Happy Macarons Day!

Apparently Saturday (March 20th) was Macarons Day (I didn't even know until I saw Humble's blog post).  And it just so happens that I made macarons on a Sunday.  I had planned the macarons for a week because there were mangoes sitting on the kitchen counter screaming "uuuuusssee meeeeee".

So I think Thursday night, I ask Mr. Meow,
       "Does mango go with coconut?" and just as I finished my question, "Nevermind!  Mangoes and coconut sticky rice!  DUH!"  and Mr. Meow pats me on the head *sigh*.

I couldn't just use mangoes, one flavour is boring when I'm on an adventure to put it all together like some Cantonese dish.  There are also strawberries that needed to be used up, courtesy of Meow MIL.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to add strawberries in, but mango-strawberries combo has been proven to be good and so is mango-coconut, though what about coconut-mango-strawberries??  Skeptical.  As I was browsing on how to add flavours to the macarons shells, I saw that mango-coconut combo has been done by somebody else already, now I feel that I have to one-up them.  Screw it, coconut-mango-strawberries it is!

Coconut-Mango-Strawberries Macarons


3 large eggs (I got 109g this time)
147g of confectioner's sugar
100g of almond flour
47g of coconut shreds

Following Duncan's 1.35 x egg whites formula at Syrup and Tang.

147g of confectioner's sugar
36g of water

Water is 0.33 x egg whites according to Duncan.

Method is essentially the same as all previous posts about making Italian Meringue macarons.
Key here is to decrease the amount of almond flour for each gram of dry flavouring you put it, while still achieving a tant-pour-tant (1:1) with the confectioner's sugar.  


Grind the coconut shreds in the food processor to as fine as you can get it.  I achieved dandruff flecks.
Watch out for the coconut turning into a paste because of the oils coming out.


Mango-Strawberry Buttercream


Same as previous buttercream recipe

2 egg whites
35g of sugar
30mL of water
15g of castor sugar
120g of softened unsalted butter (about 3/4 cups)
1/4tsp of salt
Mango puree
Strawberry puree



Pre-game work:


1. Cut up and mangoes and strawberries


2. Place the fruits separately into the food processor and grind.


3. You may wish to heat the fruit puree with sugar to sweeten it and thicken it.


Buttercream:

1. Boil the 35g of sugar with 30mL of water to about 240F.

2. Meanwhile, add the salt to the egg whites and whip to frothy.

3. Stream in the 15g of castor sugar.

5. Whip egg whites to hard glossy peaks.

6. When sugar syrup reaches 240F, remove from heat immediately and stream into egg whites.  Avoid whipping blades.

7. Whip until you get a bird's peak on the whisks.  Now you have meringue.

8. Soften the butter and add it a spoonful at a time to the meringue.  When it has been completely absorbed, add the next spoonful.  At some point, it will look like it's a curdled mess, keep whipping and adding butter, it will sort itself out.

9. Add the flavourings to taste.  I added about 3 spoonfuls of mango puree and about 2 spoonfuls of strawberry puree.

10. Fill a piping bag with a plain #8 tip and pipe the fillings onto one shell and sandwich another shell on top.


Yields about 50 filled macarons
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