Mojito Macarons. Yes.

The first time I ever had a macaron was in a small village in Alsace. The town was a typical French medieval village, all stone and wood and small narrow streets.  It was a sleepy little town, surviving on tourism and wine making and wine tourism. The place was festooned with storks. All over the place the long gangly birds kept watch from roof tops.

And in the centre of this village were two shops (there were more obviously but there are only two I want to talk about). The first was a bakery, small, plain and homely. We got talking to the owner/baker, who it turned out had worked in America for ten years and was also the world champion (his words) for making a traditional Alsatian sweet bread, Koglehof. The best was to describe Koglehof is to compare it to Pannetone. All sweet buttery bread studded with brandy soaked fruit..sigh....foodgasm thinking about it.

Across the road from his bakery was a modern, brightly lit shop front. In the window was towers of pastel shaded macaroons. Pale green, pink, blue, yellow, flavoured with pistachios, cassis, strawberry and mint. The shop was a symbol of modern France. Franchises taking over small rural towns,family run business, around for generations being swallowed up by the capitalist machine. This particular shop had branches in many towns all over France. Their stock, no doubt made in a factory and delieverd each morning for distribution. While there is nothing wrong with the quality of the product...there is still something much nicer about purchasing handmade produce from a local artisan.

As well as food, there is nothing nicer to enjoy on holidays than cocktails. And nothing says summer than mojtios. A good friend of mine (Lisa ;) ) made the most amazingly potent mojtios I think I'v ever had. Rum, Ice, Lime and Sugar. Thats it. And boy are they amazing!! So to combine two holiday favourites..mojito macarons!

Macarons are notoriously fiddly. Even though it's only meringue and a simple filling so much can go wrong. I'll state it now..they're time consuming. But if they turn out right, they are so satisfying. A real sense of achievement. So before the recipe, some tips that need to be followed.

1. blitz the icing sugar and almonds together for about 5 mins in a food processor. Then sieve. DON'T SKIP THIS STEP.
2. Its best to use egg whites that are a day or two old. (not sure why but the texture is better)
3. Buy a good pipping bag.
4. don't divide the recipe to make different flavours. The measurements need to be completely correct

This recipe makes 120 shells at 2 cm diameter. (so 60 macaroons in all) but you make make them bigger or smaller.

Ingredients

For the macaron shells:Green food colouring
100g room temperature egg whites (take them out of the fridge 2h beforehand)
66g caster sugar
120g ground almonds
180g icing sugar
Raw sugar or golden granulated sugar, to decorate

For the ganache filling:Small handful of fresh mint leaves (about 4-5 sprigs or 10g)
40g whipping cream
150g white chocolate
40g white rum
2 drops mint extract (optional)

Directions

To make the macaron shells:1.  Line three or four flat baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.  Prepare a piping bag with a plain round piping tip.  

2.  Blend the icing sugar and ground almonds together (don’t skip this step!).  Sift them through a medium sieve into a large bowl.  Sift them again if necessary.

3.  Make the French meringue by whisking the egg whites into glossy firm peaks, gradually adding the caster sugar. This takes about 5 minutes. 

4.  Incorporate the French meringue into the dry ingredients using a large spatula and mix well. Add the food colouring. Now work on the mixture by pressing down well with the spatula, going backwards and forwards, to press out the oxygen from the egg whites (this is the macaronnage stage), until you have a smooth mixture.  Don’t do this for longer than 5 minutes.  The result should be a soft and brilliant mixture that forms a “ribbon” on the spatula.

5.  Transfer the mixture to the previously prepared piping bag and pipe out the desired size of rounds (mine were about 1.5-2cm in diameter).  Press the nozzle right down on the paper and finish off with a flourish to obtain a nice round.  Leave a good space between them so they can spread out.

6.  Bang the tray down to release trapped air. leave the shells to set for about an hour.(this helps to produce the feet).  Preheat the oven to fan-oven 160°C  (gas 3).  When you can feel that a skin has formed over the top, they are ready to go into the oven.

7.  Bake one tray at a time in the centre of the oven for about 8-10 mins (to see if they are done, touch the top – if there is a “wobble,” leave them in 2-3 mins longer).  Leave them to cool on the baking trays, and when they are completely cool, carefully remove them and pair them up by size.

To make the ganache filling:8.  Whilst the macarons are setting and cooking, make the ganache filling.  Remove the mint leaves from their stalks if necessary, and finely chop.  Set aside.

9.  Heat the cream, and as soon as it starts boiling, add the white chocolate (broken into pieces), the rum and mint extract and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth (don’t let it boil or you will boil off the alcohol and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?).  Once smooth, stir in the chopped mint leaves.  Allow the mixture to thicken in the fridge (or freezer if necessary).

10.  Once cool, use a teaspoon to deposit a dollop of ganache onto one shell of each pair.  Then place the partner shell on top, and use a slight twisting motion to squash the shell down onto the filling.

11.  Leave in the fridge for at least 24h before serving

Enjoy!