Totoro Assorted Macarons

I made this set of Totoro macarons because I have always wanted to make a set of them :). Finally macarons that I choose to make :p.

A better view of the feet!

I didn't make that many as I was working on other macarons at the same time but I will just type out the ingredients for making a larger batch of each type of shells for your reference. I used natural ingredients to colour the shells as far as possible. Do checkout my first ever video tutorial for making macarons! Includes videos of macaronage and how to test to see if your batter is ready.

Ingredients:
200g superfine ground almonds/almond meal
200g icing sugar
200g caster sugar
75g water
160g egg whites, divide into one 80g portion and three 26g portions
1/2 tbs dried blue pea flowers (optional)
3/4 tsp charcoal powder
3/4 tsp cocoa powder
A drop of royal blue gel food colouring
1/8 tsp white powder food colouring (optional)

Steps:
1. Prepare templates and place under baking sheet on a baking tray. Steep blue pea flowers in one 26g egg white portion for an hour. Remove the flowers and add extra egg white to make it 26g again. If you find this too troublesome, just stick with using gel food colouring.

2. In three separate bowls, sift together almond, icing sugar and any other powdered form of color/ favour. Charcoal and cocoa powder for grey and white powder for white shells.

3. Add egg whites to the sifted dry ingredients to form a mass.

As you can see, the mass coloured with blue pea flowers is dull coloured so some artificial colouring is needed.

4. Make the Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small saucepan until 115°C. As the syrup is being heated up, beat 80g of egg whites in a clean metal bowl until soft peaks form. Make sure you don't beat past the soft peak stage. Reduce mixer speed if necessary to keep egg whites moving. Once the syrup reaches 115°C, take it off the heat, turn mixer speed to high and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites, taking care to avoid the beaters. Keep beating on high for 10-12 minutes until the meringue is stiff, glossy and cool. Leave about 1/4 cup of meringue unused. You may use this excess to help to hold the baking sheet down to the baking tray.

5. Fold the meringue into the masses in two additions with a spatula, with about 1/3 of the portion for the first addition to lighten up the batter. Use the fold and press motion to fold in the meringue. Once no trace of meringue can be seen, start testing the consistency of the batter to see if it is ready. It should be slightly underfolded as a non-round shape is piped here. Keep folding until the batter moves in a slow lava-like manner but falls off the spatula in a slightly discontinuous way.

6. Transfer the batter into piping bag fitted with a Wilton #12 round tip for grey and blue shells, #10 tip for white shell. Pipe the ears using Wilton #5 tip and pull it until it is more pointy with a toothpick. Tap the tray hard on the table a few times to release trapped air bubbles. Let the blue and grey shells dry for about 15 minutes before piping on the white patch and the arms. Use a toothpick to add on the blue/grey ticks on the body. Dry the completed shells in aircon room for 1.5-2 hours or until it is no longer tacky to touch when you run a finger across the shell.

Completely piped shells

7. Bake the small white shells at 120-130°C for 17-20 minutes at the lowest rack in the oven, rotating the tray halfway through baking. Bake the blue shells for about 18-22 minutes at 130°C and the grey shells for 20-23 minutes at 130°C. Note that temperature and time is a gauge. Every oven behaves differently. You should be able to lift the shells off easily if it is done. Cool the shells on the tray for 5-10 minutes before removing them. I have different baking times for different shells as I made them of different sizes. You may check out this post for more details on how to make sure your shells are baked through without browning in my comments.

I used royal icing to add on the eyes, nose, whiskers and leaf. Use very stiff royal icing (by adding more icing sugar until you get the right consistency) for the leaf so that the stem is able to stick out.

Wait for the icing to dry completely before filling the shells. I filled them with whatever filling I had on hand from my other macaron bakes (Yes, bakes! I also made soccerballs, snowflakes, a few bears, Mickey Mouse, car tyres and Lightning Mcqueen!)

Filled some with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream

Filled others with dark chocolate

Store the filled shells in the fridge for at least 24h before serving.

With love,
Phay Shing