Eat :: Raspberry Heart Valentine's Macarons

Happy Valentine's Day! Are you having a lovely day? Have you received something special? Well, here's my gift to you...some yummy, scrumptious raspberry heart macarons. They are delicious! Filled with a raspberry and white chocolate ganache. Do you love macarons as much as I do. I find though I can never just stop at one. They are so delicious, that one never seems quite enough. Don't you agree? I had some berries left over from our berry picking expedition and thought that I'd make these to share with the stitching girls.

Would you like to make these today? And don't be frightened off because they are macarons...you can do it. They're not as bad as everyone says ;-)

Here's what you'll need:-

Ingredients 

(makes about 15 macarons)

100g aged egg whites (aged just means that the egg whites are at room temperature.)

110g almond meal

200g icing sugar

50g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

To decorate:  pink food colouring, sprinkles

For the ganache:

200g white chocolate, finely chopped

120ml (roughly 1/2 cup) pouring cream (you know- the non thickened stuff)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup raspberries

Method:

1. Print out the heart template sheet. Place it under the baking paper and usign a marker, trace around each heart shape. This will provide you with a template to use so your macarons are of consistent size. So you don't get marker on your macarons, turn the baking paper over.

Click here to Download your Red Brolly PDF heart template.

2. Place icing sugar, salt and almond meal in food processor and pulse for about 30 seconds to remove any lumps. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a medium mixing bowl foe a few minutes until it reaches soft peaks (if using a Kitchen Aid- put on setting 3 or 4).

4. Put the mixer on high speed (about 7 on the Kitchen Aid), gradually add the caster sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.It should be very dry and stay inside the whisk attachment.

Add any colouring, and turn it up to setting 8, for 1 minute to give it a final mix and to show it who's boss!

5. Add the dry mixture (almond meal and icing sugar) to your meringue and mix. You can be quite rough and quick at first as you want to break down the bubbles in the egg white, then, as it starts to come together, start to mix carefully. This is the crucial stage where things can go sour. Don't mix it enough and you end up with rough, bumpy, dry macarons...mix it too much and your macarons will go runny and will spread everywhere. If this happens there is no recovery. Over mix it and you may as well throw them out and start again.

Here's the tip to look out for. The mixture will start to become shiny and the most common tip is that  the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds.

6. When you are happy with the consistency of your macarons, place mixture into a piping bag and using your template, pipe the mixture onto your baking paper.

7. Decorate with sprinkles

8. Leave to dry for at least half an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not stick to your finger. This helps prevent any cracking and helps the all important "feet" to form on the macaron base.

9. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°F). Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer.

10.Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare your ganache:

1. Mix raspberries together in a food processor. Push through a seive, using the back of a spoon, so you don't get any pulp or seeds into your ganache.

2. Place chopped chocolate, vanilla and cream in a heatproof bowl, slowly melt over a double boiler.  Using a whisk, gently combine mixture until it is smooth.  Add raspberry sauce. Set aside to cool until it is thick enough to pipe.

When ganache is cool enough, sandwich between two macarons. Place in airtight container and put in fridge to chill. Serve at room temperature.

Happy Baking!

Comments

[Says Anita]

Happy Valentine to you to. But here we have still to wait a day.

[Says June]

Love them so yummy, hugs.

[Says Melody]

Fabulous tutorial. Makes me feel brave enough to give them a go. Thank you.

[Says Patsy Booher]

Happy Valentine's Day to you but I still have about 6 hours to go here in the States.

Your macarons (we call them macaroons here) look delicious. In fact, the whole post today was lovely. The colors and contents were amazing.

Cheers!

[Says Le rat des fils]

So sweet.
Thanks for the recipe.
Happy Valentine's day.