Just a little delicious Christmas idea from me today! Snowmen Macarons!
Ingredients:
1 x qty Macaron mixture recipe here
Milk Chocolate Ganache
80ml double cream
1 tbsp butter
300g milk chocolate chopped
To decorate:
Thin Christmas ribbon
Cake pop sticks
Orange edible icing pen or orange petal dust mixed with a little clear alcohol
Makes: 16 snowmen
Mix up the Macaron mixture following the steps just here, very simply flavour the mixture at the meringue stage with a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Fill a piping bag with the mixture and line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper or ideally a reusable bake o glide sheet. Use a piping nozzle that is a round open nozzle no bigger than 1cm wide – this helps control the mixture and stops it from flowing out of the bag!
For each snowman pipe 2 regular macaron sizes – counting 1,2 is a great way to keep them in size, and 2 smaller macarons for the head – counting 1! Pipe them spaced well enough to allow for a little spreading.
The bodies are approx. 4cm in diameter and the heads 3cm.
Give the trays a sharp tap on the worksurface to release any trapped air bubbles and set them to one side in the kitchen for 30 minutes or until a skin is formed across the surface and you can touch them safely with your fingertip.
Preheat the oven to 130c (fan)/150c/Gas Mark 2.
Bake the trays in the oven for 13-14 minutes.
Allow to cool on the tray for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make up the ganache place the chopped chocolate, cream and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Melt gently and stir until the ganache is smooth.
Transfer to a clean bowl, cover and allow to cool until the ganache is a pipeable consistency.
Now to add the snowman’s features. Match up the macarons into matching pairs of bodies and heads. To one body add the snowman’s buttons with the black edible pen.
To one of heads add two eyes, a smiley coal mouth and draw (or paint) on a carrot nose.
To assemble them tie a small length of narrow ribbon around a cake pop stick. Pipe a bulb of milk chocolate ganache filling to one head macaron. Place the stick into position and top with the decorated snowmans head.
Slide the ribbon upwards until it sits right below the head.
Pipe the filling into a body macaron, position the stick in place and top with the decorated body.
Leave the assembled snowman flat on the cooling rack until the filling has set and they are secured to the stick.
Serve!
Tastiest Snowmen I’ve come across all year!
(Can be frozen if making in advance)
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
6 Responses to Day 12 – Snowmen Macarons