Candy Cane Macarons

It's about time I made some more macarons. My very first entry on this blog was for macarons and at that time I thought just about every entry afterwards would be for them too, but in reality it has taken months to make them again. I can promise you there will be at least one more macaron recipe before the end of the year although I won't give too much away just yet.

I decided to make these for a weekend trip back home to visit my parents. I won't be seeing them at Christmas so I thought I would bring something special for my visit. Originally I tried to make red shells, green shells and red and green swirled shells. Unfortunately I got a bit of water in my green shell mix and they did not turn out and my 'red' shells turned out pink :(. But alas they were still delicious and looked rather nice.

I decided on a buttercream filling mostly for cost effectiveness so I didn't have to buy chocolate, but it would have been totally delectable with a peppermint ganache filling. I used crushed candy canes in the buttercream which was nice but made it a bit difficult to pipe.

Candy Cane Macarons

This recipe is for one batch of macarons approx 30 shells (depending on size).

What you will need

1 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 egg whites
red food colouring

For Buttercream (from Adriano Zumbo's Zumbo book)
100g caster sugar
38g water
75g lightly beaten eggs
45g egg yolks
200g butter, softened
3 candy canes

What you will need to do

MAKE SURE ALL EQUIPMENT IS DRY AND FREE FROM OIL BEFORE YOU START!
Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside. Place the icing sugar and almond meal in a food processor and process until fine. Sift icing and almond meal into a bowl and set aside. Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar and whisk until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is thick and glossy. Add food colouring and fold in until colour is even.

Put half the meringue mix into bowl with almond meal mix and mix roughly to remove air and incorporate all ingredients. Add remaining meringue mix and fold in until a lava-like consistency. You should be able to lift a spoonful of mixture and string it across the rest of the mixture and watch it disappear within 20 seconds.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe small rounds onto the baking trays. NOTE: I made two batches of macaron mix, one red and one green. I set aside about a third of each mix and filled a piping bag on one side with red and the other side with green to create a bit of a swirled effect when piped.

Take the baking trays and smack them onto a bench to expel any bubbles from the shells. I added cachous to some of my shells, now is the time to add them if you want. Leave trays to sit out on a bench until skin forms on the shells and you can gently touch them without it sticking to your finger. Preheat oven to 160*C.

When shells are ready, place in oven and bake for 10- 15 minutes or until you can see them slightly browning on the bottom. Remove from oven and leave on tray until cool to touch. Place shells on wire trays to fully cool down.

Meanwhile to make the butter cream, place sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium and cook until sugar reaches 121*C. Meanwhile whisk eggs and egg yolks on medium speed for 2 minutes. While still whisking, pour sugar syrup in a thin steady stream over egg mix until thick and cooled to 50*C. Slowly add the butter, a cube at a time, mixing well after each addition to make sure no lumps. Take the candy canes and break into small pieces (I placed them in a bag and beat them with a rolling pin). Stir candy canes through buttercream. I put the buttercream in the fridge to firm up for about an hour as is was quite soft. Place buttercream in a piping bag with a wide round nozzle and pipe onto half the shells. Sandwich shells with buttercream with those without and there you have it!