Earlier in May, Meow received an order request* from a family friend for her son's 1st birthday party. The order was for about 140 macarons and somehow coloured and decorated such that it fits into Elmo's colour scheme. Oh, and also with flavours that are kid-friendly.
*Note: Meow does not take orders. My baking is not a business...yet. (Any investors? :D)
Colours are easy, though they did require my whole 2oz jar of gel colouring just to make it that bright. But kid-friendly flavours can be challenging. Seeing so many of my friends are now of the spawning age, I had to read so many of their posts about various struggles including fussy eaters. So, let's stick with plain-Jane flavours. Orange, raspberry, lemon, and blueberry.
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| Lucky kid got THIS as his 1st birthday gift from Aunty Meow |
Lemon was a risky one, but fortunately, our local Costco has been stocking Meyer Lemons. I've always wanted to see just what the fuss was about. Well, have you ever tasted a sweet lemon? I was blown away. And the nice thing was that using these lemons and making a lemon cream filling out of it, because it is quite moist, the macarons matured in a day!
Blueberry was another iffy one, but it was difficult trying to come up with a flavour that matches blue besides "bubblegum". I just didn't want to use any artificial flavours because there are always those parents who are concerned about their kids eating clean. -_-u And it was convenient that Meow has bags of frozen blueberries in her freezer for her morning smoothies. Win!
Yeah, so fruits are a safe bet with kids. And for the average Albertan, white-bred adults ;)
I will leave you with the recipe for the fillings for your experimentation.
Lemon Cream
Adapted from Laduree Sucre & Macarons by Pierre Hermes
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp | 160 g granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon (2 tsp | 5 g)
3 eggs
1/2 cup | 110 mL lemon juice
1 cup | 235 butter, soften
100 g of almond flour
1. Whisk eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy
2. Whisk in lemon juice, zest, and cornstarch
3. Cook over low to medium heat until thicken (coats back of the spoon, stays in place when a finger runs across the coating)
4. Stir in butter to help stiffen
5. Chill in refrigerator
6. Mix in almond flour before using to help stiffen the lemon cream, more if necessary.
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Stronger flavoured ganache and follow this recipe. The percentages shown will help you multiply or decrease batch size as it is the percent proportion in any given batch.
E.g. If you desire a 500 g ganache batch
500 g x 13% = 65 g of jam
500 g x 60% = 300 g of white chocolate
etc.
These proportions only works for white chocolate and milk chocolate, as dark chocolate has a significantly differently cocoa and fat content.
Raspberry-Rose Ganache
Adapted from Chocolates & Confections
51 g | 13% raspberry-rose jam
250 g | 60% white chocolate
51 mL | 13% heavy cream
31 g | 8% corn syrup
11 g | 3% butter, warmed
Yield: ~400 g
1. Heat cream and corn syrup to just off boil. Allow to cool to 40C
2. Add the jam to the hot cream
3. Pour hot cream/jam over the white chocolate and stir gently to incorporate
4. Gently work the warmed butter into the ganache
5. Chill until set in the refrigerator
6. Bring to slightly cooler than room temperature (cool, but soft enough to work with) and whip quickly and briefly
Orange Ganache
Adapted from Chocolate & Confections
250 g | 70% white chocolate
35 mL| 10% heavy cream
14 g | 4% glucose syrup
25 g | 7% butter, warmed
32 mL | 9% orange juice
Zest of one orange
Yield: ~350 g
1. Heat cream, zest, and corn syrup to just off boil. Allow to cool to 40C
2. Heat the lemon juice. Allow to cool to 40C
3. Pour hot cream over the white chocolate and stir gently to incorporate
4. Pour the hot lemon juice over the white chocolate and stir gently to incorporate
5. Gently work the warmed butter into the ganache
6. Chill until set in the refrigerator
7. Bring to slightly cooler than room temperature (cool, but soft enough to work with) and whip quickly and briefly
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For fruits that have a more subtle flavour, a 1:1 proportion of puree and white chocolate can be used. Butter is added to aid the incorporation and stiffening process.
Blueberry Ganache
Adapted from Macarons by Pierre Herme
200 g frozen blueberry
200 g white chocolate
a nub of butter (~10 g)
1. Puree the blueberry
2. Heat the puree and then allow to cool to 40C
3. Pour the puree over the white chocolate and gently stir to incorporate
4. Gently work the butter into the ganache
5. Chill until set in the refrigerator
6. Bring to slightly cooler than room temperature (cool, but soft enough to work with) and whip quickly and briefly
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| A bad way to display and transport macarons. They like to roll off and smash themselves |
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| But it's pretty |
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| A more sensible way to display and transport |
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| This is so grand I couldn't help but to take a few more photos of it. How often does Meow get to make that many macarons of that many colours?? |
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| Since it was Elmo/Sesame Street themed, I decided to buy the little Elmo faces cupcake icing decor and used a bit of icing to "glue" it on |
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| Pyramid display from Sugar Tiers for $20 Holds 40 macarons. Includes cardboard cover. |
What was the most interesting was when I brought this to the party, there was a friend of the mother's who had a plate of one of each colour and a troubled look on her face. She was just troubled as to which she should start on. She took a bite out of each and looked even more troubled. Her words, not mine "I don't know which one to end on, they're all so good!" First world problem.
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