Chocolate & Nutella Cream Macarons

What do you do with 400g of egg whites leftover from making ice cream and custards? Make meringue, of course, you’d think. Except that meringue on its own isn’t all that exciting. I guess it was time to make macarons again!

It’d been 4 months since I made my last batch of macarons and I was definitely worried that I’d lost my “macaron mojo” (to quote Veron, who incidentally makes lovely french meringue macarons). I decided to go with that same method since the egg whites had already been sitting covered in the fridge for quite some time. I figured that could only help since french meringue macarons usually calls for 1 - 2 day old egg whites.

I was a little apprehensive, since my french meringue macaron batter tends to end up on the fluid side and I’d chuck the entire batch without even piping the batter. I braced myself for failure.

This time, however, the 1st batch of cocoa batter turned out perfect! The shells looked just like Helen’s beautifully tall french meringue macarons! The best part was not seeing a single air pocket in sight, a phenomenon that I’d encountered frequently with italian meringue. I did think they were slightly chewier than the italian meringue ones, but filled them and left them overnight in the fridge.

I took a bite the day and fell completely in love. The macarons were possibly the best that I’d ever made: thin crisp shell with an unbelievably soft and moist interior as well as beautifully high feet. Sis, however, preferred the harder shells of macarons made with the sucre cuit method.

The bad news: I haven’t been able to achieve the same results with plain or coloured batter; the shells were flatter, the feet were smaller and the taste was sweeter. I’m not sure if it was because I’d used fresher eggs for those, if I’d left the shells to dry too long, if the meringue didn’t like the rainy weather, or a combination of everything. I see more macaron experiments round the corner!

Mini Lemon Curd Meringue Tarts

Another way I like to use meringue is in combination with a lemon tart. The last time I’d made these, the tarts were much larger and the crust was less than ideal. This time I went with proper crusts but in a mini pop-in-your-mouth size.

Imagine a burst of lemon, crunchy bits of crust and silky soft meringue all in one mouth full. Just thinking about it makes me want to whip up another batch right away! The most encouraging part: even mum, who’s not a big on desserts and sweets, thought these were good.

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my tardiness in replying emails the past few weeks. There’s been a sudden influx of requests and enquiries and I haven’t had the chance to sort through all my emails. Please bear with me for the moment!

This post is about another batch of macarons (and a local dessert). The common theme here is the colour purple (or lavender, if you like).

Flavour #4: Lavender macarons with honey vanilla buttercream. I’ve seen lavender used in macarons on several blogs, but haven’t tried it out myself. I wasn’t too sure about this flavour since lavender isn’t commonly used in food around these parts.

The macaron shells gave off a lovely floral scent and I loved the honey vanilla buttercream. But I was definitely too generous with the lavender flowers. Don’t get me wrong; I loved the scent, but once I’d bitten into the macaron, I found the taste too floral. Don’t be fooled by those pretty, tiny lavender buds; they pact a powerful punch flavour-wise. If I ever make these again, I’d definitely be more conservative.

Flavour #5: Violette macarons with cassis buttercream. I was more than happy to finally have an excuse to splurge on some Sevarome natural violette paste, although I wonder if I’ll ever be able to finish the entire 1kg tub. The cassis buttercream, made with pure blackcurrant purée, was wonderfully tart and completely delicious with the violette flavoured macaron shells. This flavour is a definite keeper!

Flavour #6: Ubi (yam) macarons with ubi paste. This flavour was first suggested by one of my students, Maggie. Thank you so much for the idea, Maggie! I hope your macaron adventure is going well.

This flavour is, without any doubt, my favourite of the lot. The yam paste filling was wonderfully fragrant and smooth. But it does have its “issues”.

First, there’s the extra step of preparing the yam paste. This same yam paste turned the macarons shells soft after a day. The filling is also a lot heavier than buttercream and one runs the risk of the delicate shells collapsing under the weight of the filling if they aren’t consumed within a day of being filled.

Still, I find these macarons irresistable and will certainly be making them again. Besides, I have another excusereason for making ubi macarons. I could never use up an entire yam for the macaron filling, which leads me to the perfect solution for all that leftover root: “or-ni” (dialect pronunciation) or yu4 ni2, 蓣 泥!

“Or-ni” is a local Teochew yam paste dessert. It’s made with yam, sugar and oil. The original version of this dessert is served with gingko nuts, pumpkin slices and sugar syrup, although I’ve also seen the paste served with creamy coconut milk.

The raw yam is first steamed and mashed up. It is then combined with sugar, cooked with oil in a wok or large pan until all the ingredients are well combined. By this time, the paste is completely smooth and no longer sticky. The yam paste is then steamed together with pumpkin slices and gingko nuts. Lastly, sugar syrup (boiled optionally with crushed water chestnuts) is poured generously over the paste and served hot. It’s definitely one of my favourite local desserts!

It’s been more than a month since I last made a batch of macarons. The grand macaron recipe revision plan is NOT going according to schedule. Progress is exceedingly slow; yesterday was only revision attempt #1. Verdict for attempt #1: improving these tough cookies (pun intended!) are going to take a lot more work than I thought!

On the bright side, I finally got to try a few macaron flavours that have been on my to-do list for some time now. The common element these flavours have is fruit ganache. The basic idea in fruit ganache is to replace some of the cream that goes into making a ganache with either fruit juice or fruit puree. The tricky part is getting the right ratios so that the ganache will still set and not be too soft.

Flavour #1: Chocolate macaron shells sandwiched with yuzu dark chocolate ganache. Since fresh yuzu is unavailable this time of the year, I went with bottled yuzu. I loved the citrus overtones and the slightly bitter taste of the yuzu peel in the ganache. Just for fun, I topped the macarons with homemade candied orange peels. I was more than happy to finally make use of the citrus peels that I’d bottled more than 6 months ago!

Flavour #2: Passion fruit macaron shells with passion fruit milk chocolate ganache. I’ve longed to try this combination since reading about it on several blogs more than a year ago. After eating Pierre Herme’s Tarte Mogador and milk chocolate & passion fruit macaron at Mezza9 last Friday, I knew I HAD to try this flavour combination at home.

I’d already bought a couple of passion fruits at the local market 4 days earlier with the intent to juice them and make the ganache right away. Except that I had absolutely no idea how to tell if the fruits were ripe. I’d picked darker ones with smooth skins over a pre-packaged bunch with deeply wrinkled skin. When I got home, I did a quick search online and found that if I wanted ripe ones that I could use right away, I should have bought the old and wrinkley looking ones!

When the fruits were finally ripe, I strained the yellow pulp. I was surprised by how a small amount of juice could impart such a deep passion fruit flavour. This ganache is definitely my favourite out of the three!

Flavour #3: Peanut macaron shells sandwiched with banana dark chocolate ganache and a peanut butter centre.

This flavour was made on a whim, inspired by a dessert created by Amrita for her stint at House @ Dempsey. Her inspiration, in turn, comes from Elvis’ (yes, THAT Elvis) favourite dessert of peanut butter and banana sandwich. In my opinion, it’s a combination of flavours that’s completely American (think Reese’s peanut butter cups and banana muffins). I doubt I’ll make this flavour again, although I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the shot glass version that Amrita made!

Next up, purple macarons: lavender, violet and ubi! I do hope the shells turn out better …