Friday 14 November 2008

RAZZLE-DAZZLEBERRY MACARONS

razzle-dazzleberry macarons: who doesn't love a surprise?
Imagine my surprise when Stomach actually pronounced my latest batch of raspberry macarons amazing. This is saying a lot from a man who doesn't seem to eat anything sweet willingly.


I zinged up my trusty ol' basic macaron batter with a couple of tablespoons of finely ground dehydrated raspberries and dumped (way too much) powdered red food colouring into it as well. The red colour of the macaron shells was so intense. They even left a faint red stain on our tongues!

I piped a ring of Beranbaum's NeoClassic Buttercream (my desert/dessert island buttercream) along the macaron shell edge and then I piped a nice fat blob of seedless raspberry jam in the centre of the ring. After sandwiching two macaron shells to cover the filling, you couldn't tell that there was a secret explosion of raspberry filling inside. Bwah-ha-ha!

Check out my recipe below.

Razzle-Dazzleberry Macaronsadapted from tartelette
Makes 35

225 gr powdered sugar
125 gr ground almonds
3 egg whites (about 100gr)
25 gr granulated sugar
2 tablespoons finely ground dehydrated raspberries
powdered red food colouring
  • In a food processor, run the nuts, dehydrated raspberries and powdered sugar until the nuts are finely ground. Run through a sieve if needed.
  • Whip the egg whites until foamy, slowly add the granulated sugar, until they are glossy. Continue beating until stiff peaks are formed. Add the food colouring.
  • Slowly fold the nut/sugar mixture into the whites with a wide spatula. The mixture should remain shiny and flow easily.
  • Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
  • Let the macarons rest for 20 minutes to develop a skin. Touch the tops to ensure that they are not tacky. If they are, leave them to rest longer. [it was humid that day and I made big macarons so I had to leave them for 1 1/2 hours!]
  • Preheat the oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit and when they are ready, bake them for 14-16 minutes.
  • Let cool, remove from the paper and fill with the vanilla buttercream and seedless raspberry jam. Procedure: fill piping bag with buttercream and pipe a ring around the inside edge of a macaron shell. Fill another piping bag with seedless raspberry jam and pipe a mound of jam in the centre of the ring. Sandwich another macaron shell on top.
Neoclassic Vanilla Buttercream
(from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible )
6 large (3.5 fl oz/ 4 oz/112 g) egg yolks, room temperature
sugar (3/4 cup/5.25 oz/150 g)
corn syrup (1/2 liquid cup/5.75 oz/164 g)
unsalted butter (2 cups/1 lb/454 g) (must be softened)
vanilla (2 T)
optional: liqueur or eau-de-vie of your choice (2-4 T/1-2oz/28-56 g)
  • Have ready a greased 1-cup heatproof glass measure near the range
  • In a bowl beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in colour. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan (preferably with a nonstick lining) and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a rolling boil. (The entire surface will be covered with large bubbles.) Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measure to stop the cooking.
  • If using an electric hand-held mixer, beat the syrup into the yolks in a steady stream. Don't allow syrup to fall on the beaters or they will spin it onto the sides of the bowl. If using a stand mixer, pour a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off. Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Continue with the remaining syrup. For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measure. Continue beating until completely cool.
  • Gradually beat in the butter and any optional flavouring. Place in an airtight bowl. Bring to room temperature before using. Rebeat to restore texture.
    Store: 6 hours room temperature, 1 week refrigerated, 8 months frozen

27 comments:

Clumbsy Cookie said...

I woulnd't mind tongue stains just to eat those! They're gorgeous, love the color and the name!

Manggy said...

I was just gonna say that they look so intensely red! But they do look absolutely perfect (I'm glad stomach liked them!). Thanks also for the NCBC recipe-- I am eager to try a buttercream recipe that doesn't taste like whipped butter :P

Y said...

I love the contrast of white buttercream and dazzling red macaron.

Chocolate Shavings said...

Those look delicious - I love the vibrant color (even if it does leave a slight stain on your tongue!).

Snooky doodle said...

wow these look amazing. i wish to try macaroons some time surely they won t be gorgeous as yours.

Marta Bofill said...

Wow...nice blog and amazing macarons...with that great colour!!Congrats

Helene said...

I love that buttercream except I changed it up a bit over the past few months to suit or tastebuds but still feels like eating Breyer's vanilla ice cream!!
The macs turned out perfect!! I hear you about the food coloring...I played with one too recently and I think it turned out good but omg...I used almost a whole bottle for one batch!!

RecipeGirl said...

Wow, these are just about the most beautiful little cookies I've seen in a long time!! SO pretty. THey'd make nice, little Christmas treats :)

taste memory said...

this looks stunning! a must try....enjoying your blog + creative posts!

Family First said...

The color is so vibrant and stunning! Love this!

Unknown said...

Complimenti per il blog... é bellissimo!
ciao
vale

Anonymous said...

YUM! love surprises! thoose look fabulous! i love fruit fillings in my cookies!

Zoe Francois said...

These are seriously gorgeous! That color is amazing and dramatic! Love it.

My Sweet & Saucy said...

These are gorgeous! I love the look of these...perfect for the holidays!

Cakespy said...

Absolutely stunning visually--and I'll bet they taste just as good!

The Peanut Butter Boy said...

Those macaroons look wonderful! I'm not the biggest sweets guy myself but I'd love to give one of these a try.

Megan said...

Looks like a perfect Christmas cookie! Someday I'll have to try these cookies. Love the surprise center. :)

test it comm said...

Those look so vibrantly red and good!

Sara said...

These look amazing, I love the idea of jam in the center.

Dewi said...

That is mighty gorgeous macarons! Yes the color is pretty intense, but I like it, it's beautiful color. I think it is perfect for christmas!
Cheers,
Elra

Cakebrain said...

Thank you everyone for the comments!
Unfortunately, I've been having some problems with the blogger comments disappearing before I could publish them. If you don't see your comment published, it's not because I deleted them but because blogger zapped them into the etherworld and now I don't know how to get them back. I'm sorry I couldn't reply or visit you because I never really did get to see them long enough to catch who commented.

Food, she thought. said...

Is there a functional reason for using the buttercream frosting around the jam? I am not a fan *gasp* of buttercream...and am thinking of just using a raspberry jam as my filling. Although it does look comparatively more beautiful to have the buttercream....

Cakebrain said...

Foodforthought,
Well, the functional reason for the buttercream is to hide the jam filling so that it is a "surprise" when you bite into it. If you don't like buttercream, just use jam. The wonderful thing about macarons is you can put anything between the two shells: ganache, fresh fruit, jam or jelly, curd, chocolate, buttercream or ice cream! Do whatever pleases you!

Food, she thought. said...

Dear Cakebrain:

i followed your raspberry macarons recipe to the tee, after making a fairly successful chocolate batch via David Liebovitz and another slightly less successful almond with caramel de fleur du sel via A La Cuisine. The macarons following your methodology of leaving the rounds out before baking until the outside was not even a little tacky yielded by far the best foot on my cookies. I also think I became more skilled at knowing when to stop folding. For those reasons, these came out beautiful and I cannot wait to serve them to my guests this evening! Please check in on my blog in a few days to see some lovely pics! Thanks so much for posting!

Cakebrain said...

Food, She Thought,
Yay! I love it when someone tells me they have had the same success with a recipe! I'm so glad your macarons had nice big feet :)!
The raspberry macarons are a show-stopper for most people who have never had one before. I too have experimented with tons of recipes and this is my standby. Most recipes don't tell you to touch the shells to test for tackiness...I just figured that out on my own. They usually give you a time-frame to leave it out but that doesn't take into account the humidity of various climates. So, I'm glad that little tip helped you too! You can play around with this recipe in so many ways! I'm looking forward to seeing your pics!

Unknown said...

Ohh! These macarons look so delicious. I love your blog!!

Natalie said...

I've been on a bit of a maracon hunt lately - I saw some delicious looking maracons on a TV show and found they sell them in London (which is quite far from me). But these look just as delicious so I shall have a go at making some :)

Thanks for sharing it!

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