It’s been a LONG time since I made anything. I think my last venture into the kitchen was for the salted caramel & chocolate popcorn bars (yum!) like two months ago because right after that, I went into social bunny hyperdrive and haven’t really slowed down until… now.
Itching to just bake anything, I found inspiration in the unlikely form of my friend Samantha who’s here from the US for work and asked me over and over again about the “green bon bons that Blair was eating in Gossip Girl”.
Bon bons?
Green?
Que?
I had no idea what Sam was talking about but she found some website that showed Blair eating Ladurée macarons – pistachio of course – and since then I’ve been trying to convince Sam that Pierre Hermé macs are actually better (it seems Chuck did at one point buy Blair Pierre Hermé too).
I think she’s now going to buy a box of each to you know, test for herself (there’s really no other way to do it), but in the mean time it got me all thinking about macarons again. I decided to get back in the game, break out the egg whites and make some for Sam – vanilla macarons with a raspberry & white chocolate ganache.
Macarons are such funny things. They are temperamental as heck, like the egg whites have to be aged, and you have to beat it until it’s this consistency, and you have to slowly mix in the dry ingredients well but don’t mix to much! and you pipe them and have to leave them for exactly this long so the shell is this thick and bake them exactly this long.
Or else they won’t work.
But once you get the hang of it and figure out exactly how long to do each bit, they’re actually pretty easy to make. I’ve made many iterations of the matcha macarons now, and have also made chocolate ones, and will at some point venture into the more complicated flavours like salted caramel. Mmmmmm… salted caramel.
But this time around I decided on something easy-ish. Vanilla macarons don’t really mess with the core recipe, and the tartness of fresh raspberries in the white chocolate ganache complements the sweet shells perfectly.
Plus they’re hella cute, right?
Vanilla macarons with white chocolate & raspberry ganache |
---|
White chocolate & raspberry ganache: 75 grams double cream / heavy cream 30 grams white chocolate, chopped 10-12 fresh raspberries Vanilla macarons: 100 grams almond powder 200 grams powdered / icing sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 100 grams or 3 egg whites, aged for a day at room temperature 50 grams sugar |
|
Quantity varies. I made 25 macarons. |
Your white and red bon bons looks lovely and I’m sure Sam will be addicted to them once she samples your creation.
Pingback: Tweets that mention back in the game: vanilla macarons with raspberry & white chocolate ganache « thecattylife… for all things cattylicious… -- Topsy.com
Very sweet macarons. Me likey.
Your macaroons look fantastic Catty – great legs on them! I agree they are pretty intimidating but once you get everything perfect they are quite achievable.
They look gorgeous Catty!
They look so terrific, Catty!
Ken: Well I hope she likes them. I’d rather she be addicted to Pierre Herme 😀
Lora: Thank you!
Gourmet Chick: Yeah once you figure out how it works in your kitchen with your own oven, it’s not too difficult! But getting the right balance is hard!
Maria & Greedy Diva: Thanks, lovelies!
Catty these look delicious. I will give these a go soon.
They look brilliant, I hope I have better luck with my macarons this year! Happy New Year x
These little babies were AWESOME!! Loved the flavours in the ganache. I secretly hoped that Ray would say no to them so I could eat them all, but I had to share lol. Oh well. 😛
Is there any way I can convince you to make me some of those? Like, any way? They look soooooo yum.
These look delicious! And so pretty!
WorshipBlues: Do give them a go! Temperamental little bastards though, hope they turn out well!
Sarah: Happy new year to you too! Yeah macs are so weird but once you get it right you wont ever go wrong again 🙂
Su-yin: Awww they were so tiny too! I would have given you more but was bringing a whole batch to work! Next time more for you 😉
Antonia: I sure can now that you live in London 😉
jenny: Thanks! 😀
I will be attempting my first macarons this year…. love the feet!
Yay! Hope it all goes well, can’t wait to read about it and see the feet!
You should teach Remil how to make these! 🙂
Ooh Catty I love Paul’s pistachio macarons. They’re huge too which is either a good or bad thing lol. I always pick the ones with a good amount of filling too-some don’t quite have enough!
How lovely and yummy!! You’re making me really want to try some more cooking this month. This makes it look like it’s attainable.
KFP: Haha I’d be more than happy to teach Remil! Do you think you’re gonna get to eat some out of that deal??
Lorraine: Ahhh Paul’s are ok but I don’t like big ones! I like tiny itsy bitsy macarons 🙂 Paul used to also make a pistachio macaron shake (ie a whole pistachio mac in a milk shake!)
Lara: It’s totally attainable! Do it! 🙂
There is nothing finer in life than a good macaron. White chocolate and raspberries are also super awesome. I can only imagine how tasty these are! Yum.
nice ! looks like girly macarons 🙂 yum !
where on earth do i buy almond powder??
Hi Sean, you can actually pick it up at any Tesco’s! I get it from my local Tesco Metro, in the baking section. It’s in a little packet 🙂
Great post!