Oreo Macarons

The boys love oreo cookies. I buy them for them, but often end up eating almost an entire packet on my own whilst they're at school (shhh...just our little secret!) I haven't made macarons for a while and we do love them, so I was thinking of new flavours that I'd like to try and pairing oreos and macarons just seemed like a match made in heaven. We were heading for a family bank holiday weekend and I looking for some munchies with limited time in the kitchen. Although some people are nervous about how fiddly these are to make, the longest part is leaving them to rest - making them and cooking them is relatively quick as long as you're precise and have a method that works for you.

I followed my usual method for making the batter, however added crushed oreo cookies to the meringue batter (3 or 4 cookies blitzed in the food processor). This doesn't add a huge amount of flavour - just the speckled texture in the shell so add as much as you like to give you the shell that you like. Then I often leave them to rest for an hour and go off and do something else around the house. The key to them being ready for the oven, is that when you touch the top of a shell lightly with your finger, they have formed a skin so your finger comes away dry and not sticky or slightly wet with the batter.

The flavour of the oreo cookies really shines through in the buttercream. I made a regular buttercream, but in place of the usual vanilla I added around half a cup of blitzed oreo cookies. Again, you can add as much as you like to get the flavour that you enjoy - mine had the flavour but it wasn't that overwhelming and I really liked it. It's obligatory to keep taste testing the buttercream at every stage to get the right flavour - at least that's what I tell myself!

You'll notice in my cover photo that there are pink macarons too which are a completely different flavour that I was trying and this was for my gran. She loves rose and violet flavoured chocolates (apart from lavender, floral flavours in baking are kind of the work of the devil to me) so I decided to experiment with some rose buttercream macarons just for her. I haven't included this recipe but the only differences to the oreo recipe would be to omit the oreos and add a few drops of pink colour to the shell batter; and then omit the oreos from the buttercream but add a couple of drops of rose water (note: only a couple of drops as it's a strong flavour and you can always add more, but can't take away!)

When the boys arrived home from school and realised that we had oreos AND macarons in one tasty bite, they were delighted. And they LOVED them. My elder son, who a while back appointed themselves as my official taste taster, declared they were a hit - and that I need to make them again.

Mmmm...I feel another batch coming on!

Oreo Macarons Makes 12 (24 shells sandwiched together)

Ingredients

Oreo Macaron Batter

• 100G CASTER SUGAR
• 37ML WATER
• 80G EGG WHITES (I use Two Chicks Egg Whites that you can buy in the supermarket)
• 100G GROUND ALMONDS
• 100G ICING SUGAR
• 3-4 OREO COOKIES, BLITZED IN A FOOD PROCESSOR

Oreo Buttercream 

• 115G BUTTER
• 125G ICING SUGAR (SIFTED)
• 1 TBSP MILK
•  6 OREO COOKIES (feel free to add more or less as you like)

Method

1. Line two baking street with baking paper - if you're worried about the consistency of your macaron circles when you come to pipe them, you can draw little circles onto the paper as a guide. My macarons are around 5cm in diameter.
2. Put 40g of the egg whites into a mixer with the balloon whisk.
3. Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and heat without stirring to 95 degrees and then start the mixer on a low speed.
4. When the sugar syrup temperature reaches 105 degrees, increase the speed of the mixer and beat the egg whites to a stiff peak.
5. When the sugar mixture reaches 114 degrees, remove from the heat and pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream down the side of the bowl (not into the middle as you don't want to remove all the air) with the mixer still running.
6. Continue beating for 5 to 10 minutes until the outside of the bowl cools down.
7. Whilst beating the meringue in the mixer, prepare the almond paste.
8. Mix together the icing sugar and ground almonds until they're well mixed. You can sieve them if you want to give a smoother finish on your macarons.
9. Add the remaining egg whites (40g) and mix until you form a paste (this is the stage you'd add any food colouring although that's not needed in this recipe
10. Then once your paste is ready, add a third of the meringue and mix thoroughly - don't worry about knocking the air out at this stage as this is intended to loosen the paste a little before adding the rest of the meringue.
11. Add the remaining meringue, folding it in until it's mixed but be careful not to over-mix at this stage as you want to keep the air in it.
12. Fill a piping bag with a circle nozzle (number 1A works well for this) and pipe out small circles into the baking paper. Sometime you may find that your macarons have a little peak on top but this flattens out during the next stage.
13. I generally leave my macarons for at least an hour to form a thin crust on top - you should be able to lightly touch the macaron with your finger and it springs back without leaving a fingerprint.
14. When you're ready to bake them, pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees and bake them for around 14 minutes.
15. After you take them out of the oven, slide them off the baking tray onto a cool counter and then pop them off the baking paper and let them cool down.
16. Make your buttercream by beating the butter until it's light and fluffy.
17. Then add the icing sugar and mix until they're fully incorporated.
18. Add the milk and beat until it's smooth.
19. Then stir through the oreo cookies.
20. When you're ready to fill them, fill a small piping bag with the buttercream and a regular tip.
21. Pipe a small amount of buttercream into the middle of each macaron and then sandwich them together.
22. Your macarons are now ready to eat - some say they're better the next day - if they hang around that long! 

Macaron Hearts with Nutella

So today it's our 9 year wedding anniversary. 9 years. I mean, 9 years! That's almost a lifetime, right? Any time before we were together is a dim and distant memory now, but we have lots of happy memories and two wonderful boys to show for it :)

Continuing my experimentation with macarons, I thought they would make a nice treat to celebrate our anniversary and decided to look at shapes this time - and what better shape for love than hearts! To make the shell batter, I followed the same recipe and process that I used for my Matcha Macarons - minus the Matcha powder and I used Hollyberry Pink colouring instead of the green to colour them.

To create the heart shape, I created a PowerPoint slide with 12 standard Clipart heart shapes on an A4 sheet of paper and slipped this under the baking paper on my tray to use as a template. It's a little trickier to pipe the hearts and also I didn't achieve the smooth, flat surface that I usually have with the small round macarons but they just have a little more texture than usual! I also thought I'd experiment with some edible heart decorations and these worked well (some decorations can burn in the oven so I thought I'd try just a few with these until I was sure they would work).

We had a family party in the summer and I made a few different flavoured macarons and the most popular filling turned out to be Nutella. I personally find it a bit sweet but since hubby is a chocolate fiend, I thought these would work well with the contrasting dark colour of the chocolate spread.

If you'd like to have a go with these, please use my Matcha Macaron recipe but omit the ½ tsp of Matcha powder from the batter. Then to colour them, I used Sugarflair Sugartint Droplets in Hollyberry/Pink - I had to use quite a lot of this to achieve a dark colour but you can add as much as you like, just remembering that once you add the meringue to the mixture, it will tend to lighten in colour.

Finally, you'll need a jar of Nutella spread or whatever filling you choose for these - simple jam would be just as effective or you can mix the jam with a little buttercream to give a richer filling. The beauty of macarons is that they're so versatile once you master the shell, you can then experiment with lots of flavours, colours and toppings. I use a piping bag to fill my macarons and then sandwich the top onto them. If I had edible glitter, you'd probably see a little of that on there too - but then again, that might not be quite manly enough for this gift!

Matcha Macarons

We are a macaron loving household. When I make a trip into London, I always try to make time for a detour to Laduree or Paul to enjoy a few of their little beauties. But I also enjoy making them at home as we can choose our own colours and flavours and they are quite an investment in the shops, especially buying enough to satisfy four of us! I have been admiring Matcha Macarons for some time and have been loving the photos of them all over Pinterest so it's time to have a go at them myself. I recently bought myself some Matcha Tea from The Tea House in Covent Garden, although this organic tea will set you back nearly £20 for 30G so it's to be used sparingly!

I use the Italian Meringue method to make my macarons as it's been the most reliable way for me. You do need a sugar thermometer but it's a very straightforward and for me, foolproof way of making the batter. I looked at various recipes on the web and decided to experiment with my own quantities of Matcha as it's quite an unusual flavour. I added a half teaspoon of tea to the batter but the flavour has not come through very strongly so I think it could be upped a little next time. I filled them with a traditional buttercream and added a half tablespoon to this and this flavour strength is about right for my taste buds.

When I'd made them I decided to add a little sparkle so sprayed them with gold lustre, but when this ran out mid-decorating, I then brushed Sugarflair Edible Tint in gold over one shell of each macaron and both of these worked really well. For a touch of glamour, I also added a little edible gold leaf. I always think macarons make a lovely gift and once you've found a recipe that works for you, they're quite simple to make and very tasty to eat. And there's lots of experimenting with colours and favours. The perfect little Parisienne treat :)

Matcha Macarons Makes 12 (24 shells sandwiched together)

Ingredients

Macaron Batter

• 100G CASTER SUGAR
• 37ML WATER
• 80G EGG WHITES (I USE TWO CHICKS LIQUID EGG WHITES THAT YOU CAN BUY IN THE SUPERMARKET)
• 100G GROUND ALMONDS
• 100G ICING SUGAR
• ½ TSP MATCHA TEA POWDER

Matcha Buttercream 

• 115G BUTTER
• 125G ICING SUGAR (SIFTED)
• 1 TBSP MILK
•  1 TBSP MATCHA TEA

Method

1. Line two baking street with baking paper - if you're worried about the consistency of your macaron circles when you come to pipe them, you can draw little circles onto the paper as a guide. My macarons are around 5cm in diameter.
2. Put 40g of the egg whites into a mixer with the balloon whisk.
3. Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and heat without stirring to 95 degrees and then start the mixer on a low speed.
4. When the sugar syrup temperature reaches 105 degrees, increase the speed of the mixer and beat the egg whites to a stiff peak.
5. When the sugar mixture reaches 114 degrees, remove from the heat and pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream down the side of the bowl (not into the middle as you don't want to remove all the air) with the mixer still running.
6. Continue beating for 5 to 10 minutes until the outside of the bowl cools down.
7. Whilst beating the meringue in the mixer, prepare the almond paste.
8. Mix together the icing sugar, ground almonds and ½ tsp of matcha tea powder until they're well mixed. You can sieve them if you want to give a smoother finish on your macarons.
9. Add the remaining egg whites (40g) and mix until you form a paste. You can also add food colouring at this point - I added Sugarflair Spectral Paste Concentrate in green - just add a little to start with as you can always make the colour stronger, but you can't take it away once added!
10. Then once your paste is ready, add a third of the meringue and mix thoroughly - don't worry about knocking the air out at this stage as this is intended to loosen the paste a little before adding the rest of the meringue.
11. Add the remaining meringue, folding it in until it's mixed but be careful not to over-mix at this stage as you want to keep the air in it.
12. Fill a piping bag with a circle nozzle (number 1A works well for this) and pipe out small circles into the baking paper. Sometime you may find that your macarons have a little peak on top but this flattens out during the next stage.
13. I generally leave my macarons for at least an hour to form a thin crust on top - you should be able to lightly touch the macaron with your finger and it springs back without leaving a fingerprint.
14. When you're ready to bake them, pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees and bake them for around 14 minutes.
15. After you take them out of the oven, slide them off the baking tray onto a cool counter and then pop them off the baking paper and let them cool down.
16. Make your buttercream by beating the butter until it's light and fluffy.
17. Then add the icing sugar and matcha tea and mix until they're fully incorporated.
18. Finally add the milk and beat until it's smooth.
19. When you're ready to fill them, fill a small piping bag with the buttercream and a regular tip (I use the same one as to make the macarons but you can be creative here and use a star tip or other nozzle).
20. Pipe a small amount of buttercream into the middle of each macaron and then sandwich them together.
21. Your macarons are now ready to eat - some say they're better the next day - if they hang around that long!