gram egg whites aged split into 2 lots of 70grams each (5 oz split into 2 lots of 2 1/2oz each)*
brown food colour
Red food colour

*ageing egg whites refers to separating the yolks from whites and then leaving the whites to age for a few days. This can be done on the counter if your countries climate permits or in the fridge, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and then pop a few holes in the top. Alternately you can pop the egg whites in the microwave on high for 10 seconds or so - I used the microwave method in this batch pictured.

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in.

2. Place remaining 70g (2 1/2 ounce) of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

Yup - I really use this super old fashioned thermometer I have had for about 20 years to make my macarons

3. Pop granulated sugar and water into saucepan stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118C (245 F). Brush down the sides with a pastry brush dipped in water as required to avoid the sugar crystallizing. Once the mixture reaches 115C (240 F) start mixing the egg whites on high. Make sure you have a pouring shield on your mixer, when the sugar syrup reaches 118C (245 F)remove from heat and immediately pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on high.

4. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch, around 50C (120 F).
.

5. Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms a ribbon that disappears back into the mixture after about 30 seconds.

I don't use a piping tip - I just cut the end off the piping bag for macarons

6. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip (or just cut the end of a disposable piping bag) and pipe in lines onto parchment lined baking sheets. To make the macarons as even as possible I apply a constant slow pressure to the piping bag and count a few numbers like up to 3 for each one.

Waiting to form skins after piping

7. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin so that the macaron mixtture does not stick to your finger when gently touched.

Baking in the oven. The macarons will rise after a few minutes in the oven and develop a frilly foot

8. Meanwhile preheat oven to 140C (285 F). Once ready bake the macaroons for around 13 to 15 minutes depending on size, they should not be browned. Remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the parchment onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

9. Once cooled match disks into like sizes and sandwich together using the ganache.

#For Rudolf macarons you will need to split out a small amount of mixture just after it is combined, leave it to the side until you have finished piping the brown macarons and then color the small amount of mixture bright red and mix until it is shiny and disappears back into into itself within 30 seconds. Put mixture into a piping bag and pipe out small round noses on another prepared baking tray.


Ginger Spice White Chocolate Ganache
The ration of chocolate to cream is quite high in this - it is full summer here where I live, you can increase the cream if you prefer a softer ganache or if it is very cold.

75g (2 5/8 oz) cream
300 gm (10 5/8 oz) white chocolate
1 Tbsp ground ginger (1 US tablespoon + 1tsp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3tsp instant coffee
pink food colouring - I used Wilton gel colours

Bring cream to boil, remove a few tablespoons to a small bowl and mix in the instant coffee until dissolved pour the coffee mixture and the remaining hot cream over finely chopped white chocolate and stand 5 mins. Stir until all chocolate has melted and mixture is glossy mix in ginger and cinnamon. Allow to set overnight at room temperature of chill in fridge until just set.

I have provided a recipe for ginger spiced latte ganache above. In the pictures I have mixed the ganache with about 3/4 cup of Italian Meringue Buttercream to make it a bit fluffier for the piping and used a Wilton #22 tip. But you can just use the ganache as is and they taste great. The Italian Meringue Butter cream recipe is from The Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook which I have previously recommended HERE

Finally if you are looking for something fun to do with the kids this year over the Christmas Holidays check out my cookbook which is a US release and aimed at getting the kids in the kitchen with you and having fun baking up a storm with easy kid friendly recipes.....it's available at most online stores including these ones.

Amazon,


Or the book depository (Click HERE)

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Blue and Red Bird Macarons for MacAttack #22

 I've been missing from the Mac Tweets monthly challenge for a while and I've been missing it. This months challenge #22 was to Kick it Up and create a macaron with alcohol.  So before you get all excited, I didn't do that, but I did stick with the theme and I made some Blue Bird Cocktail inspired macarons. I must admit it was more of finding a cocktail to fit my macarons, as I have had this idea for a while, but once I saw the picture on google images of this pretty cocktail I knew I had found the inspiration.

 

My macarons are my normal recipe coloured red and light blue with Wilton Gels and then decorated with a fondant bird made using a PME robin cutter. The filling is whoopie pie (marshmallow fluff, icing sugar and crisco). This filling looked pretty but not really the best I think for a macaron as the filling is a touch to sweet. I really used it as I had it left over. I normally make up a mix of ganache and Italian Meringue Buttercream which looks just as light and pretty and tastes dreamy and if you wanted to add a dash of liquor it would be a perfect match.



Thanks to everyone over at MacTweets I love looking at all the creations and look forward to seeing all the fun macarons you will come up with this month.

Oh and have you heard......I have a cookbook coming out in December, it's only $12AUD including postage from book depository (also available from Amazon See the tab at the top of the blog for the link to my book). It's a US release by Adams Media and is called Sweets on A Stick and is pretty much what the title states but it's all kid friendly recipes you can make with your little ones. How fun is that!

Here is a link to The Book Depository:

Sweets on a Stick

Orange and Poppy Seed Macarons for MacTweets

The MacTweets challenge #17 for March 2011 was Sugar & Spice and Everything….Fruity… with a requirement to make sure the macarons incorporate both a spice and a fruit, at least one of each.

I have to admit I nearly didn't make this challenge, I have been a bit busy and although I had quite a few great ideas I just wasn't feeling spicy this month.
Then I noticed poppy seeds in the spice section of the supermarket and I was inspired.

Poppy seed macarons filled with an orange curd based buttercream, just the perfect thing for a refreshing afternoon pick me up.
 

I'm sure the rest of the MacTweets crowd will have a great bunch of macarons in the end of month line up, looking forward to seeing what they come up with on this one.

Recipe after the jump.

Conversation Heart macarons for Valentines

The MacTweets challenge #16 for February 2011 was dedicated to Valentines Day. In their words 'Nothing says I Love You like a sweet little something, the size of a kiss, the flavor of your wildest desire, the macaron'.

I'm nothing if not literal, so I baked up a batch of macarons and using an edible writing pen in red I drew on some conversation hearts.

Yes my sweet kiss size macarons actually say 'I love you'.... and 'kiss me' and my all time favourite 'True Love'.


I think they would look great in different pastel colours, and if you wanted really neat looking uniform decorations you could cut out a fondant heart, stick it onto the macaron and write or stamp the words on the fondant.


My macarons were made using my regular recipe and filled with white chocolate ganache and for the pink raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream blended with white chocolate ganache (ratio 3 cups buttercream to 1 cup ganache).


Macaron recipe - click here
Italian Meringue Buttercream from the Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook which is one of my all time favourite cook books for baking.


Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-make Cakes That Taste as Good as They Look

Due to the super humid and hot weather here in Brisbane at the moment the white chocolate ganache is a 4:1 ratio of white chocolate to cream. Eg 200g white chocolate to 50g cream melted together carefully and allowed to set in the fridge to a piping consistency.



I'm sure all the wonderful Mac Tweeters will be coming up with some lovely macarons for the February Challenge check back at the end of the month to see all the mac-yumminess.

Australia Day Lamington Macarons - MacTweets #15 MacInspirational

The challenge for January MacTweets #15 was to incorporate a favourite dessert into a macaron and I decided to go with the lamington.

So I'm going to come clean with you all right from the start, Lamington's are not my favourite dessert, in fact I don't really like them much at all.

But the thought of them as a macaron intrigued me, not long ago I made hazelnut macarons and filled a few with jam and they were honestly some of the best macarons I have ever made.

Plus it's coming up to Australia Day soon and I thought it would be nice to have a patriotic theme to my challenge.

So I made up a batch of chocolate macarons using this recipe (click here for recipe) and sprinkled some coconut onto them straight away, before the rest period and then filled the cooked and cooled macarons with raspberry jam.

They were nice, chocolate and coconut combined with the jam to make a sweet treat perfect for afternoon tea with a nice cup of tea.  Kinda like a lamington I guess.
I styled this picture with an Old Country Roses cup, I was going for a CWA (Country Women's Association) look and I'm not being disrespectful at all - I own this tea set and most of the CWA could bake me under the table : )

So lamington MacIspired macarons - check......

Next I filled the rest of the chocolate macarons, the ones I didn't pop coconut on with a white chocolate coffee buttercream. They were dreamy and creamy with a pretty piped center. I haven't included the recipe here as it is a work in progress (translation - means I mixed together stuff on the spot and didn't write down the exact measurements for you sorry), but it was based on Italian Meringue Buttercream from the Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook.

Mmmmmm MacDreamy

Checkout MacTweets round up later in the month to see what everyone else came up with.

Hazelnut macaron with white chocolate chai ganache Mactweets 13

MacTweets Challenge # 13 is Falling in Love with Macarons, fall being the key word here.

Living in Sub Tropical Queensland a couple of months into spring I struggled a bit in deciding on a fall themed macaron. Nothing really jumped out at me, I toyed with the idea of a pumpkin filling but noticed a few of the other MacTweeters had already taken on that challenge.Nuts......



No, really, then I thought nuts...hazelnuts I would make a noisette macaron.

I searched around the blogiverse for a recipe but nothing jumped out at me so I decided to modify the recipe I already use. It felt a bit risky, but that's the kinda girl I am.....throwing caution to the winds I replaced some of the almond meal with toasted hazelnut meal.

How cute is this stand I bought from Sharnel Dollar Designs

and I LOVED them, more than almond macarons.

The fragrance of the hazelnuts as they toasted filled my house with a wonderful warmth and the finished macaron seemed a little heartier and less sweet.

I filled most of them with a white chai tea infused ganache which had a lovely taste but was a little bit too soft (I've modified the recipe a little to add more chocolate in the below recipe). The remainder I filled with a raspberry jam mix (just IXL shop bought) and those raspberry jam ones were the BEST.

I'm sorry I keep on using capitals but I'm a bit overexcited with these new macarons I came up with, I'm sure you'll love them too. Recipe after jump.....

Pink Ribbon Chocolate Dipped Macaron Pops for Pinktober

This month for Pinktober the online macaron group mac attack decided to do Pinkarons, which I have to say wasn't much of a challenge for me because I'm such a girly girl I make pink macarons at least once a month.

In Australia, the National Breast Cancer Foundation symbol is a pink ribbon, and women across the nation are having "A Girls Night In".

So instead of cheating and using pics I already had, I decided to create a macaron that would be perfect for a girls night in swish soiree with your family and friends.

Pink Ribbon white chocolate dipped macarons on a pop.

Didn't wait long enough before taking this bit, the choc was not quite set but it was oh so delicious

I've been a naughty blogger lately and haven't been taking many pictures of the process so I'll just have to give you some steps.

1. Make your macarons - this is my favorite recipe: Pink Macarons

2. Make your ganache  the recipe is included in the above link for macarons.


3. At the filling stage pop in a Wilton 6" lollipop stick or some other food safe type pop/stick

4. Stick in fridge to set

5. Make pink ribbons by rolling out fondant with a small rolling pin and cutting thin strips with a clean pizza cutter, you can use a knife if you like but the pizza cutter is super easy and leaves as mooth edge. Shape into ribbons.

6. Melt white chocolate with a little copha (copha is a white hard vegetable shortening, like crisco but harder you could substitute a little less crisco), around 15g copha to 120g chocolate or so.

7. Carefully dip macaron pops into chocolate.

8. Allow extra chocolate to drip off whilst holding upside down, shake a little, when you think all the excess has dripped off keep on waiting, there will be more.

9. Pop into styrofoam or similar stand upright to allow to dry, just before the chocolate is set pop the fondant ribbon onto the front of the macaron pop.

If you like you can omit the pink fondant ribbon and just do a plain pop tied with a pink ribbon like these ones below.

Swish and Delish what more could you ask for?


Anyway I can't wait for later in the month for the full line up of the  Mac Attack #12 Pinkarons,


there have been some cute and funny posts so far, they're a fun baking bunch, yup Lora especially you.

Lemon Buttercream Macarons

This month’s Mac Attack challenge #11 was to bake a macaron inspired by a childhood summer memory.

I had a really happy childhood and stacks of fond memories, but I found they were either difficult to create (due to my inability to source mulberries at the moment), or already posted by other members and I was scratching my head when this came to mind.

My mother's jewelry box, filled with treasures I used to sneak in to look at and occasionally dare to try them on. Sometimes I would be allowed to legitimately try them on whilst sitting next to my mother on her bed, I used to feel so special.

Now I actually know that mum kept her real treasures elsewhere and the stuff in that box was costume jewelry, but I still remember that box and it's shiny baubles with a smile on my face.

My box here is filled with a different kind of treasure.

 

and while I was taking these photo's and piling the macarons in a tower I remembered that I also used to love playing with building blocks and lego so I made a couple of little towers

Oooops - after you get to three its a bit unstable.

My macarons were Lemon Buttercream and raspberry white chocolate.

One of the best parts of these Lemon Buttercream filled Macarons is that they used up 3 egg yolks - wahoo my house is always filled with egg yolk leftovers and any chance I get to use them makes me soooo happy.

Recipe follows.