Thursday 27 May 2010

Baby tiramisu macarons

I was tempted to title this post "somewhat tiramisu" macarons which was the label I used for photos of these macarons posted on my facebook page. Encouraged by my not-too-disastrous pilot attempts at macarons last week and extremely kind comments left by friends on my macaron photos posted on facebook, I was eager to work on some interesting macaron flavors this week. There were quite a bit of mascarpone cheese left in the fridge, and I knew I had kahlua & cocoa powder in the kitchen cupboard, so I ended up setting my mind on creating some tiramisu macarons!

A quick research on the internet didn't yield me a tiramisu macaron recipe that I could use or modify with the ingredients I had identified for use... that meant I had to improvise somewhat blindly which is always risky for me. For some reason I thought it might be good to have coffee flavored shells, so I added some instant coffee powder to the ground almond and powdered sugar mixture. Just as I was ready to bag and pipe the brown colored batter, I suddenly recalled Herr Scherrer's suggestion to make bite-size macarons, hmm... so I ended up piping little circles no more than 2cm in diameter (some around 2cm, some closer to 1.5cm due to my lack of consistent piping skills).

So into the oven they went after resting on the baking sheet for around 30 mins. I absentmindedly set the oven temperature and timer at 138 C and 25 mins which was what worked for my last batch of macarons, but forgetting that these macarons are much smaller!! So when I looked into the oven 15 mins later, I could tell some of these baby macarons were going to end up with a cracked top. I immediately reduced the temperature and timer and managed to salvage most of it, though quite a number were goners...

Next came the filling. Still trying to go with the tiramisu theme I scooped around 60g of mascarpone cheese into a mixer bowl, went with my gut feel and threw in 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of kahlua. After a few minutes of beating I tested the mixture and realised i probably added too much cocoa powder as the choco taste overwhelmed everything else. I quickly threw in another 20g of mascarpone cheese and 1 teaspoon of kahlua. In my view the end result was still a little heavy in terms of cocoa, but the last minute rescue managed to balance it out a little - I could definitely taste the kahlua. If I were to try this again I would probably use 3/4 or half the cocoa quantity.

So... if you have been reading my lengthy rant above you'll understand why I labeled my photo "somewhat tiramisu" macarons. One could almost think of tiramisu when biting into these macarons but it could have been more distinct had my gut feel been more accurate... oh well...

Other than macaron escapades, the past week I also decided its time to "upgrade" to an SLR in an attempt to shoot better photos of my kitchen creations. I've so far been using a compact camera and as much as I enjoy its convenience, I also get a little frustrated at times by its simplicity. So, these photos of "somewhat tiramisu" macarons are with my new nikon D5000!!


6 comments:

  1. Great idea, and they look beautiful. I might try a tiramisu-inspired macaron, maybe with zabaglione as an ingredient in the filling. And hey, it's a way to use up the egg yolks, which I hate to waste.

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  2. Thanks! The use of zabaglione sounds yummy! You're right, I can never think of a good way to use up those egg yolks!

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  3. they look like like little burgers. SO CUTE!!

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  4. Those are really, really cute! I wish I could try one. I am still too scared to attempt macarons.

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