Coffee Macarons & Pumpkin Pie Spice too – I’d FALL for these anyday!
Deeba @ PAB
“I got the sun in the morning, and the moon at night…” From the musical ‘Annie Get Your Gun’
These lines come back to my head sometimes, more often these days, especially since I am kind of finding feet easily. The lines from the musical Annie Get Your Gun, a play I auditioned for when I was in Delhi University. Needless to say, I didn’t grab a role {Shahrukh Khan did … snapped up a lead role}. All I did get was to help behind the scenes, sets etc. It was too many years ago, when Barry John and his Theatre Action Group helped us stage the play in college. What remains in my mind is the fun we had, the exuberant screenplay, costumes, lights, singing, dancing… and FEET tapping!
Yes of course, I’m back to my macaron obsession, the endless obsession to find feet as perfect as those walking the net, at Ladurees, at Mactweets, at Jamies, at Barbaras … the list is endless.The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall...said Ralph Waldo Emerson, and that leads to our challenge at MacTweets this month…
…Did you catch the FALL in there? Yes, it’s MacTweets Attack Season 13…lucky for some, unlucky for none, Jamie & I hope! It’s to do with fall macarons.Did fall leave you with an impression, with a ‘connect’?This is the time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere where the leaves turn red, gold, auburn … where the days grow dark and cold. Jamie & I have called for ‘fall in feet’ in macarons this time. Whatever it means to you – flavours, colours, emotions. If you are in the Southern hemisphere {we hear you Shaz}, bid fall goodbye.
It was a strange morning, where I had no time as usual, but much to do. I had lemon curd to make, Ottolenghi’s puff pastry to put together, sponges to bake, cookies for the lads outstation trip…and of course, the quintessential feature of my life – laundry! No time for the net or books, an egg white in hand, I turned to my adopted David Lebovitzchocolate macarons recipe.It’s a simple one – 1 egg white, 1/4 cup almond meal, 1/2 cup icing sugar, 2.5 tbsp granulated sugar, 1.5 tbsp cocoa powder. While measuring the stuff out at express speed, I saw the ground coffee beans that Asha sent me.
Thus began a strange conversation in the head, and a battle for flavour. I rapidly changed my mind from chocolate to coffee. For me, coffee is very fall, just the thing to cheer me up when the weather becomes cold and the days become short, I was virtually chatting to Asha in my head. “Asha, that coffee calls my name every time I look at it, you know”. Beating the whites, I added some egg white powder for good measure.
Thank you for the dried egg whites Bina, where would I be without friends like you? A few quick whisks in, and Bina was virtually peering over my shoulder…”Count to 10 Deeba, the cut in the batter should disappear, then it’s good.Yes, now it looks fine to me”. Another buzz and it was sweet Lili Phuah who contributed,“I find it easiest to make the macarons using a teaspoon vis-a-vis a piping bag“.“OK”, I nodded, remembering reading her macaron mail for the nth time. So I played along, a virtual party, but I loved it…
I went the teaspoon way, and woot, it worked. This is what I’ll do in future too. It’s a little more painstaking as compared to a piping bag, but it does give me more control, and better ‘plops‘!By the end of the session, I had the shells resting …with such hope, I just knew I would soon be doing the jig {but then of course, I have always suffered such confidence!}. I found success pretty soon. Saw Jamie beaming at me across my macs, taking me back to that first tweet we shared when she found her feet when I threw her the macaron gauntlet… that was ages ago, and how this whole macaron madness began! Literally dragged Mr PAB to the kitchen the minute he woke up – he beamed with pride! Knew his wife would find her feet one day! Now all is good with the world!!
History repeats itself they say, and it happened for me. I had a project a few days later, some folk coming in for a shoot, and I brazenly decided to take another stab at macarons that very morning. As if I didn’t have enough to do already, but confidence goes to the head, as it did to mine, and I decided to do a Pumpkin Pie Spice batch. Substituted the cocoa powder with 3/4 tbsp of pie spice … and could not believe the feet when I saw them! Maybe I’m finally getting into the swing of things…who knows! 2 ‘feeted’ batches of macarons later, I think it’s time to pay some attention to variety in fillings! Yes, have found feet, now to find flavour!
What does FALL charm you with? Vibrant fall colours, harvest, or is it the holiday season? Are deep cinnamon flavour, apples, cranberries & walnuts your calling? … Or then, is it the warm comfort and luxury of hot cocoa or warm spiced cider? My fall macarons are coffee for the warmth of the season, and pumpkin pie spice for all things nice! I ‘fell’ for both!!
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!
So here we go, feet for Macfeet, Macfall … errr MacTweets!
Coffee Macarons & Pumpkin Pie Spice Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache as adapted from David Lebovitz’s recipe Macaron Batter 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/4 cup powdered almonds 1 tbsp ground coffee or 3/4 tbsp pumpkin pie spice 1 large egg white, at room temperature 2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar 1/2 tsp egg white powder Method: Preheat oven to 140C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Grind together the powdered sugar with the almond powder and cocoa so there are no lumps; use a blender or food processor since almond meal that you buy isn’t quite fine enough. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to rise and hold their shape. While whipping, beat in the granulated sugar until very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding. Using a teaspoon, or piping bag, drop / pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1″ circles evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart. Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons, then rest for about an hour. Bake them for 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.
Dark Chocolate Ganache Filling 100gm dark chocolate 2-3 tbsp low fat cream Method: Melt half the chocolate, coffee and the cream on simmer in a pan, stirring constantly. Once melted and bubbling, take off heat. Add the rest of the chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted. Cool. To assemble Match equal halves of macarons, and keep together. Use a small spoon or piping bag/nozzle, deposit a tiny amount of ganache on the flat side of the macaron, and sandwich with another of the same size. Sandwich them, squeezing gently. Leave to set in fridge.
