Ginger Yuzu Macarons

I was doing groceries the other day when I passed by the aisle selling candied ginger. A light bulb appeared above my head: How about ginger macarons? It sounded interesting enough. As I was wondering what filling I should pair it with, Cherry told me about her Yuzu Green Tea Cake. And she had some leftover buttercream for me! Perfect!

I tried to replace some of the icing sugar in the recipe with same weight of almond flour because many people said the macarons were too sweet. It didn’t work. The batter was too thick, causing bumpy tops and the batch was hard to cook. When I asked Chef DeSouza at GB, she said macarons would always be sweet and I could only compensate it with the filling. BTW, Cherry’s Yuzu buttercream was excellent by itself but the ginger overpowered the flavour, so I couldn’t taste much when I ate it with the macarons.

Now, another excuse for me to bake again, but first of all, I have to age the whites again… Then I have to look for recipes to use up the yolks…

Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache Macarons

It was too late at night when I made these. I was paranoid when I whipped the egg whites because I didn’t want to waste the whites which I had aged for a week in the fridge. When the recipe specified “firm, but not too stiff”, I under whipped the whites. The result was of course flat macarons. More practices required!

Oolong Vanilla Macarons

Finally after putting it off for over a month, I made my oolong vanilla macarons last night. the baking part is so so only because there r hollows in the macarons. I think I over baked them this time. They have feet though. taste is fine. Just a touch of oolong tea in the after taste. Very interesting. Buttercream is a disaster. I should have added more vanilla. Now it’s too bland. In fact, I think the vanilla flavour didn’t go very well with the tea. Oh well, I’ll think of sth else next time. However, when I brought them back for Cherry and my instructor at GB to try, my instructor actually said they were very good and even better than some of those she had bought at bakery shops before. Hmm… maybe I was too harsh on myself. Her comment really boosted my confidence and I`m ready for more macarons!