GRG Death Stars vs Bad Omens Macaron Special!

So, I blogged about macarons last around the time of the first Team Scotland public bout, when I gave my recipes for Team Scotland and Team Steve Macarons.

Since then, I've also baked macarons the second Team Scotland outing (against the Northern AllStars), but didn't really change the recipe much, so there wasn't much point in blogging.

This Saturday, however, is the final of the Glasgow Roller Girls Intraleague Season Two, featuring the Death Stars vs the Bad Omens for the second time!

In honour of both teams, I have prepared some new macarons, which I shall tell you how to make.

Death Stars on the left, Bad Omens on the right.

All macaron shells are based on the recipe linked in the previous article.

Death Stars Macarons

Shells

Make the shells as with the above recipe, substituting vanilla sugar for granulated sugar.

Filling 

(blueberry butter icing)

Make butter icing as in the above recipe for Team Scotland macarons. Reduce 200 to 300g of frozen blueberries, with a tablespoon of water to stop them burning at first, until they form a thick jam. Strain, and allow to cool. Gradually blend the blueberry essence into the buttercream until you achieve a strong colour and taste without thinning the mix too much. Adjust sweetness and consistency with additional sugar (castor or icing).

Assembly

Pipe the blueberry icing onto one shell, and assemble with a matching shell with a slight twisting motion.

Bad Omens Macarons

Shells

Make shells as with the Best of the Rest chocolate macaron shells.

Filling 

(raspberry butter icing)

Make as with the above Death Stars icing, but substitute raspberries for blueberries.

Assembly

As above!

The unbearable lightness of Macaron.

So, somehow I managed to promise Team Scotland some macaron for their inaugural bout on the 10th of September.

This may or may not have been a problem, considering that I've never made them before.

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For those of you not aware of them, macaron are French confections, made by carefully folding almond flour and whipped meringue, and piping out small biscuits. They're almost always served sandwiched around a stiff filling, like a flavoured buttercream or ganache, which permeates the macaron with its flavour over a day's maturation. The British macaroon is a kind of de-evolved offshoot of them, despite being almost totally different nowadays.

Macaron are also famously finicky to make, being very sensitive to oven temperature, undercooking, over (and under) mixing, and excessive haste. In particular, it is essential to rest your piped macaron before cooking, for up to an hour, and they are at their best a day or two after cooking (macaron that appear overcooked can improve tremendously after sitting and absorbing moisture from their filling for a while).

Considering their forebodingly exacting requirements, I was wondering if I would ever be able to make workable biscuits, so I did a test run this evening...

(The following macaron use the recipe from http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaron-troubleshooting-new-recipe.html which also include an extensive list of tips on how to improve your macaron.)

Unbaked, resting macaron. They're just starting to develop a skin here. (The blue colour is from a single drop of food colouring gel added to the mix. I think I probably need a second drop to get the right hue.)

Macron post cooking. They've browned a little too much, so our  oven is clearly a little too hot.

Base of macaron - you can tell it is cooked, as the base is almost totally flat.

Closeup of broken macaron - notice the lack of large internal bubbles (a sign of undercooking, or undermixing of the macaronage). Notice also the feet on the base of the macaron, which are a little extended, due to the too hot oven.

A completed macaron, a little messy since it's just a test. The filling is an orange buttercream, made to the recipe on http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2008/01/lavender-and-orange-macaroons.html

So, actually, my first macarons have turned out okay, actually. Certainly not a disaster.

I encourage everyone else to try making these excellent little French confections, they're not as scary as you think!