Batch #18 - My First Macarons Sale and the Hello Kitty Macarons

I was commissioned by my good friend Tepid Duck to make a batch of macarons for her friend's birthday recently.  This is the first time I've actually made macarons for someone who isn't in my immediate family or circle of friends, so I was a bit nervous but stuck to what I think are my best and favourite flavours - the Salted Caramel, and the Lime Butter Cream macarons.  

This is a big occasion for me, as it marks the first time I've been paid for something other than what I have been trained for (yes I still have cold hard cash sitting on my table, not willing to spend it yet!)   I have always been more into maths and science in my studies and chosen career, so to get paid to do something creative gives me a real buzz!  I'm pretty sure the recipient of these macarons is a follower of this blog, so Happy Birthday to you (you know who you are!) and I hope you enjoyed them!

I also had a little fun and made some of the Salted Caramel ones into Hello Kitty macarons after spotting them here.  The ears were made by teasing out a little of the macronage with a toothpick after piping.  Kitty's bow was made by "gluing" 2 heart shaped sprinkles onto the macaron with some Butter Cream.  The rest of Kitty's face was drawn on with food coloring pens that Hubby hunted down for me during his lunch break.  

Hello Kitty Macarons!

I only made 8 of these but they were a huge hit with the kids.  They were certainly a huge hit on Instagram as this has become my most "liked" picture, and I also seemed to have gained a whole lot of young teenage girls as followers as a result!

I couldn't bear to bite into Hello Kitty's face.....

Batch #17 - Raspberry Dark Chocolate Ganache & Lime-Lemon Macarons

Hot on the heels of the last batch of macarons, I made an even bigger batch to share with friends and family.  Time for more fun with food colouring splatters!  For this batch I again made the ever popular Lime-Lemon, and at Little One's request made Raspberry ones, this time using a dark chocolate ganache.

Maybe because we went and watched Breaking Dawn the night before (!?), but I subconsciously decided to use red rather pink colouring for the raspberry dark chocolate shells.  The effect was a little Twilight x Dexter while I was waiting for them to dry.....

Fortunately they didn't look too bad post-assembly!

I really quite liked the dark chocolate ganache matched with the raspberry jam.  I still haven't mastered the art of ganache making, and I'm much more comfortable using a straight chocolate and cream ganache, and adding a fruit flavour via the use of a jam or coulis, rather than infusing the chocolate with the fruit (puree) itself.

The most important thing I learnt from this batch was that I COULD BAKE 2 TRAYS AT THE SAME TIME!!!  I usually make 60-80 macarons per batch, which equates to 120-160 shells, or roughly 7-8 trays of shells.  I bake these one tray at a time for around 15 minutes each, so even though it's not hard work, it's quite tedious and takes me about 2 hours in total just to do the baking.  I decided to try a few tips from Pierre Herme's book and worked out a routine of swapping the trays around so that the shells would achieve the feet, and still bake reasonably evenly.  Yes, I was happy dancing round the kitchen at the thought of being able to half the time I spend baking!  And yes, I could spend more time playing with food-styling and taking photos of the fruits of my labour!

Lessons Learned -

• Opening the door briefly during baking can let off steam from the oven and help reduce the appearance of those horrible "abalone" feet that appear when the shells rise and collapse too quickly due to excess heat.

Batch #16 - Morello Cherry White Chocolate Ganache & Lime-Lemon Macarons

We haven't made a batch of macarons for ages!  Partly due to laziness, partly due to the busy end of year social activities involved with having 3 kids, but mostly because my good old Mixmaster has gone to mixer heaven (actually it's in a box of old broken kitchen appliances waiting to be disposed of....)  This batch was made both to impress for my colleagues at my new work (yes, I'm the new kid bringing lollies to the new school to make friends!), and to celebrate the arrival of my niece into the world (and hence the pink macarons!)

Thanks to some internet research, DJ's new price matching policy, and a few seredipidous gift vouchers, Christmas has arrived early and we are the fortunate owners of a new Kitchen Aid!  I am still amazed at how efficient this machine is, and what a great job it does!  (And yes I am still entranced by it's "planetary motion"!)  No excuses now for not baking! 

My main problem this time was still due to a struggle with variable oven temperature.  Having to bake 7-8 trays, and requiring frequent opening and closing of the oven door, meant that I had to keep a really close eye on the shells and vary the baking time by 2-5 minutes each tray.  Unfortunately that's not so easy while entertaining my 3 busy kids, so I had some nicer shells, and some slightly darker ones with funnier feet. 

Blah, the shell on the right got more heat, and appears darker with
messier feet, whereas the one on the left is a tad undercooked, with
stickier, softer undersides.

For this batch I experimented with food coloring to create a splatter effect.  This is probably the cheapest and coolest way of decorating macaron shells I've come across yet - all you need is food coloring of your choice, and a (preferably!) unused toothbrush!  Short of dropping the whole bottle of coloring on the shells, you can't really go wrong, and I love the look of these shells, with the randomly artistic splatters giving each of them an individual look! 

Despite the variation in the shells, once you match, and sandwich the shells together with the filling, the product still looks pretty good, if I should say so myself! 

For the pink macarons I made a white chocolate ganache with Yarra Valley white coverture chocolate and double cream, and sandwiched some Sunny Ridge Morello Cherry Jam at Little One's request.   The kids tend to like the pink macarons more, whereas the adults all seem to prefer the zingy lime-lemon ones!



Pretty pink macarons for my niece!



Lessons Learned -

• To achieve the splatter effect, place a small amount of colouring into a small bowl.  Dip the tip of a new toothbrush into the colouring, and gently flick the bristles with your finger over the top of the shells after you've piped all the shells (so that they have had about 5-10 minutes to rest.)  I would recommend using a glove on the hand you're flicking the toothbrush with, or you'll end up with a green finger for a few days like I did!

Batch #14 - Party Macarons!

This batch of macarons was made for a party we had for Bubs recently.  We made Green Lime ones and also Natural (non-popcorn) Salted caramel ones, as these are the 2 favourite flavours as voted by my friends and family. 

The catch with this batch was that I had to make them mid-week in order for them to mature for a few days and be perfect on the day of the party.  Juggling all the macaron preparation in between the logistics of a weekday with 3 kids is not an easy task!  I'm hoping it's not just me, but I've found that every time I've had to bake or make something for an occasion, something always make me feel less confident even when I had practised lots and lots before.  (If I was tweeting this would be followed by #performanceanxiety!)  I guess that's why I kept failing sight-reading in my piano exams when I was younger.

Anyway, the first lot of shells I piped felt too stiff.  I should have believed my gut feeling but piped a whole tray before I stopped.  Fortunately I've now had enough experience to fix the macaronage so that the rest of the batch turned out nicely with neat feet.  Let me share with you the uneven, "nippled", first tray of macawrongs.

All went well in the end, I think my party guests enjoyed the macarons and the other baked goods we churned out for the day.  All up I think we consumed about 80 macarons that day! (If I had paid the average $2.50 per macaron I would've had to spend $200 on macarons alone!)

Thanks to our friend Mr N for the great photos of the macarons (amongst all the others!) he took for us on the day.  As usual I was way too worried about making sure the food gets served up and the kids are entertained to get any opportunity to take my own pictures!

Lessons Learned - Make more than you need if you're baking for an occasion as there are bound to be more than a few less than perfect ones!