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Coronation Macarons

Italian macarons filled with milk chocolate ganache & decorated with coloured white chocolate drizzles and gold sprinkles
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Keyword almond, Chocolate, chocolate ganache, Italian macarons, macaron
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 11 minutes
Setting Time 4 hours 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 51 minutes
Servings 16 macarons

Equipment

  • 4 piping bags
  • 1 medium round piping nozzle
  • 2 very fine round piping nozzles
  • 1 open star piping nozzle
  • 2 baking trays
  • Food processor
  • Stand mixer (with metal bowl and whisk attachment)

Ingredients

For the chocolate ganache:

  • 180 g milk chocolate
  • 180 ml double cream

For the macaron shells:

  • 95 g ground almonds
  • 103 g icing sugar
  • 72 g egg whites (divided into 2 separate bowls of 36g each)
  • 95 g caster sugar

To decorate

  • 40 g white chocolate
  • oil-based food colouring (red and blue)
  • gold sprinkles

Instructions

For the chocolate ganache:

  • Place the chocolate and cream into a microwave safe bowl. Melt on low for 1 minute at a time, stirring in between each burst, until chocolate has melted completely and ganache is smooth. Cover with clingfilm and place into the fridge to firm up for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

For the macaron shells:

  • Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and place a template underneath baking paper, if using. Fit a piping bag with a medium round nozzle and set aside.
  • Place the ground almonds and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse 10 times, then sift into a large bowl, discarding any large lumps that do not go through the sieve. Repeat this process once more.
  • Add one of the 36g portions of egg white to the almond/sugar mixture. Mix well to make a paste, then set aside.
  • Place the remaining 36g of egg white into the clean metal bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside.
  • Place the caster sugar into a small saucepan with 30ml of water. Place over a medium heat and start to bring to a boil. Do not stir- swirl gently if necessary.
  • When the sugar syrup has reached 114°C, turn stand mixer to high speed and begin to whip egg whites to soft peaks.
  • When the sugar syrup has reached 118°C and the egg whites have reached soft peaks, with mixer still on high, pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Once all of the syrup has been added, turn the mixer up to full speed and beat for 5 minutes, until stiff peaks are reached. Meringue will be ready when the bowl comes to room temperature.
  • When the meringue is ready, add 1/3 of it to the almond paste. Mix vigorously to combine fully and loosen the thick paste.
  • Add the rest of the meringue and fold, using a figure of eight motion, until mixture is cohesive and comes off the spatula in ribbons- if you leave those ribbons for 30 seconds, they should level themselves out into the rest of the mixture.
  • Place the macaron mixture into the piping bag. Holding the bag vertical to the baking tray, pipe macarons about 4cm in diameter, leaving plenty of space between each one.
  • Once macarons are piped, lift the whole tray up, and drop down on the work surface a few times to raise any air bubbles to the surface. Use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to burst any bubbles, letting the mixture fall back onto itself.
  • Set the macarons aside at room temperature to form a skin- on a relatively dry day, this should take about 30-40 minutes, but can take less time on drier, warmer days and more time on cold, humid days. Check on the macarons every 10-15 minutes or so, if unsure. The macarons will be ready when you can gently touch the surface without any batter coming off on your finger.
  • When the macarons are almost ready, preheat the oven to 165°C fan. Bake the macarons in the centre of the oven, one tray at a time, for 11 minutes. To check if they are done, place a finger on top of the shells and wiggle gently. When done, the tops of the macarons should not wobble. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.

To decorate:

  • Melt the white chocolate (I do this in the microwave- see Note 1). Separate into two bowls. Colour one bowl blue and the other bowl red (see Note 2).
  • Fill 2 piping bags, fitted with very fine round piping nozzles, with the two shades of chocolate. Pipe drizzles of each colour onto half of the macaron shells. Add a few gold sprinkles to each, before the chocolate sets, if desired.
  • Set the macarons aside at room temperature to set until completely solid, about 1 hour.

To assemble:

  • Place the firm ganache into a piping bag, fitted with an open star tip.
  • Pipe small rosettes into the centre of the flat side of each undecorated macaron half (do not go too close to the edge- when you 'sandwich' the macarons, the filling will be pressed out towards the edges). Place a decorated macaron half on top and gently press the two halves together. Macarons can be eaten immediately, or, once filled, kept in the fridge for a few days. You can also wait to fill the macarons- just keep the shells at room temperature in an airtight container and keep the ganache in the fridge (just be aware that the longer the ganache is in the fridge, the firmer it will become, making it more difficult to pipe/spread).

Notes

  1. For such a small quantity of white chocolate, I melt it in the microwave on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each. 
  2. Adding a lot of food colouring may affect the consistency of your white chocolate, making it thick and 'paste-like'. This happened with my red chocolate, which required a lot of colouring, but not my blue, which required less colouring to get the desired shade. Don't worry- the chocolate will still set solid, it will just take longer to do so.