Looking for something special to make for Mother's Day? These rose-colored French macarons with chocolate-raspberry ganache are sure to please. I actually made a batch of these for my mom last month for her birthday, and she loved them. You can package them up in treat bags with a little shredded paper and a sparkly twist tie to make them look really special.
These are just regular almond macarons with a few drops of red food coloring paste. I filled most of them with chocolate ganache spiked with a little Chambord and filled a few of them with some lemon curd I had leftover from another recipe. I planned to follow Francois Payard's recipe in a past issue of Food & Wine, but it looked so complicated that I stuck with Joanne Chang's recipe from Fine Cooking -- you may remember that I made cocoa and hazelnut macarons with Jen using Joanne's recipe. There are a lot of tips about macaron making in those past posts, so if you've never made them before, I recommend starting there.
Rose-Colored French Macarons (adapted from Joanne Chang and Fine Cooking)
Ingredients
1 cup (100 grams) almond flour
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) confectioners' sugar
4 egg whites (120 grams), at room temperature and at least a day old
4 tablespoons (50 grams) sugar
2-3 drops red food coloring paste
Preparation
Line two clean, flat cookie sheets with Silpat mats, and set them aside.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and place rack in middle of oven.
Sift together almond flour and confectioners' sugar, and set aside.
In a spotlessly clean stand mixer bowl, whip whites on medium speed until they are foamy and you can start to see the tines of the whip leaving a trail in the whites, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar, and continue to whip for about 30 to 45 seconds. Add another tablespoon of sugar, and whip again for another 30 to 45 seconds. Repeat with the third and fourth tablespoons of sugar.
When all of the sugar is mixed in, add enough food coloring paste to turn the mixture a bright pink, whip the whites for about another minute or two until they become glossy and shiny. Remove from mixer.
Fold in about half of the almond flour/confectioners' sugar mix; when most of it is folded in, add the rest of the dry mix.
Fold until mixture is smooth and a little stiff -- it should drop smoothly off of the spatula.
Using a piping bag and a small round tip, pipe out small rounds of macaron batter about 1 inch in diameter on prepared cookie sheets. Try to pipe straight down and quickly pull away when you are done to minimize peaks. Pipe until you’ve used up all the batter. (Use a wet finger or back of a spoon to gently flatten any peaks.)
Rap the cookie sheets several times to flatten out the mounds and to pop any bubbles that might be in the batter.
Let cookies rest for about 15 to 30 minutes, until they are no longer tacky to the touch.
Place one cookie sheer in the oven, and immediately turn oven down to 300 degrees. After 8 minutes, rotate the cookie sheet. Depending on your oven, cookies take from 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool. Repeat with second cookie sheet.
Remove cookies from Silpat mats, match tops and bottoms, and fill them with chocolate raspberry ganache (recipe below).
Chocolate Raspberry Ganache (adapted from Joanne Chang and Fine Cooking)
Ingredients
6 1/2 ounces (180 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (or use chocolate chips)
3/4 cup (180 grams) heavy cream
1 tablespoon Chambord
Preparation
Place the chocolate in a small, heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, scald the cream over medium-high heat (until bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan, but the cream is not boiling). Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds, then slowly whisk the chocolate and cream together until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the Chambord, and let cool to room temperature.
The ganache can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before piping.
What would be your favorite macaron flavor combination?
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