Home About The Fame! Contact

Monday 17 May 2010

Mango and Jasmine Macarons


I'm starting to feel slightly foolish about slating the macaron craze. See, I have been making more of them. It's becoming a bit of an addiction. Like gambling. Only instead of wondering whether or not my horse will come in, I am betting on whether or not I'll get good mac shells, with smooth tops and feet. I love the pressure and not knowing!


I don't know what came over me - flowers from the garden and all that - but I seem to have found my inner Mowie Kay!


A week or so ago I was in the Isetan food hall in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which is something of a macaron paradise. I was shopping for sakura mochi, which I have a bit of a thing for (I won't eat the cheap ones you can get at supermarkets and convenience stores), but ended up seduced by the bright colours of the almond discs.



I don't remember whose counter I ended up at (I know it was opposite Aoki Sadaharu, but that's all), and went for a jasmine and mango flavoured macaron. The girl behind the counter asked if I wanted it wrapping. Ha! I snaffled it up right there.

In all honesty, it wasn't up to much. Very sweet, and the shell wasn't chewy enough. But I liked the flavour combination, and so when I found some jasmine extract in my favourite Parisian baking supply store the following week, I didn't hang around.


I have become one of those terrible, 'Look at my smooth shells and feet' photo-bloggers - sorry.


I have a ton of mango purée on hand for another, top secret project (I love a little blog suspense), so the macs this week were actually a way of using up leftovers. A little economical luxury in the kitchen, if you will. Mixed with some mascarpone cheese, the purée made a perfect filling for the mango-coloured shells.

I used the same recipe as usual for these macarons, flavour differences allowing, but changed the way I bake them. I usually fold a double thickness of greaseproof paper, and bake them on that, on the thick metal tray that came with my oven, but last time it stuck and I was so devastated that I almost killed myself. Not wanting to undergo such suicidal feelings again this time, I decided to switch things up, and bought some 'Baking Paper' (not parchment) from Tesco. I am in love; the shells lifted clean off and had perfect bottoms. Photographic evidence is included with this post. Basically, I am never using anything else again!

L'évidence.

Mango and Jasmine Macarons
You will need:

110g icing sugar
50g ground almonds

1 tsp jasmine extract

2 egg whites (60g), aged for 24 hours (just leave them on the kitchen counter, uncovered)

40g caster sugar

small dab of tangerine food colour gel


50g mascarpone cheese

40ml mango purée

  1. Sift the 110g icing sugar into a large bowl, and mix in the almonds.
  2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy, then slowly whisk in the caster sugar until you have soft peaking meringue. Add the dab of colour gel and jasmine, and carry on whisking until stiff peaks form.
  3. Add the almond and sugar mixture, and fold in. You are supposed to do this in exactly 50 strokes, and turn the bowl 45° after every tenth stroke. I don't think it's of paramount importance - you should just have a smooth mixture.
  4. Put this mix into a piping bag with the end snipped off, and pipe circles about 2 inches in diameter and well spaced apart on a lined baking sheet. You should have between 28 and 30 blobs of mixture. Let's call it 29.
  5. Let them sit for 30 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 150°C.
  6. Bake for 12 minutes on the bottom shelf. Cool completely on the sheet, and then remove using a pallet knife.
  7. For the filling: beat together the mascarpone and mango until smooth and pale orange in colour; use to put the macarons together.

19 comments:

  1. These look very elegant, Mr P, and the flavour combination sounds very exotic. I wish I'd known about G. Detou when my nephew lived in 2ème and I was visitng him there (barely a five minute walk from that street). He's moved to 6ème now so I shall have the foodie delights of a new area to explore...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ooooh, these look gorgeous. I'm a sucker for anything mango and these look delicious! :)

    I love Isetan - one of the spots I have to visit whenever I go home, in order to get my hands on mochi.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fabulous! Mowie would be proud of you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. fantastic.... most impressed ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Woah! That is from baking paper?!

    Maybe I should some of that while I'm over there.

    Beautiful macs, P.

    ReplyDelete
  6. gorgeous images! and they look yummy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ooh, Mr P, these look terrific. I have not yet tried making macarons I am afraid of getting addicted and having no one to feed them too.

    Jasmine essence sounds very interesting. I may have to see if I can find some of that here in Oz, I am sure I could find a use for it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Krista - In Oz, you have coconut essence too. Try finding that in Cardiff! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh! This is so adorable! Two thumbs up!

    - Tera

    ReplyDelete
  10. ooooooooooooo beautiful!!! i lovve the smell of jasmine flowers! it's especially yummy in tea form!

    ReplyDelete
  11. hhhmm....looks delicious!...I'll try this one at home if I have time...thanks for the post!...

    ReplyDelete
  12. you must have gone to laduree!! i L-O-V-E their macarons! thank you for recreating this recipe! =)

    ReplyDelete
  13. beautiful. I like your "bottom". Yesterday I made a batch and some of them stick to my Silpat !! It never happen before. i'm wondering if they were underbaked because I used to bake them at a higher temperature. I had the same suicidal feeling as you ! What exactly is your baking paper made from ? Is it similarly to parchment, which has some silcone material on it ?

    ReplyDelete
  14. PC - Yes, I think it's the same as silicon-coated parchment. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. They are absolutely gorgeous - well done - and see - I KNEW you would get bit by the mac bug!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. The flavour combination sounds absolutely gorgeous and the pictures look really divine...in fact I have blog envy!;-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. I simply LOVE creative culinary combinations. Far too often I see your every day run of the mill recipes; chocolate, raspberry, lemon, cherry -- all of these above. I think people are afraid to try things they normally wouldn't dare.

    These are simply lovely and something I would jump all over! Brilliant and beautiful.

    Will be stopping by this pretty blog a lot more often.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Jesus Christ, your macarons are perfect.

    ReplyDelete

That's what he said.

Related Posts with Thumbnails