Looking sweet!
I filled these macs with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream (smbc) that is made with fresh strawberry puree so the fragrance and flavour is nice and fresh :). I used some natural food colouring from beetroot source to colour the shells to minimize the use of artificial colouring.
Bought from my recent trip to Malaysia
I actually made only 3 macarons but will provide the recipe for a larger batch.
Recipe for strawberry macaron shells (makes about 30-35 macarons, 60-70 shells depending on size)
Ingredients:
200g ground almond (preferably superfine)
200g icing sugar
2 tsp natural-sourced pink powder food colouring (optional)
1/2 tsp strawberry paste
Pink gel food colouring
200g caster sugar
75ml water
160g egg whites, divided into 2 equal portions (preferably aged overnight or a few days)
Please refer to my previous post for the detailed steps to make the shells. Check out my video tutorials for the macaronage process. Sift the pink powder together with the almond meal and icing sugar. Add strawberry paste to the almond meal mass.
Freshly piped!
The thing to take note about piping My Melody is to prepare templates with a mirror image for the bottom shell. Pipe on the ear that flops down for the top shells last, waiting for the shell to somewhat air dry a bit for a few minutes before piping on. This is to help create a more 3-D flopped ear instead of just a flat surface. The consistency of the batter is also a little tricky to get right. Too runny and you can't get the 3D ear. Too thick and you get a bumpy surface. I used a 5-6mm round tip to pipe the batter.
Freshly baked shells! I was making some Miffy ones too as you can see
Decorate the shells with royal icing. Refer to this post for the royal icing recipe.
Pipe the flowers using the template as shown below and peel off from the baking sheet when dried. Pipe the petals one at a time, waiting for the previous one to dry before piping on the next. You may oven dry the wet icing at 60°C fan mode in the oven to speed things up.
Pipe on the facial features and stick on the flower with a bit of royal icing. You may choose to pipe the flower directly on the shell if you don't mind not having a bit of the flower sticking out at the side.
Freshly iced!
Recipe for strawberry smbc
Ingredients:
35-40g strawberry puree
1/4 tsp strawberry paste
200g smbc
Make strawberry puree by blending some strawberries with a bit of water.
Please refer to this recipe for the basic smbc, omitting the horlicks, water and vanilla.
Gradually add strawberry puree into the smbc while mixing with a whisk or spatula. Add strawberry paste and mix well.
Transfer the cream into a piping bag. Fill the shells as shown below.
With love,
Phay Shing
Where can you get the template from please?
ReplyDeleteYou may search the Internet for any image of My Melody that you like, copy and paste into word document and print out :). Sometimes some image processing is required if you can't find suitable images.
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