Celebrate an occasion in style by creating these spectacular French macarons for someone special to you. It takes some time but it is a true French chef’s recipe.
Ingredients
Macaron batter
- 180 gr ground almonds
- 320 gr icing (powdered) sugar
- 130 gr egg whites
- 60 gr sugar
- 1 pinch brown food colouring
Coconut filling
- 90 ml whipping cream
- 130 ml coconut milk
- 1 tbsp whipping cream
- 1 tbsp potato starch
- 95 gr white chocolate
- 2 tsp Malibu liquor
- 110 gr butter, cut into pieces at room temperature
Directions
Macaron batter:
- Preheat the oven to 160 -170°C.
- Sift the ground almonds and icing sugar into a bowl; set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy.
- Add 1/3 of the sugar a little at a time, whisking until the egg whites are smooth and shiny. Gradually add the remaining sugar whisking until stiff peaks form.
- Add the food colouring and combine until evenly distributed.
- Fold in the dry ingredients, cutting straight down to the bottom of the bowl with a spatula, and lifting up the contents, bring the spatula up the side of the bowl while giving it a quarter turn. Continue to fold until the meringue loses volume and becomes smooth and shiny.
- Fit a piping bag with a 8 mm round tip and fill with the macaron batter.
- Cover a baking tray with baking parchment; pipe small rounds of batter, approximately 5 cm in diameter, in staggered lines on the tray so they won’t touch while baking. Lightly tap the baking tray on the work surface to remove any air bubbles.
- Set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Bake the French macarons for approximately 18 minutes depending on the oven. Remove from the baking tray and cool on a rack.
Coconut filling:
- In a saucepan, bring the 90ml of cream and coconut milk to the boil.
- In a small bowl mix the tablespoon of cream with the potato starch, pour into the hot liquid. Whisk continually back to the boil.
- Pour onto the white chocolate, add the Malibu liquor and stir in with a whisk.
- Leave to cool, then add the butter pieces, and mix using a hand held blender.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Assembly: Fit a piping bag with a star tip, fill with the coconut filling; pipe balls of ganache onto the flat side of half the macarons; top with the remaining halves, pressing lightly to adhere.
- Ideally refrigerate overnight before serving.