Happy Birthday We Should Cocoa! The brainchild of Choclette and Chele has turned two! Tantrums and tears? No, just plenty of gorgeous looking creations from all over the world encompassing one of life's pleasures; chocolate. WSC was the first blog challenge I ever entered and I would like to say thank you to both Choclette and Chele, not only for producing a very popular challenge but introducing me to other bloggers and new techniques.
My first entry into WSC was Chambord truffles for the raspberry challenge. It just so happens that Chambord is a key player in my favourite cocktail too so I've come full circle and give you French Martini Macarons.
I could never get my macarons smooth shelled and glossy. My first attempt was a little grainy. My second wasnt glossy. No humps or bumps. I would fawn over photos in glossy food magazines. Idolise the macaron-ers of tastespotting. How did they do it? Made pacts with the devil? Voodoo?
Tips and tricks flood you. Italian meringue is best. No, no, French meringue. Add in egg white powder. Precise measurements to the gram. (Shut up, I've only just bought an electric set of scales but I still favour my Equilibrium Pebble Scales.)
Over fold it by one turn and its all over. One turn? I'm the girl who left cream beating in her KitchenAid and ended up with butter.
But then it happened. Not entirely unlike a Christmas miracle. Less farm animals. A lot less farm animals.
I pulled a sheet of these out my oven. Then went to find my husband for a fist-bump.
Recipe Here
Little Tweaks
I blended my icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa in small batches and didn't bother to sift. Dont judge. I have a vicious cup blender which is better than my big food processor.
I doubled up on baking sheets and banged them very hard on the worktop.
I left mine for 10 minutes before baking one tray at a time.
Halve my Chambord Truffle recipe for ganache and top each macaron with a feather of dried pineapple.
Hannah congratulations, they look so perfect. It must have been the added pressure of a birthday that did it ;-) I don't even aspire to get shiny topped uncracked macarons, I know I just don't have the patience, but I do admire them. I like the colour contrast of the paler macaron and the darker ganache. I'd love to sample one or perhaps two - they sound so delicious. Thank you for being such a WSC stalwart and always coming up with such creative entries. It's very much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThank you Choclette, it took a while but I got there in the end! Here's to many more WSC challenges (even bad cop ones...)!
DeleteThese look wonderful! I also idolise the macaron-ers of Tastespotting and wonder how they do it. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who struggled to get perfect macarons first time, but yours look fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you Hazel, your kaffir lime and coconut ones are really beautiful. Glad I'm not the only one who has serious love for tastespotting macaron-ers!
DeleteThese look great and I'm absolutely sure will taste great too. Nice bit of full circling to echo that first entry. It seems a long time ago now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, any excuse to use Chambord! I think it's gone pretty quickly, I remember coating everything in a fine layer of cocoa powder and truffle goo before photographing them on my iphone. Oh how things have changed!
DeleteThese look so professional, and I love your creative twist with the ganache. Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you Katharine, the Chambord in the ganache is gorgeous - I fully admit to scraping that bowl out very well!
DeleteYour macarons look beautiful! And the flavours sound utterly divine :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you thelittleloaf :) the flavours work great together, especially in macaron form!
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