Macaron Day - March 20, 2014 & Passion fruit Macarons

Pumpkin Spice & Earl Grey Macarons

Happy Macaron Day! Today, I bring you some of my favourite macaron flavours from the archives and the recipe for a new macaron flavour! 

For all of the recipes that I am featuring today, I am using a french meringue method. Take a look at my macaron tutorials for the macaron basic posts. Pictured above are two of my favourite flavours lately, pumpkin spice and earl grey macarons. These macarons impart some strong flavours, especially earl grey as it is such a classic. Pair either of these macarons with a cup of latte or tea! 

Passion Fruit Macarons

Directions:

1. To make the shells of the passionfruit macarons, follow my Macaron 101 and Macaron 102 post. For the gel food colouring I used 2 drops of yellow gel food colouring and 1 drop of red gel food colouring.
2. After shells have been baked and cooled, prepare to make the passionfruit buttercream.

Passion Fruit Buttercream

Ingredients: 

• 80g (approx. 1/2 cup) superfine sugar 
• 25g water 
• 1 whole egg 
• 1 egg yolk 
• 160g soft butter (cut into cubes) 
• 1-2 tsp of freeze dried passionfruit powder

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C) using a candy thermometer. If it boils, clean the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush. Try not to mix the solution, but allow it to heat on its own.
2. In another bowl or the bowl of your Kitchen Aid whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour.
   
3. Once the hot sugar mixture reaches 250F pour immediately into the whisking egg mixture. Then, increase to a higher whisking speed. Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled down completely. It will start to look like a meringue and be glossy.
   
4. Keep whisking the meringue until it has cooled. Meanwhile, cream then whisk the butter until it has thickened. Once the egg mixture-meringue has cooled, add the butter. Add the whisked butter slowly into the meringue.
   
5. Continue whisking until the buttercream is smooth. It may curdle slightly but this is okay. Keep whisking and the buttercream will come back together. Add in the passion fruit powder, and whisk to incorporate, Take a look at this video for making the buttercream (it's for a different buttercream, but will still give you an idea of what it should look like).
   
   
   
   
6. Once the buttercream has come together, immediately transfer the passion fruit buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle (Here's a quick visual tutorial on piping bag basics). Match macaron shells by size, then pipe a small mound of passion fruit buttercream onto each half shell.
7. Assemble the macarons and enjoy!

They should look just like these Salted Pistachio macarons! Incidentally, the Passion Fruit Macarons taste so good! You really should make them. Oh, and for those interested, I purchased the freeze dried passion fruit powder from Duchess Provisions here in Edmonton. Here's the recipe for these Salted Pistachio Macarons.

What are some macarons that you had today to celebrate Macaron Day 2014? Which flavours would you want to make or eat?