Macarons part 8: Pink October (Mac attack #24)

My all-time favourite colour of macarons ? Pink!
This month's Mac Attack http://mactweets.blogspot.com/ challenge? - Pinktober macarons
Perfect...

Using my usual macaron recipe, i whipped up a batch of dusty pink macarons with white chocolate ganache and homemade hazelnut praline.

I started off by making my homemade hazelnut praline. I picked up the recipe from http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/04/macarons-101-french-meringue.html (who makes absolutely perfect looking macarons) although i slightly modified the recipe, ie i omitted the caramel bit.

Firstly roast the hazelnut in the oven and then spread it out in a pre-buttered shallow dish.

Next, over medium heat, combine the granulated sugar, water, salt and golden syrup (i didnt have corn syrup) into a small pan. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Let the sugar mixture come to a boil. 

The water will boil away and the syrup will start caramelizing. Remove from heat, once it changes to a medium amber colour like below.

Give it a quick swirl, and pour over roasted hazelnuts. Leave to cool and set.

Once it has set, break into chunks and process it through a food processor till it is fine and has a nice crunch.

Next - start preparing the macaron shells.

Pink shells are the order of the day..

To spruce it up abit, i tapped abit of gold dust powder over the macaron shells.

Leave to rest. After 45 minutes, pop one tray in the oven @150 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

Once ready, leave to cool, sandwich with the filling, end result:

Macarons part 7 - Ginger buttercream

In the quest for yet another unique but distinctive Macaron flavour, i have ventured on to ginger buttercream....Mmmmm...This was also due to my parents being around, and i knew my mom would like the flavour as firstly she loves ginger and secondly because it would not be as sweet as some of the other flavours.

Using the usual macaron recipe, i start off with preparing the macarons shells. In order to get a more intense ginger flavour, i added in 1/2tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp mixed spice to the macaron icing sugar and ground almond mixture (correspondingly, i reduced the amount of icing sugar to ensure the proportion of wet to dry ingredients remain the same).

Once all piped and at the resting stage, i start with the ginger buttercream.

I usually use this buttercream recipe:

170g slightly salted butter, softened
340g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tsbp vanilla essence

To further enhance the flavour of the ginger, i also added in 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of mixed spice whilst reducing the proportionate amount of icing sugar.

Results:

Mmmmm.....