“Food is so primal, so essential a part of our lives, often the mere sharing of recipes with strangers turns them into good friends. That’s why I love this community.”
Jasmine Heiler
So much happening all the time, haven’t had a free moment ever since I’ve been back from the Food Blogger Connect in London. I’ve been busy baking scones (101 Cookbook) and a Ginger Cake (David Lebovitz recipe), and I’m just in time to make the deadline for the 2nd MacAttack which Jamie and I are hosting. It’s time to get back to MACTWEETS where we’ve found this amazing bunch of peeps joining us find ‘FEET‘.
Making macarons began as a passion with us on twitter, and then I threw Jamie a challenge which she took up wholeheartedly. Soon we had many more interested and excited foodies wanting to join us make macs, and so we brought about Mactweets. “We decided to create this ‘Mactweets’ blog as our virtual Mac Kitchen, a place where all of us could gather, share advice and laughs, find encouragement and solace, give cheers and pats on the back.”
This is our second macaron challenge, the first one being hosted on the Mactweets blog. It’s inspirational and special in every way as we have a wonderful lot of bakers eager to embrace the macaron for all it’s worth! This fiddly French cookie still tends to disappoint at times, yet still has the ability to make me scream from the rooftop or twittertop when feet appear!
Here are my precious macarons for the challenge. You still have some time today if you wish to jump on board. The basic recipe can be found on the Mactweets blog, with ‘what you need to do’ if you’d like to join us. Tweet us, mail us, or leave a comment either on Jamie’s blog, my blog or the Mactweets blog, and we’ll be thrilled to have you. Our first challenge on Mactweets has 40 members on the blogroll, and the list is growing. Every one’s welcome to the Mactweet party!!
I made hibiscus macarons for the challenge as I am currently enamoured by using natural colours and flavours in food I bake/cook. My Man Friday got me a huge bunch of beautiful hibiscus flowers a while ago and I recalled Very Small Anna mentioning using them. That’s what I decided to do too. I dried them in direct sunlight for about 10-12 days under some mulmul/cheesecloth. They retained quite a bit of their colour. It’s a wonderful feeling to dry and use natural edible flowers in baking.
Of course my first attempt was a total disaster… lavender macarons using some wonderful lavender that Purple Foodie had mailed me. My first batch of macs didn’t develop feel of any kind using the challenge recipe. They spread out in a rather alarming manner, and I literally wept at my loss of lavender that I had used to flavour them. I had flavoured some mascarpone as well to use in the filling, so I eventually used it in this Lavender Mascarpone Cake for my birthday.
Trying to find feet once again, I returned back to the David Lebovitz recipe that seems to be the only one that works for me. As always, I’m still treading very slowly, and still do a single egg white batch. It’s been an absolute joy to hear tweets and read mails from fellow macpassionates, some who found victory on first attempt, and some later. It’s wonderful too to see each one help the other, sharing valuable bits of advice and experience … the camaraderie was just what we had in mind!
My macs are anything but a pretty pink because I think the drop of lime juice that I used in my macronage had a chemical reaction with the pink of the hibiscus, and gave it a bluish green colour. I loved that colour too and learnt something new – Machemical reactions! … all the chemistry lab experiments in school suddenly began to make sense. Jamie has a beautiful tutorial on making the meringue posted on MacTweets. I found it very helpful. Take a look here….
The filling for the macs was mascarpone…flavoured gently and luxuriously with lavender, vanilla castor sugar and powdered hibiscus. The powdered hibiscus merely lent it colour while the lavender scented it sweetly. I made the filling a little less sweet than I normally do, since the shells add to sweetness as well. This batch was very delicate and delicious!
Hibiscus Macarons with Lavender-Hibiscus Marcarpone Cream
as adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe
(I made half this recipe)
Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered vanilla sugar
½ cup powdered almonds
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 drop of lime juice
2-3 dried pink hibiscus flowers powdered with the sugar
(I made half this recipe)
Macaron Batter
1 cup powdered vanilla sugar
½ cup powdered almonds
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 drop of lime juice
2-3 dried pink hibiscus flowers powdered with the sugar
Method:
I followed Jamie’s meringue mixing method from her Meringue tutorial.
I followed Jamie’s meringue mixing method from her Meringue tutorial.
Lavender-Hibiscus Marcarpone Cream
Double the ingredients if you are making the whole recipe above.
50gms mascarpone (homemade recipe here)
1-2 tbsps powdered vanilla sugar (according to taste)
1/4tsp lavender
2-3 powdered hibiscus flowers
Method:
Steep the mascarpone with the lavender overnight in an airtight container.
Next day, add the sugar and hibiscus and whip to a firm consistency.
Pipe onto cookies and sandwich. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
50gms mascarpone (homemade recipe here)
1-2 tbsps powdered vanilla sugar (according to taste)
1/4tsp lavender
2-3 powdered hibiscus flowers
Method:
Steep the mascarpone with the lavender overnight in an airtight container.
Next day, add the sugar and hibiscus and whip to a firm consistency.
Pipe onto cookies and sandwich. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
I am also delighted to receive this beautiful book from the Daring Kitchen for my entry to their cake decorating event here. Thank you Lis and Ivonne… I love the book dearly!
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