Spearmint & Spirulina (Snifter) Macarons

With hints of the old time favourite lolly, the snifter, these have a crunchy spearmint outer, a chewy spearmint inner and a solid spearmint infused chocolate centre – delicious!  The spirulina was used as a colourant, although you can taste a hint of its flavour too.

Macarons are easy to make but are time-consuming and they can also be easy to mess up.  Don’t try to make them on a humid day!  Freeze-dried fruit powder and ground and sifted herbal teas make the flavour combinations endless.  They can be filled with any kind of chocolate that is also flavoured with fruit or tea powder or essence or can be filled with butter cream icing.  Macarons keep well and make great gifts plus they can also be frozen.

As the method of this recipe is very long and detailed, you can find it on our website under our recipes section.  This recipe is from Will Torrent’s 2013 book entitled ‘Patisserie At Home’ and uses the Italian meringue method.  The ingredients listed below are for a full batch and I divided the batch in half to make two different flavours.

Other flavour combinations tested were: raspberry, blackcurrant and rose water, coffee with ground hazelnuts added to the macaron mixture in place of some of the ground almond, passionfruit, mango, chocolate, and raspberry on its own.  The two most stunning were the raspberry and the passionfruit both filled with dark chocolate.

Macaron Ingredients

• 175g ground almonds
• 175g icing sugar
• 60g egg whites plus 100g egg whites
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon spearmint tea ground and sifted
• 1 teaspoon spirulina
• 1 teaspoon spearmint essence
• plus flavouring for the other half of the mixture e.g.: 2 tablespoons freeze dried raspberry powder plus ½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Ganache Ingredients

• To fill both flavours you will need two bowls each containing
• 100g dark chocolate
• 30ml cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Once incorporated into a ganache then add 1 teaspoon spearmint essence to one bowl and 1 tablespoon freeze dried raspberry powder to the other bowl.

Method

1. Mark out circles on your parchment paper using a cookie cutter or small glass.
2. Add the ground almonds, icing sugar and 60g egg whites to a small bowl and mix well until a paste is formed. Set aside.
3. Prepare a pot with water and bring it to the boil on the stove. Whilst the water to coming to a boil start preparing the Italian meringue by placing the 100g egg whites into a mixing bowl and beating it until soft peaks form.
4. Place the bowl on top of the pot with boiling water making sure the bowl does not touch the water, add the caster sugar and continue to beat the egg whites until they increase in volume again.
5. Remove from the heat and keep beating until thick, glossy and cool.
6. If you are wishing to divide the mixture in half to make two different flavours, now is a good time to do so. Place half of the meringue into a new bowl, add the essence of choice, then fold half of the almond paste mixture into the meringue.  This may take a while.
7. Next add your powdered herbs or freeze-dried fruit powder and mix well. Once you have piped this mixture onto your tray, you will then come back and prepare the remaining half of the mixture in the same manner.
8. Using a piping bag with a plain hole nozzle, approximately 0.8cm to 1cm in diameter, fill the bag with the mixture and pipe onto the parchment filling each circle outline. Hold the piping back in the centre of the circle and about 1-1.5cm off the tray, then squeeze the bag and hold the nozzle in the same place, forcing the mixture to spread out around the nozzle, filling to the circle border.  Give the nozzle a little flick as you lift it away from the tray. 
9. Pipe all of the mixture on your parchment template, then allow the tray to sit in a dry place until a skin has formed on the outer of the macaron. It may take anywhere from 30-60 minutes.  It after 60 minutes, the mixture is still sticky to touch, place the tray into the hot water cupboard for 15 minutes, then check again.
10. Preheat the oven to 160C. Once ready to bake, bake one tray at a time for approximately 10-12 minutes.  You may rotate the tray after 8 minutes.  If your oven has hot spots, try fan baking on 150C.  The tray needs to be placed in the centre of the oven for best results.
11. Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. The macarons should then peel off the baking parchment easily.
12. To make the ganache, place the chocolate, butter and cream into a small bowl and place it over a pot with a small amount of boiling water. Ensure the bowl does not touch the boiling water.  Once the chocolate starts to melt you can turn off the heat.  Stir carefully until the chocolate has melted and everything is incorporated.  Remove from the heat, then add your powdered herbs, essence or freeze-dried fruits and mix well.
13. If you ganache is quite liquid, place it in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes to firm it up. Use a small spoon to place dollops on to the macaron then top with another macaron of the same size and squeeze lightly together.

Notes:

• White chocolate ganache often splits with the addition of freeze-dried fruit powder and sometimes when essence is added. A little cold milk can sometimes bring it to a workable consistency.  The cold milk works best with milk or dark chocolate ganache that has split.
• Store in an airtight container.
• Macarons can also be frozen.