Macaron à la Peaches et Crème … Vacation Macs!
“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”
Robert Orben
It’s been literally a mac-vacation for me, a vacation I dislike as it keeps me away from a challenge I love with a vengeance. I’m back on board to get in with the fun and beautiful Mac Attack Jamie and I host each month. This time our call was for Vacation Macs … and how better could I get there with my mac-a-vacations … Macaron à la Peaches et Crème {pardon my French please}
The flavours are reminiscent of one of the best vacations we enjoyed a few years ago in the Himalayas. 
We’ve had some other fabulous ones include Goa, Sydney, Hong Kong, Gangtok … but the one the ‘now threatening to be quite terrible just turned 13‘ teen remembers every single day is this one at Ramgarh. Nothing like the serenity of the Himalayas to unwind!
That vacation filled in perfectly with our call this month. Our best macarons reminiscent of that ideal vacation or that perfect holiday spot. Mountains, seaside, tiny hamlet lost in the countryside, large, bustling city teeming with restaurants and museums, these are our inspiration. With the best vacation that comes to mind, from that thought, memory or distant dream, create a fabulous Vacation Macaron!
We stayed at a beautiful heritage cottage surrounded by peach trees and since it was peak summer, we walked by peach trees plucking fresh, juicy fruit right off the tree. This is where my lad became a peach monster and developed a deep love for the fruit.
Summer is for stone fruit is my chant. I just cannot have enough of these delicious fruit that are reaching us in the foothills of the Himalayas; better quality and quantity every year! This summer I have had a field day with stone fruit…
… Apricot Peach Sorbet, Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake, Mini Quark Vanilla Cheesecakes with Balsamic Cherries, Black Forest Cake, Oatmeal Peach Apricot Mango Smoothie {yet to post}, Dark Chocolate Cherry Wholewheat Cakelets {yet to post} … and my fridge is full of cherries, peaches, mangoes and apricots!
I have also been developing some food recipes for Del Monte for their website World Foody. The peach ice cream above is one I made last week from their canned peaches, beautiful cling peaches with a fabulous deep flavour. Will let you know when the recipe is up on the website; until then it’s Macaron à la Peaches et Crème!
The macaron shells were going to be perfect, something deep within me said to me when I was done folding the macaronage. BUT … in my hurry to beat the power cut, I switched on the upper element instead of the lower one, so my feet popped out with the thermal shock and the skins developed a ‘peach‘ blush. It was too late to salvage the batch, and the little macronage left proved my feeling right! Aaaargh! And did I tell you that at 45C ice-cream melts SO FAST? I was RACING!
I used the several times tried and tested David Lebovitz recipe that lives in my head. It never goes wrong if you mix the macronage correctly and let it rest! However, a little more advice follows …
Do you want to join us making MACARONS?
If you do, you are most welcome to join us for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!
… these cookies are fiddly creatures and are dependent on way too many things. egg whites {aged or not}, almond meal,oven temperature, room temperature, humidity levels, the hand that mixes them, the way you pipe them out … and above all, lady luck!
Before I get onto the recipe, I’d like to thank Chillibreeze for interviewing me. You can read it here if you like.
I’d also like to thank the Financial Times, Times of India, for including me so generously in their feature ‘Gurgaon is Blogging & How‘ on Business Street, 21st June, 2012.
Last but not the least, thank you Javelin Warrior for adding my Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake in your delicious Friday Food Fetish.
Thank you all! I feel really honoured.
Monthly Mingle is the brainchild of the lovely Meeta @ Whats For Lunch Honey, and this month it celebrates Barbara’s spirit at the wonderful Jeanne @ Cook Sister with a Taste of Yellow. I am sending this to the MM for July 2012.
Summary: Vanilla macarons sandwiched with a home made low fat peach & cream ice cream. Perfect for those hot summer days!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes {plus resting time}
Ingredients:
- Vanilla Macarons
- {recipe adapted from David Lebovitz}
- 1 egg white {35gm} {I didn’t age mine}
- 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar {I used granulated vanilla sugar}
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- 1/4 tsp egg white powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
- Peach ice cream for filling
Method:
- Run the powdered sugar, almond meal, vanilla bean powder and egg white powder in blender until well blended. Sift into a bowl.
- Beat the egg white until foamy, then add the granulated sugar and beat for approximately 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in 1/4 of the dry mix until no streaks remain, then add the remainder of the dry mix and gently fold in until you get a lava like batter. {Donot overfold}
- Place into a piping bag and pipe circles onto parchment paper.
- Tap the trays sharply to get rid of air bubbles and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes.
- Bake in double trays at 140C for 12-15 minutes, until the shells are firm and no longer jiggly. {My oven uses just the lower element for baking, so I place the double trays towards the top of the oven}
- Cool and sandwich with softened ice cream. Store in freezer and serve directly from there.
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Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
20 Comments
Barbara @ Barbara Bakes
Ripe peaches, warm from the tree sound heavenly. Now I can’t wait for local peaches. What a great flavor.
Rosa
What a fabulous place! The landscapes are beautiful.
Your macarons look amazing. I love that filling.
Cheers,
Rosa
sangeeta khanna
Absolutely a WOW post. You know what, your blog is a honey trap. I would have to try very hard to just hover over it and fly back 😉
Srimathi
I am very happy that you got featured in many more newspaper’s and websites. What can I say, when you do what you love, it gets noticed big time. The macaron looks delicious.
marcellina
Plucking peaches right from the trees! Ahhh, but a dream for me! What you have done with stone fruit this season is deliciously inspiring!
Nisha
Such lovely pictures of your vacations to all those places, and amazing food photography + styling as always!
How do you get inspired? Tell me, tell us! 😀
chinmayie @ love food eat
How do you do this everytime! You have me salivating….
kankana
I love the quote you used and someday I wish to visit Himalayas.
I have been planning and planning to bake macarons .. but always get so intimidated with it. I don’t know if I missed it anywhere .. how many macarons will your recipe make ? I want to give it a try 🙂
Lora
All that beautiful stone fruit inspired creations. Wow! Peaches an cream macs are so dreamy as are those gorgeous vacay photos.
Rituparna
I have been drooling over macaroons for a long time. On different website n bakery shelves, I think it’s about time I gave it a go. You recipe makes it seem so much simpler. Those peaches look delicious.
Gauri
Just totally super!!!
Mouthwatering pics, lovely post .. its so difficult to resist those macaroons!!
TracyAnn0312
Delicious! I will be able to make some of these for Summer because kids loves macaroons. Thanks for sharing it.
gloria
Oh Dear I love this post of course, beautiful post, beautiful recipe, I love macarons but never I made 🙁 I wanna ttry this recipe, send you love dear take care xxxx
anh@anhsfoodblog.com
You are the mac queen! Loving this new combo!
Lasuch w kuchni
What a beautiful place you have created here. So beautiful, so luxurious and sooooo delicious. I will keep visiting for beautiful photos and great recipes. And thanks for stopping by and leaving as comment on my blog. All the best. jo.
Rekha Kakkar
Lucky lady so many vacations in one month 🙂 … Peachs are a favorite too. in fact there is no fruit which I do not love but like you I too love stone fruits and peach sorbet looks so good to try a new variety for ever hungry teens 🙂
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)
They look amazing Deeba, and I love the inspiration for them!
Born27
Your Macaron Recipe looks delicious. You made me crave for it! That is why i can’t wait to try this and thanks for sharing those stunning photos
Jamie
Beautiful and welcome back to Mac Land, baby! I love the photos of your trip and how they turned into vacation macs. I would love to taste the peach ice cream although not in 45C heat! But I have to say I am still pulled towards your chocolate cherry creations….