Monday 9 February 2015

Mickey & Minnie Cookies and Cream Macarons (updated version)

Someone requested for some Mickey and Minnie mouse macarons with cookies and cream as the flavour. But this time, Minnie is dressed in pink and adorned with more polka dots!


I made some slight modifications to the recipe for the shells and filling from my first attempt. I increased the amount of charcoal and cocoa to make use of more natural colouring and flavour. The addition of vanilla bean paste is to enhance the flavour too! Many thanks to Susanne for this gift otherwise I will not have vanilla bean paste in my possession. I have to confess that I had to junk my batch of French buttercream (buttercream that uses egg yolks like in my previous Mickey macs attempt. I tried a different French buttercream recipe.) Much as it is nice to be able to use up all that excess egg yolks from making macaron shells, French buttercream is just a little too tricky for me. The cream separated and I couldn't salvage it so it's back to good old foolproof swiss meringue buttercream!

Beside a change in recipe, I used a mix of oven drying and aircon drying of the shells to get the optimal drying time for fit my routine as aircon drying takes way too long and oven drying tends to result in shells that are too dry. Since I have 5 trays to dry, I can't dry them in the oven all at once. By the time the last tray of shells are dry, the first tray would have been sitting out for quite a while. My panda and Peppa Pig macarons have feet that are not as beautiful due to this reason. Check out the feet from this batch of macs!


Please refer to my previous macaron shell recipe for the detailed steps. I will highlight the changes here.

Macaron shells
Ingredients:
200g almond powder/meal (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
2 tsp cocoa powder
15g charcoal powder
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)
Black gel food colouring
200g caster sugar
75ml water
160g egg whites, divide into two equal portions (preferably aged)

Prepare the mass and Italian meringue. As usual, be careful not to overfold the batter during macaronage.

Macaron batter just before transfer into piping bag

Pipe batter onto baking sheet with template under.


I dried each tray of shells in the oven at 60°C fan mode for 10-15 minutes before aircon drying until it is time to bake. Total drying time for each tray is about an hour. If you can fit all your trays in the oven, by all means oven dry them in one round and just ramp up the oven temperature when they are dry.


Royal icing
Ingredients:
126g icing sugar
9g meringue powder
24g water
Gel food colouring

Pardon me for not using more natural colouring this time :p. I am really busy and needed to speed things up by making the icing in one batch. I have found the optimal whisking time for royal icing, which is around 5-6 minutes of continuous hand whisking. You may use the electric mixer if you don't like the hand exercise. Do adjust the consistency by adding more water or icing sugar. Any peaks in the icing should disappear in 10 seconds.

Freshly iced!

Cookies and cream smbc
Ingredients:
250g smbc
70g crushed Oreo cookies (cream removed)

(I actually used 268g of smbc and 80g of crushed oreos because that was a convenient proportion for me)

Please refer to this recipe for the basic smbc. Just omit the Horlicks and water in the recipe. Beat in crushed oreos until well combined. Transfer to piping/ziplock bag and pipe the filling onto the bottom shells. Place the top shell on and refrigerate until it is time to serve. Keep the macs in airtight container. They can keep for a week plus in the fridge.



I have some extra batter (didn't use all up for these mice) which I made full use of to create two other designs of cute macarons. Check out my cute bumblebee and Badtz Maru macarons!


All packed!

I am submitting this post to Best Recipes for Everyone Jan & Feb 2015 Event Theme: My Homemade Cookies organized by Fion of XuanHom’s Mom and co-hosted by Victoria Bakes.

With love,
Phay Shing


For the first time, we are joining 16 fabulous cooking bloggers to bring you the chance to start the Year of the Ram in the best way - by winning an ang pow! Leave a comment in the Combined CNY Giveaway Post for a chance to win!




8 comments:

  1. M I C K E Y M O U S E... That's the tune singing in my mind now.... I truly wonder what u canNOT do Phay Shing! Can I boldy request for Victoria macarons?

    Thanks for giving that extra cutie oomph to best recipes

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    Replies
    1. It's my pleasure to add a little cutieness to best recipes, Victoria :). Haha I can't seem to get french buttercream right! I don't mind making Victoria macarons for fun with extra batter. ..but what exactly is the design?:p

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  2. You are so so so so creative!These Mickey & minnie so so so cute!

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  3. Hi Phay Shing, I read your macarons post over and over again as I'm a newbie. Sorry to trouble you to explain to me:

    1. Some of your post you mentioned you kept 1/4 cup meringue as it will be too much to add. How do you store and re-use this 1/4 cup the next time?

    2. When you refer back to the previous recipe you've used and there's 1/4 cup left, which recipe to follow?

    3. Which recipe should I use to make black colour macarons without having the extra 1/4 cup meringue (scared I will fail my macarons!)

    Really very sorry to trouble you as I'm confused but wish to try out your black macarons and peppa pig! yours look fantastic!

    Thank you Very much in Advance!

    Claire

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    Replies
    1. Hi Claire,

      Thanks for taking pains to study the recipes I typed out! I am sorry if I confused you.

      I discard the excess Italian meringue that is not used. Sounds wasteful, I know :p but I can't find other use for it. You may use the recipe in our current discussion thread for black coloured macarons.

      As mentioned in some of my macaron posts, do watch video demos of how to fold the batter and the correct consistency for piping since you are a newbie. It's something that I can't put into words in my blog posts but very important to master in order for you to get nice macarons.

      Don't be afraid to fail :). I had quite a few failures when I first started. All the best in trying! Hope you get nice feet on your macs on your first try!

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  4. Are you talented mickey macaron baker taking order? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Yes we take orders but will only accept if we can cope as we are sahms who are hobby bakers. Please email me at the address that can be found in our blog if you would like to order. Thanks :)

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