Baking| Blood Orange Macarons with Maple Orange Chocolate Pastry Creme … World Macaron Day
“Macarons should be eaten slowly with each mouthful savoured. They should be eaten somewhere pretty and refined.”
Yellow Magpie
Nothing in the cookie world seems to have evoked as much interest and admiration as macarons! Sweet and pretty bites, inspirational to make, absolutely charming, yet intimidating for bakers like me. At MacTweets, our mac-obsessed kitchen, Jamie and I called to mark World Macaron Day on March 20th. These Blood Orange Macarons with Maple Orange Chocolate Pastry Creme are my tribute to this delightful invention!
I’ve missed making macarons for a while now and was happy to be faced with a MacTweets challenge for World Macaron Day. Been thinking long on what to make and what not to, and then thanks to sweet blogger friends like the lovely and talented Shayma, I made these addictive bites. They might not look perfect, but they tasted fabulous!
Life is busy and we have had family and friends from overseas visiting us over the past few months. They all know I food blog, so with them come delicious ingredients and kitchen stuff I might not ever dream of. I feel special … very special!
…and felt even more so when a few days ago the Spice Spoon girl tweeted to ask when my folk were visiting as she had something to send for me. My cousin from Pittsburgh flew in a few days later. With him came these beautiful spice boxes from William Sonoma – Dried Blood Orange Peel and Pure Maple Flakes.
The minute I saw the pretty little jars I knew what my macs were going to be – Blood Orange with Maple filling. I had already a thread of orange in my mind as my life is overflowing with tangerines. All the little shrubs have branches hanging heavy with this beautiful fruit … the little pooch seems to take a keen interest in the fruit too; little Coco who is ALL EYES!!
Pretty orange life and there is only so much bitter marmalade I can make. I thought I would sweeten the filling mildly with maple flakes and add a dash of orange from the little bitter tangerines. The shells baked fine, the little feet appearing in a few minutes of baking, blushing a pastel orange. 
Of course we had a power cut again, but thankfully the frills had formed so no harm done! I was quite happy. What I wasn’t happy with was my choice of filling. A pastry creme obviously isn’t firm enough for these fiddly creatures. They got soft overnight and I had some fixing to do!
I had a fix in mind … chocolate can fix anything, even a broken heart, and then I came across Mardi’s macaron post asking ‘Why do my macarons have hollow shells. That set me thinking! It was time to read up again. My macarons are also hollow at times and OK at other times even though my recipe is the same. So mac-obsessed me set off to try Mardis recipe.
I have to say they are the best tasting macarons I have ever made even though the shells weren’t anywhere near smooth. They looked so good 6 minutes into baking, just the perfect macs, but soon after threatened to crack up, but then shriveled slightly. Maybe it was because of undermixing, but the flavours were da bomb! You can find her recipe, perfect macarons and beautiful post here …
To remedy the filling, I melted dark couverture chocolate and stirred it through the maple orange pastry creme, then chilled it. Delicieux!! There was a slight hint of bitterness from the tangerine peel and the balance of flavours was perfect! Thank you my sweet friend Shayma @ The Spice Spoon for adding wonderful spice to my life; inspiration too! I am sure you’ve been to her beautiful blog; it’s a treat in every sense!
Do you want to join us making MACARONS?
If you do, you are most welcome to join us for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!
Summary: A perfect balance of flavours. Blood orange peel macarons, with a bitter orange dark chocolate filling, laced with mild flavours of pure maple. {Makes about 15 macarons}
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- Blood Orange Macarons
- {recipe adapted from David Lebovitz}
- 1 egg white {35gm}, aged 2 days
- 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar {I used vanilla sugar}
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- 1/8 tsp egg white powder
- 1/4 tsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp dried blood orange peel
- Pure maple flakes for sprinkling on shells
- Maple Orange Chocolate Pastry Creme
- 1/8 cup flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp clarified butter, melted {or unsalted butter}
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tbsp pure maple flakes
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- peel of 1 tangerine
- 1 tbsp dried blood orange peel
- 1 tbsp almond meal
- 1/2 cup dark couverture chocolate, melted
Method:
- Blood Orange Macarons
- Run the powdered sugar, cornflour, almond meal, egg white powder and blood orange flakes in your processor until well blended and fine. Sift into a bowl.
- Beat the egg white until foamy, then add the granulated sugar and beat for approximately 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in 1/4 of the dry mix until no streaks remain, then add the remainder of the dry mix and gently fold in until you get a lava like batter. {donot overfold}
- Place into a piping bag and pipe circles onto parchment paper.
- Tap the trays sharply to get rid of air bubbles and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes.
- Bake in double trays at 140C for 12-15 minutes, until the shells are firm and no longer jiggly. {My oven uses just the lower element for baking, so I place the double trays towards the top of the oven}
- Cool.
- Maple Orange Chocolate Pastry Creme
- Whisk together the flour, tangerine rind, maple flakes, sugar, salt, melted butter and egg in a heavy saucepan. Slowly add in the milk, whisking to ensure no lumps form. Place over medium heat with vanilla bean and bring to a simmer. Make sure you stir constantly so that the cream doesn’t ‘catch’ the bottom of the pan. Stir constantly until thick, remove from the heat and push through a sieve. Stir in the blood orange flakes, add the melted chocolate and whisk occasionally as it cools. Chill to firm up.
- Thermomix Maple Orange Pastry Creme
- Place all ingredients except blood orange flakes in bowl of TM, mix on reverse speed 2 for 5 seconds, then cook at 90C, Speed 4 for 7 minutes.
- Push through a sieve into a bowl, mix in blood orange flakes and stir occasionally until cool.
- To assemble:
- Match equal halves of macarons, and keep together.
- Use a small spoon and deposit a tiny amount of pastry creme on the flat side of the macaron and sandwich with another half of the same size, squeezing gently. Rest in fridge for a day to allow the flavours to mature.
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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
25 Comments
Rosa
A wonderful choice of flavors! Just heavenly.
Cheers,
Rosa
HI Cookery
Yes, you are definitely special to receive Williams-Sonoma gifts (they are not cheap!). As always, your photography is so dreamy and your blood orange macs with maple orange and CHOCOLATE look divine!
Lakshmi
Deeba, your photography is so pleasing to look at! Your use of color is fantastic. And you have a personal voice. Great!
Lora
What a mac journey you took with these. The flavors are outstanding and If I lived nearby I would surely be banging on your door beging for 1 or 6. Fantastic!
gloria
What lovely and beauty are yours oics dear Deeba, and these macarons really nice and your pet is more bigger!!
Barbara | Creative Culinary
I expected something fabulous and you did not disappoint…not only gorgeous but I love the flavor combination.
I’ve been loving the blood orange season and you’ve helped to extend it just a little bit!
Tara @ TheButterDish
WOW Deepa, I don’t know what I can’t stop drilling over more, your macaroons or your photos! Simply stunning! I love creative ways to make macaroons.
Where do you find such amazing props and how did you learn such incredible food styling? What are some of your tricks of the trade?
I’m so subscribing so I don’t miss another post.
Divya Yadava
Just beautiful, Deeba! That’s a fantastic flavour combo that’s sure to please the palate.
Rekha
OMG..what a lovely treasure of boxes you have got!… and just looking at these lovely macarons is enough to give me a sugar rush 🙂
Kamalkitchen
This is extremely exotic! I think I just have to be content wth drooling over these!
Mardi@eatlivetravelwrite
This is an absolutely delicious post Deeba – I LOVE LOVE LOVE the flavours of this one – last weekend in my classes, I taught an orange shell with choc filling and everyone agreed that it was really really good stuff. Love that combo. Thanks for trying my recipe. Thanks also for understanding about the trial and error of the mysterious mac!
belllii
I don’t know if I will ever venture into Macaroon land but I sure do love the ones I find from a local bakery…imagine lavender…I think blood orange would be exceptional!!!
Tamara
They’re great, I really love this filling!
Jill Colonna
Deeba, I love the sound of all of these flavours together in one sweet mac (also love that quote.) Dried blood orange peel and maple flakes? You certainly didn’t disappoint your cousin (no wonder you have so many visitors!) and adding the chocolate? Divine. Love seeing these boxes. Real macaron heaven looking at all of the beautiful photos.
Jamie
Babes! I have seen jars of the dried orange peel in Nantes and have wanted to buy some – now I must! What a fabulous delicious macaron! Love the flavors – and the touch of maple is perfect! I too wonder why using the same recipe results in different shells almost every time. Curious! And I guess I need to make my macs tomorrow – Oy!
Cristina
Hi Deeba: I love chocolate and citrus/oranges. These are gorgeous macarons…they are works of art! Just beautiful have you’ve styled them. It’s been awhile since I’ve made macarons with MacTweets. I’m going to join next month’s challenge. Thank you for the inspiration and lovely post!
Ambika
The macaroons look perfect, such an interesting flavor combination!! Loved your photos Deeba, so rustic and classic!
child anxiety treatment
Orange flavored macaroons?? Wow. It’s yummy.
Raquel
good parenting skills
A must try macaroons.
Michael
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
These sound so inviting and your pictures especially atmospheric today! I had assumed I’d missed this month’s mactweets, I’m dying to join in again but not managed to catch announcements early enough to give myself time to take part.
Very interested to read about you using Thermomix, I hadn’t a clue what one of these was until recently but now I’ve seen one demonstrated I’m very interested in getting one!
s
Thank you so much, my sweet friend- there i was telling you to use these spices in pancakes and here you are, being innovative and talented as always and using them to make macarons! just lovely, lovely. thanks for the honourable mention and kind words. love, s
DonF
Muy delicioiso! Thanks for this! Great food sensory !
Alicia @ Urban Strawberries
These look delicious. I love all your photographs of them, they are beautiful.