.
The shells recipe is from Pierre Herme. It is pretty close to Thomas Keller," Bouchon" which I learned in "Lemon macaron". I increase baking time to 14 minutes at 350 oF convection oven to make them drier. If you do not use convection oven bake at 300 oF for 18-20 minutes.
The filling needs time to set. It can be made the day before and store in the fridge. I tried one blackberry curd recipe with egg yolk but did not like it both the color and taste. Blackberry jam can be used instead of blackberry curd.
Macaron shells: made 48-50 shells (1¾ in. diameter template).
150g ground almond
150 g powder sugar
55g egg white
55 g egg white
150g granulated sugar
38g water
Purple gel food color ( about a pea size for the shell and extra for sugar )
4 Tbs Purple sparkling sugar or granulated sugar (optional)
Follow the same instruction as lemon macaron and sprinkle color sugar atop half of the shells after piping Bake 14 minutes at 350 oF convection oven.
For the filling, use a 1/4 in. round tip pipe a circle of blackberry ganache near the edge of a plain shell (no color sugar)and pipe the blackberry curd/jam at the center. Gently press a second shell which has color sugar down on the filling to make one macaron.
Blackberry ganache
205g white chocolate
6 Tbs blackberry curd/jam
1/2 tsp salt
Melt white chocolate on double boiler. Remove from heat. Warm blackberry curd/jam up a little bit and add to melt chocolate and stir until well cooperate. Let it cool down to piping/spreading consistency. It takes a few hours in the fridge. Beat it well before using. If it seems too hard, stir in more blackberry curd 1 tsp at a time and blend well. It should spreadable, soft but not running.
Blackberry Curd without egg
4 cup blackberry, washed and drained well
1/2 to 1 cup sugar
2 Tbs cornstarch (increase to 4 Tbs if not using agar.)
2 tsp agar powder
4 oz unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Puree blackberries in a blender or food processor. Press berries through a medium sieve to remove the seeds. Return the seeds back to the blender, add 1/2 cup water and repeat puree/press again until having 2 cups sieved berries. In a small saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, agar and cornstarch. Add sieved berries. Stir constantly and bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Taste and add more sugar to suit your taste but keep it slightly tart to balance the sweetness of the shells. Turn the heat down to medium or med low. Cook and keep stirring until thick and bubble. Turn the heat down to low and continue stirring 2-3 minutes more. Remove from heat. Let it cool down to room temperature and let it set in the fridge The curd will be thicker when cool down due to agar. Store in the fridge if not using right away.
*Berries can be cooked until very soft about 5 minutes before puree/sieve
Puree/ sieve the solid berry waste with water to flavor lemonade if you want too.
Use leftover blackberry curd as jam with bread, pancake, or cake filling.
I did not have purple color sugar so I add some purple gel color to white sparkling sugar.
There are popular tricks in making macaron is use old egg white (separated egg white one or a few days before then store in the fridge, bring it out to room temperature to use) and let them sit until the surfaces is tacky about 20-30 minutes before baking.
0 Comments