Baked by Rach: Malteser Macarons

Maltesers are my absolute favourite chocolate, when I am given them as a gift there is no chance that I will be using the resealable tab and I will without a doubt, gobble them all in one sitting. To avoid this with some of my birthday chocolates I decided that I would bake with them. My theory was that this will reduce my malteser intake. My plan worked flawlessly! I made these macarons to take to the ladies at work in honour of the office tradition that when it is your birthday you take goodies in. (I've never quite understood that logic but I am happy to play along to keep my desk neighbours happy). I didn't actually get to try a one of these macarons as they were gone before I had a chance - however they were very warmly received and I was told they were delicious. As far as my aim to eat less chocolate I only ate the four or so maltesers I kept back for photo purposes. I think I'll adopt this technique in the future - bake and give it away to save my own waistline!

Don't be put off giving macaron making a go, it really is quite simple. As long as your follow the steps your guaranteed reliable results each time. The oven we have is a little dodgy - this is the only thing that impacts on the consistency of my baking so I did end up throwing a few shells away as I wasn't happy with them.

This recipe can be adapted any which way you like - just change the chosen confectionary!

Anyway, less chit chat more baking!

To make 20 - 25 macarons you will need:

170g Icing sugar
160g Ground almonds
120ml Egg whites (3 large eggs)
15g Cocoa power

For the malteser swiss margin butter cream:

1 Large egg white
84g Caster sugar
125g Unsalted butter
1 Tsp Vanilla bean paste
1 Treat bag size of maltesers (88g)

To make the macarons:

Sieve the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl. Throw away any ground almonds that are too large to get through the sieve.
Add half of the egg whites and mix to make a paste.
Whisk the remaining egg whites in a separate bowl to form stiff peaks.
Heat the caster sugar in a pan with 50ml of tap water. Gently heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. This will make a sugar syrup. The mixture will be clear and will have no granules in it. If you have a thermometer you are aiming for 118c.
Whilst continuously whisking, gradually add the sugar syrup into the whisked egg whites. Continue whisking after all of the syrup is incorporated, until the mixture cools from being hot to warm.
Fold the whisked egg whites into the paste mixture you have already made.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and on lined baking sheets pipe an even number of evenly sized circles. I have a mat that already had circles printed on it. Before I had these mats I used my computer to print circles on a sheet of paper which you can put underneath your baking paper as at temple, just remember to remove it before you put them in the oven. You can also pipe by eye if you want to.

Leave your unbaked macarons to rest for 30 minutes. Towards the end of the resting time heat your oven to 160c fan. Before baking your macarons you can dust with cocoa powder if you would like. Your macaroons need to bake for 12 minutes. Allow them to cool completely before adding the filling.

To make the swiss buttercream:

In a heat proof bowl over hot water, gently heat and whisk the egg whites and sugar. You need to continue with this until the sugar has dissolved. You can check that it is ready by dipping your finger in - if you can feel and sugar granules it's not quite ready.
When completely dissolved, whisk the egg and sugar mixture using an electric whisk / freestanding mixture until it forms stiff peaks. This will take around 8 minutes.
Gradually whisk in the butter and add the vanilla bean paste.
Put the maltesers in a freezer bag and using a rolling pin break the maltesers down into crumbs. You don't need to smash them up too small, it is nice to leave a few larger bits to give a bit of bite and texture.