Makes 12 Macarons
MACARONS
60gm Ground almonds
120gm Icing sugar
60gm Egg white
1½ Level teasps Egg white powder
60gm Caster sugar
Purple or Violet colouring paste or gel
VIOLET BUTTERCREAM
80gm butter, softened
135gm icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk
3½ Teasps Violet syrup
A few drops of violet or purple colour.
METHOD
- Set the oven at 130°C Fan
- Cut a sheet of baking parchment to fit a baking or swiss roll tin.
- Using your template (or freehand if you don’t have one), draw 38mm (1.5”) diameter circles, equally space on the reverse side of the parchment baking paper so when you turn the paper over the pencil is underneath. you should still see the outline.
- Sieve the ground almonds and icing sugar together and either blitz in a blender for a couple of minutes or sieve 5 to 6 times, the mix should be very fine.
- Place the egg white in a bowl with the caster sugar and egg powder and whisk until stiff peaks form.
- Carefully fold in the almond mix and using a skewer or cocktail stick add your colouring . The mix should be brighter than you actually want it as baking fades it slightly.
- Fold all together using a spatula until the mixture reaches a ribbon consistency when falling from the spatula.
- Place the mixture in a bag with a plain round pipe and pipe even circles on to your parchment.
- Bang the tray a couple of times on the work surface to knock out any air and leave aside in a dry room temperature for about 20 minutes. When touching a macaron you should feel a slight skin.
- Bake for 20 minutes until crisp. You should clearly see the characteristic ‘foot’ of the macarons.
- Leave to cool completely on the tray and then remove to a cooling rack.
- Make the icing by mixing all the ingredients together until smooth, add a few drops of colour but you are looking for a pale lilac.
- Sandwich your macarons together with the icing and decorate each one with crystallized flowers or any other preferred violet topping. You could use fondant flowers or sugar violets available on the internet.
