'Christmas Bears' Macarons With Non-Dairy Lemon & Strawberry Cream Filling (no-refrigeration required!)

Here are some bears very much into the Christmas partying mood, all donning red-and-white hats and getting drunk on beer or enjoying a candy cane :).

Here's a peek at the lemon and strawberry creams which do not need refrigeration as requested.

It's my first time filling macarons with non-dairy, non-refrigerated creams for a request. This type of filling does not taste as wonderful as proper swiss meringue buttercream based fillings but serve well enough when refrigeration is an issue.

You have seen these bears making their first appearance here and then appearing here again. They will also appear in my upcoming Creative Baking: Macarons book :).

You may refer to this post for the basic macaron recipe.

 Prepare some royal icing to add on the snout of the bears. Use black edible marker to draw the eyes, nose and mouth. Please use black royal icing to add on these features if you are using fillings that require refrigeration or the edible marker will smudge. I learnt that the hard way :p. Use peach coloured lustre dust to add on rosy cheeks.

Pipe the candy canes, beer mugs and Christmas hats onto baking sheet with a template of the bears under it.

Recipe for non-dairy cream, lemon and strawberry flavours

It's not easy trying to source for recipes for this type of cream and I figured that it's because it's used as a last resort. The flavours added to this cream base has to be pretty strong for the whole combination to work. I have toned down on the amount of sugar used so that the cream is not overwhelmingly sweet. This base can be used for a variety of other flavours too. I adapted the recipe from here. I would recommend adding flavourings gradually and doing a taste test before using the cream. You should aim for more sour or salty outcome than you would like if the filling has a sour or salty base because the macaron shells are sweet.

Ingredients (fills about 25 macarons):
60g vegetable shortening
120g icing sugar
2tsp boiled water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp strawberry emulco
1/4 tsp rose water
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp lemon paste

Steps:
1.  Beat shortening in mixing bowl with electric mixer for about 1 minute at low speed. Add a tsp of water and beat for another minute until smooth and creamy.

2. Add icing sugar, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla and a tsp of water. Beat at low speed until everything comes together, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary. Increase speed and beat at high speed for about 6-8 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice in between. You should get a creamy mixture that resembles buttercream.

3. Divide the cream into two portions. Add strawberry emulco and rose water to one portion. Add lemon zest, extract and paste to the other portion. Use hand whisk or electric mixer to combine everything thoroughly.

Adding lemon zest

Looks very much like lemon swiss meringue buttercream!

4. Transfer creams into piping bags and pipe onto the macaron shells.

5. Store the assembled shells in airtight condition at a cool place.

With love,
Phay Shing