Sumikko Gurashi Raspberry Macarons

Many people in this day and age still think that depression is something you can think your way out of through positive self talk. It doesn't work that way. What depression sufferers need is lots of love, patience and support. I made some Sumikko Gurashi macarons for hubby and a friend who are fans of Sumikko Gurashi and they have depression. The characters are holding little hearts because depression suffers need all that love ❤.

I filled the macarons with homemade raspberry jam and raspberry whipped white chocolate ganache. Feedback was great in terms of looks and taste!

Due to my fairly packed schedule, I decided to break down the bake into two separate days, and each day baking only a small quantity of macarons. That means choosing the French method to make these because Swiss and Italian methods are best for larger batches although my preference is to use either of these two if I need to work with multiple colours because you can colour the almond paste before meringue is added in, reducing the risk of overfolding.

I used this recipe which is French method stabilized with cornflour. Just to share some photos of piping the batter...

I ran out of blue 😆

You may refer to my macaron books, Macarons and Macaron Basics for more details on the techniques involved in piping and baking macaron shells such as these. I also have various video tutorials on the blog that you may refer to.

Partially decorated macaron shells. I used royal icing and black edible marker to decorate the shells 

I filled the macaron shells with raspberry whipped ganache and homemade raspberry jam. I make it a point to make my own jam from scratch as it is more intense in flavour and I can control what goes in there. I don't necessarily stick to the same ingredient proportions for the jam as it depends on how tart I want it to be, but I don't use thickeners such as cornstarch. Since hubby requested something not so sweet, I made the jam really tart. You may adjust the quantities according to taste.

Raspberry jam
Ingredients:
180g fresh raspberries
20g sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Steps:
1. Place everything in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring often to prevent jam from burning. Reduce the liquid until consistency is to your liking.

2. Press the jam through a sieve to remove the seeds. Store in fridge in airtight glass container for up to a month.

Here's another view of them all lined up neatly!

Spreading the love around

With lots of love,
Phay Shing