Monday, February 14, 2011

Peppermint Macarons



Imbued with a feeling of triumph following my near defeat and subsequent victory over the macaron featured in my last post, I set out to try my hand at new and exciting variations on the theme.  This time around, I decided to go pink for my shells with a dark-chocolate ganache and a splash of peppermint flavor for the filling.  I even decided to try decorating the shells with a sprinkle of crushed peppermint candies.



I seem to be incapable of baking anything without encountering a HORRIBLE MISTAKE, and the candies were just one such mistake.  Being a total idiot, I forgot that peppermint candies are made of sugar and thus will melt when they get to a temperature that is sufficiently high to also cook a macaron shell.  The result:  weird.



For all subsequent batches, I decided that it would be best to go candy-less.



And it was a pretty good decision to make.  In the end, not a single one of the non-candied shells cracked and they all looked amazing.



Candy-shells on bottom, non-candy-shells on top.



For the filling, I used a ganache recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes and added a little creme de menthe to the mix.  Why?  Because I have a giant flipping bottle of creme de menthe sitting around my house and when the hell am I ever going to use creme de menthe for anything?



I need a new camera.  This one...  This one is the absolute worst.



I also need to learn to move my stupid knife block out of frame if I'm trying to capture a half-way decent image.



This time, I did take the macarons in to the office to share since I felt really bad about eating them all last time.  They went over very well with everyone there.  And please note, no cracked shells and feet all around.  I am on my way to declaring myself Queen of Macarons.

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