Pirate & Sea Creatures Mango and Strawberry Macarons (New filling recipe!)

I have a request for some cute pirates along with some sea creatures for a birthday party. If you think they look familiar, that's because I have made these designs before and all of them (except the pirates) are featured in my Creative Baking: Macarons book.

What I am excited about sharing in this post is the new recipe for strawberry white chocolate ganache that is stable at Singapore's room temperature and is able to keep in air-conditioned room temperature for 2-3 days, making it perfect as door gifts. I used to flavour the strawberry ganache with strawberry paste only but this new and improved version contains high percentage of fresh fruit puree.

After my discovery of making a creamy mango ganache with high fresh fruit content but yet stable at Singapore's room temperature, someone asked if the same can be done for strawberry. I took this chance to test it out. So glad that it works well for strawberries too! I can now safely say that this recipe/method will work for all types of fruit. Simply adjust the fruit flavouring/essence according to taste.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too. Templates and steps for making the sea creatures can be found in Creative Baking: Macarons.

The freshly baked shells were decorated with edible black marker and royal icing. I used silver dragees for the pirate's earings

For the fillings, begin by blending 1-1.5 cups of coarsely chopped fresh fruit with 1/2-1tsp of lemon juice (to prevent browning). Sieve the puree to remove the lumps.

I love the natural vibrant colours of fresh strawberry and mango puree!

Recipe for whipped strawberry white chocolate ganache
Ingredients (fills about 16-20 macarons):
55g white chocolate, chopped
10g vegetable shortening
10g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
25g strawberry puree
1/2 tsp strawberry emulco/paste

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate, vegetable shortening and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat at medium power for 20 seconds. Mix well with a spatula. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Add salt and mix well.

2. Freeze the bowl for 1-2 minutes and mix well with spatula. Repeat freezing and mixing. As the mixture thickens, start to beat it with the spatula. You will notice that the texture will lighten up and become creamy.

3. Add a teaspoon of puree and whip the mixture with the spatula until well combined. Repeat until all the puree has been added. Add strawberry puree and mix well. The texture should be like buttercream

Adding strawberry puree to plain whipped ganache. Look at how smooth and creamy the whipped ganache is!

Fresh strawberry puree added only. Forgot to take a photo after adding strawberry emulco.

4. Transfer whipped strawberry ganache into piping bag and pipe onto the shells. Store assembled macarons in the fridge in an airtight container for at least 24h before serving. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before consuming.

Filling some with mango ganache!

With love,
Phay Shing