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Saturday, 24 January 2015

Snoopy Macarons with Lemon and Chocolate Filling (tips for piping complex-shaped macarons)

I had some leftover batter from making panda macarons so I thought why not make some Snoopy ones especially since Susanne was making a Snoopy cake as well. And if these turned out well, the recipient may be thrilled to receive these!


Check out the yummy cross-section! Nice crisp outer shell, soft chewy insides and lovely lemon and chocolate filling! My kids loved it!

You can find the recipe in my panda macaron post along with baking tips for light-coloured macaron shells. What I am going to highlight here is how to pipe complex shapes like Snoopy.

Firstly, use a template. This is a must. You may choose to pipe a mirror image shell for the bottom piece or a circle. I chose the latter as it is easier and there is no guarantee that the bottom shell is going to fit the top shell nicely anyway. Update: It's been about 6 months since this post. I would prefer to pipe a mirror imaged bottom shell now as it looks nicer :). But you may pipe a round shell if you are still starting out with fancy shaped macarons.

Under-fold your batter a little during macaronage. The batter should move slowly when you tilt the bowl but it may fall off the spatula in a slightly discontinuous manner. Your batter should be slightly runnier if you are piping round shells.

Don't fill out your template completely as macaron batter spreads a little after piping. Any corners will be rounded and filled out so do leave extra space unfilled at those places.

Break up your model into circles. Macarons are piped in round circles. To create a complex picture, imagine it being made up of circles. E.g. Snoopy's head can be broken up into circles piped at the snout, forehead, ear and the space in between.

Freshly piped!

Use a toothpick to pull the batter to fill any corners or small pointed features. E.g. Snoopy's neck, which I tried piping for one of the heads.

Use a toothpick to paint in small details of batter. E.g. Snoopy's eye and mouth

Macaron shells just before baking

Freshly baked! 

A better view of the feet

Filling the shells with lemon smbc, lemon curd and chocolate ganache!

All packed!

Thank God the macarons were well received!

With love,
Phay Shing







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9 comments:

  1. Unknown11 July 2015 at 19:30

    hi..

    how do you pipe the black snoopy ear? do you pipe the black batter on top of the white while the white batter is still wet?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phay Shing12 July 2015 at 07:41

      Hi Alicia :)

      Yes I piped the black batter for the ear while the white batter is still wet. If you prefer a more 3D black ear, you may pipe it on about 15 minutes after piping the white shell.

      Delete
  2. Unknown13 July 2015 at 18:52

    thank you so much... when you pipe it on top the batter does not spread too much?
    I am trying to make shapes.. but it didnt turn out well :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phay Shing13 July 2015 at 22:43

      Hi Alicia,

      You can see from my photos in this post that the batter did spread a little after piping the black ear on. I think it depends on the size of the area you are covering. If it's a small patch and you don't need it to be 3D, e.g. Pedro Pony's spots or Peppa Pig's cheek, you may pipe it on while the base batter is wet. If the area is large, e.g. the white face patch on the guinea pig, it's better to wait until a sticky membrane has formed on the base batter. Otherwise the spread will be significant. You can find both examples in the blog :). Yes, I made the mistake of not waiting for the base batter to dry for the guinea pig so the top shell ended up bigger than the bottom shell :p

      Delete
  3. Unknown20 September 2015 at 02:55

    Hi, do you have the link for the snoopy template?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Phay Shing20 September 2015 at 03:53

      Hi Veronica, I can't remember which one I used. I just search for Snoopy image and did some image processing like cropping to get the head (without body) and using edge detection function of an imaging software to get a line drawing

      Delete
    2. Phay Shing20 September 2015 at 03:53

      Hi Veronica, I can't remember which one I used. I just search for Snoopy image and did some image processing like cropping to get the head (without body) and using edge detection function of an imaging software to get a line drawing

      Delete
    3. Phay Shing20 September 2015 at 03:53

      Hi Veronica, I can't remember which one I used. I just search for Snoopy image and did some image processing like cropping to get the head (without body) and using edge detection function of an imaging software to get a line drawing

      Delete
  4. snoopy lovers5 October 2021 at 09:54

    great

    ReplyDelete