HEAVENLY STRAWBERRY MACAROONS

The past days were filled with preparing the menu for an intimate dinner with 6 friends. Google has proven its worth with my constant search for easy to prepare menu. Being a non-culinary expert and an expert with anything processed food (from pancit-canton to canned goods), easy-to-prepare menu became a staple topic for research.

With less help from my “kusinera” friends – a three-course menu with five mixed concoctions were all set not until my niece asked for the dessert.  Tension suddenly broke out with less than three hours prior to the event. 

Good heavens must have heard my cry and showed me a post from facebook about Strawberry Macaroons.  It was a both a bliss and a discovery that the dinner ended with lots of plans for the Strawberry Macaroons. 

Photo from Facebook

Here is the recipe of this heavenly dessert.

Strawberry macaron
Ingredients for the macarons shells (around 30-40 macarons):

200 g dried almonds powder
200 g confectioners’ sugar (or ice sugar)
200 g sugar in powder
2 . 75 g eggwhites
50 ml water

Put the almonds and confectioners’ sugar together in the blender and mix. This «pasta» is called the tant pour tant (TPT) because there is as much as sugar as almonds powder. Reserve in a bowl.
In a pot pour 160 g of sugar in powder, add the water but do not mix. Bring to a temperature of 115°C.
Meanwhile beat the eggwhites (75 g) with the remaining sugar until stiff (the mix should be consistant but not too much, just avoid the beaten eggwhites form a beak)

Still beating the eggwhite, pour the boiling sugar. Mix until the temperature reaches down 40°C (or no temperature sensation on your finger). This process (2 to 4) is the so called meringue italienne.
At that moment add the remaining eggwhites (the unbeaten ones) to the TPT. Mix gently. Add a third of the meringue to make it more supple. Mix gently and add the rest of the meringue. Mix softly. The final TPT should be quite soft but not liquid (literally it has to do a ribbon)! a tip from tartelette : Test a small amount of pasta on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.

Fill a pastry bag with a piping nozzle of size 6 or 8 (diameter in mm). Pip small rounds onto parchment paper. Space the shells (coques) by 2 cm at least (as seen in the following picture). Let them sit out at least 15-20 mns

Meanwhile warm up the oven at 150°C.
After 15-20 mns, put the macarons in the oven for 12-15 mns, depending of the size (1 parchement paper at a time or the shells break). Let cool before removing.
Strawberry ganache

300 g of white chocolate
300 g strawberries

 
Slice finely the white chocolate and reserve in a bowl.
Wash and clean the strawberries. Put them in a pot and mix into a purée.
Over low heat cook the purée (makesure it does not boil!)
Sieve the purée over the chocolate and mix gently.

 
Refrigerate the strawberry ganache for at least 3 hours(it takes quite a time to get thick)
When it is cold and constant, fill a pastry bag with the ganache
Pipe the ganache on the center of the shell and top with another one (if you don’t put enough ganache the shells will dry!)

Keep the macarons in the fridge for a couple of hours

Photo from Google