Vanilla Macarons with White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache

Home - finally - and not going anywhere for at least a few weeks now. Between personal travel and business travel, I feel like I have not been home in ages. Summer is my favorite season, and I like to spend as much of it at home as possible, enjoying the flowers and pleasant weather in my garden. May and June flew by in a whirlwind of travel and we will be away for all of August, leaving me with just the month of July to savor the season. Even July is feeling a bit rushed to me. 

For the fourth, A's college roommates are descending on our apartment for barbecue and booze. I do always love to entertain, but with the past weekend spent in Oregon, almost all of the preparation had to be squeezed in this week after work. Fortunately, excursions to Sam's, Whole Foods and Chelsea Market for provisions are complete and the cooking has started. With the blueberry pies done a few weeks ago, macarons were in order. Red velvet cupcakes prepared the day of will complete the dessert trio. 

Now that I am consistently turning out perfect shells, I view each batch of macarons as an opportunity to try out new ingredients and combinations. Early on, I decided to make some sort of strawberry macaron to keep with the theme of seasonal ingredients and red white and blue desserts. In the end, I opted for a vanilla bean shell with a white chocolate and strawberry ganache filling. In my head, I had hoped that the filling would be a deeper shade of red, but pink is close enough, right? 

I made enough macs so that A and I would have a few to sample before the party. I mean, we need to make sure they taste okay! In review, I would give them three out of four stars. The shells might have been the best tasting shells I have ever made - sweet like a fancy, yet delicate vanilla wafer. The filling was good but not great, as I felt that the strawberry flavor should have been a little stronger. To be fair, A loved them, and I know that I can be a little over-critical of my own cooking. If I make these again I think I might try to find a strawberry flavored liquor to add to the ganache. 

At a minimum, I am just relieved that most of it is done with a day or so still to spare. All that's left to make are the red velvet cupcakes... and I guess the rest of the meal, though I have left A in charge of all things savory. Burgers are the husband's job! Stay tuned for the full 4th of July update and my almost fool-proof recipe for red velvet cupcakes! 

Recipes...

White Chocolate Strawberry Ganache

310 grams white chocolate

150 mL cream

1/4 cup strawberry jam

Splash of almond extract

Chop the white chocolate into smallish pieces and place in a bowl. In a small saucepan, mix the cream and strawberry jam together over medium high heat. The cream and jam should blend completely and come to a boil. Add a splash of almond extract and allow it to boil for a few seconds, then pour it through a fine mesh sieve into the white chocolate. The sieve will strain out any strawberry solids from the jam. Use a wooden spoon to stir the cream mixture into the white chocolate until the mixture is completely smooth. Continue to stir slowly for a VERY long time... probably more than an hour! You need to keep stirring as the mixture gradually cools and thickens to a consistency where it can be piped. Once the mixture reaches room temperature, you can use the refrigerator to help it along, by chilling it for 5-7 minute increments and stirring it in between. I don't recommend putting it into the refrigerator when it is still warm as this can cause the ganache to set improperly. 

Once the ganache is thick enough to pipe (it holds it shape when you allow it to drop off the spatula), put it into a piping bag and fill your macarons!

Vanilla Bean Macarons

Adapted from Pierre Herme's basic recipe for macaron shells

yield: approximately 36 gerbet

150 grams almond meal

150 grams powdered sugar

87 grams egg white

10 grams vanilla extract

Seeds from one vanilla bean

250 grams powdered sugar

67 grams egg white

62 grams water

Follow the prep instructions here, and use vanilla extract instead of orange extract and add the vanilla bean seeds to the almond meal/powdered sugar mix before adding the egg white. 

I am a macaron master: Hazelnut, white chocolate and coffee macarons

I have finally mastered the macaron. Okay, so maybe I haven't exactly mastered it, but I am close enough that I can pretty much make a batch of decent cookies on demand, whenever I want. Music to A's ears... my phone call on Friday afternoon announcing that I would no longer need to make macarons every weekend. I had finally found the right recipe and honed my technique to the point that I can produce reliable macaron shells at any time. Other home bakers out there who have tried to make macarons will understand just what a triumph my success was. (This funny write-up describes the macaron obsession accurately.)

A few weeks ago, my Pierre Herme macaron cookbook arrived from France. After a few days studying and translating the recipes, I had decided that it was time to pull out the mixer and start separating some eggs. At first, I found his recipe a little intimidating due to its call for the use of a thermometer. All of my past attempts at macarons had involved the French method, while Herme recommends using the Italian method. The difference is that the French method involves whipping egg whites and sugar into a stiff meringue and then incorporating the dry ingredients. With the Italian method, it is necessary to prepare a hot sugar syrup that is then poured into the meringue to produce a stiff Italian meringue that almost has the texture of marshmallow.

The Italian method involves a few extra steps, but it yields much more reliable results. Perfectly smooth shells with fluffy feet and, most importantly, no air-pocket inside. Another bonus - overmixing is not as much of a problem as it is with the French method. In fact, in my trial and error, I found myself undermixing more often than overmixing. If the batter looks lumpy, keep mixing. If you see beaks forming on the tops of your shells as you pipe them out and those beaks refuse to sink into the shell after a few seconds, keep mixing.


You might ask after seeing the photos... why do they have a funny blueish-green tint? Honestly, I was so convinced that I would fail yet again, that I thought this would be a good time to play with food coloring. I added some blue dye just to see what would happen. Of course this would be the time that the batter cooperates, leaving me with beautiful, but oddly tinted cookies.

A little hazelnut garnish on top gives these a little something extra.



Here is the recipe I used, adapted from Macaron, by Pierre Herme:

Macaron Shells
yield: approximately 36 sandwiches or gerbet

60 grams hazelnuts
110 grams egg white, aged
300 grams powdered sugar
150 grams almond meal
37 grams water

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove hazelnuts from oven. Place nuts in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

Whisk the almond meal and 150 grams of the powdered sugar together in a small bowl. Add 55 grams of egg whites to the top of the mixture. DO NOT mix in the egg white. Set the mixture aside.

Mix 150 grams of powdered sugar and the water in a small sauce pan. Put 55 grams of egg white into the bowl of a mixture and begin whipping to create a stiff meringue. Begin heating the sugar/water mixture on medium high heat to create a simple syrup. When the syrup reaches approximately 245 degrees, remove it from the heat and slowly add it to the meringue by pouring the hot liquid down the side of the mixing bowl as the mixer is still running. Continue to beat until the mixture cools.

Fold the almond/sugar/egg white mixture into the meringue, using firm strokes at first to incorporate all of the dry ingredients. Continue to mix carefully until the mixture has the texture of cold honey. If you lift the batter up with the spatula, it should fall off slowly in thick ribbons.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag and pipe onto a parchment or silpat covered baking sheet. Sprinkle hazelnuts over the tops of the shells. Let the piped shells rest for approximately thirty minutes, or until they are dry to the touch. Bake in a pre-heated over at 345 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the shells show slight color.

Remove from the oven and let the shells cool for a few minutes, then slowly remove them from the parchment paper and move them to a rack to cool completely.

Coffee Ganache
200 grams white chocolate
200 grams heavy cream
10 grams coffee

Melt the white chocolate over a hot water bath. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the cream is boiling, add the coffee and remove the mixture from the heat. Cover and let steep for a few moments until the coffee has infused some flavor into the cream. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and mix into the melted white chocolate. Pour the chocolate mixture into a glass dish and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the surface of the chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate has a firm yet creamy texture.