My Melody Macarons with Mango Ganache (New filling recipe!)

I love bakes that challenge me within reason. This is one of them :)

My friend requested for some full-bodied My Melody macarons that are to be given away as gifts. She wanted some filled with dark chocolate ganache and some with mango flavoured filling. While the dark chocolate filling is a no-brainer, the mango one is a challenge in hot and humid Singapore. I am happy to say that my experiment with making a mango flavoured filling that is full of fresh fruit puree but stable at Singapore's hot room temperature is a success! And this is the new recipe that I would like to share in this blog post.

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.

Just to share some pictures of the piping process...

Freshly baked shells!

I created the flowers on My Melody using royal icing. The templates for the macaron shells come in handy for this too. Be sure to let the icing dry thoroughly before attempting to remove them from the baking paper.

Decoration was done using a combination of royal icing and black edible marker.

Checkout the feet!

I googled for a mango white chocolate ganache recipe suitable for macarons and found this, which I used as my reference. I found the proportion of puree used a little low and I was wondering if cream could be omitted totally without risking the whole mixture separating/chocolate seizing. The ganache needs to be firm and omitting the cream allows more puree to be added without making the ganache too soft.

I bought some Thai mangoes and made a puree by blending one mango with 1tsp of lemon juice. The lemon juice is added to prevent browning. I sieved the puree to ensure that it is smooth.

Mango puree

Recipe for whipped mango 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 mango puree
1/4 tsp mango flavouring

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 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 mango flavouring and mix well. The texture should be like buttercream

4. Transfer whipped mango 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.

I filled some shells with dark chocolate ganache.

I am really excited about discovering this new filling as it opens up new options for flavours that are suitable for macarons which need to withstand longer storage away from the fridge in hot and humid Singapore.

With love,
Phay Shing