Pistachio macarons

Today, March 20th, 2012, is not only the first day of Spring but also Macaron Day in NYC.  I admit that I am far too lazy to participate in the actual event but I'm celebrating the occasion here with another macaron post.

This time, my French macaron-making continues with some pistachio macarons.  I'm really getting the hang of it.  I'm no longer slightly nervous about the prospect of making these.  Instead, I feel calm and ready, and the process is beginning to have a familiar rhythm to it.  So after successfully tackling the coffee and hazelnut flavors, I made pistachio ones.  I placed a few of them (below) in a gift box that I got from Ladurée, the iconic macaron maker.  I sometimes hold on to boxes as a memento.  It goes without saying that mine are no where near as good as theirs (that's laughable) but a girl can pretend.

The beauty of making macarons is you can essentially use one main recipe that works for you and tweak it for various flavors.  With pistachio, I used an equal mix of ground pistachios and almonds in the batter.  You can't really tell but I did use some food coloring (first time with macarons) to tint them a little green.  That was the intention but if there's one thing that does turn me off about macarons is when they have an artificially intense, almost neon-like, color to them.  So I tried to avoid that at all cost.  You can see the tinge of green in the wet batter but after baking, the color is more golden.  I could've used more of my green gel paste coloring but I'm satisfied with the results.  You really don't need to color them at all. 

In "real life," the macaron shells already have a subtle, natural tinge of green to them from the ground pistachios and you can see little specks of it on the surface.  Sprinkling some chopped pistachios on top of some of the shells is an easy garnish to show what they are.  Plus, it adds a bit of flavor.

I've mentioned before that I've decided to pair macarons I make with chocolate ganache.  That's because I love chocolate and I'm not generally a fan of buttercream.  Plus, I just don't have the skill to pull off a really good buttercream like the professional ones that blend so seamlessly with the shells. 

However, here's the thing about macarons.  Their flavor comes heavily from the filling.  I mean, we're really talking about a meringue cookie here so the overwhelming flavor coming from the macaron shells is sweetness - or sugar.  That's particularly the case if you're using pure almonds, which is rather mild.  The nuts (in this case, pistachios) do impart a distinct flavor but the filling can really go a long way towards underscoring and heightening the flavor or add something special if you want to get really creative.  I used semisweet chocolate for the ganache and added a light layer of filling so as not to completely overwhelm the pistachio shells.  But we love chocolate, period, so this works beautifully for us.

My son devoured that "macaron ice-cream sandwich" I made last time so I did play around again this time.  His had vanilla ice-cream (there is one particular brand of vanilla ice-cream he favors; otherwise, it's chocolate everything).  My husband and I shared the chocolate one you see above.  Since realizing macaron shells freeze well, I'm experimenting with it and have a couple in the freezer that I plan to defrost and use at a later date.  I'll let you know how that works out...

Hazelnut macarons with gianduja ganache

I think I'm starting to get comfortable with the rhythm of making macarons so I'm systematically tackling a list of my favorite flavors.  Today, it's hazelnut macarons, which I've paired with a gianduja ganache. 

I'm laughing at myself as I type "gianduja ganache" because it sounds like a lame attempt to sound more sophisticated than I am.  Truth be told, I'm probably not even pronouncing "gianduja" correctly (but I love to say it for fun) and I only learned the term a year or two ago.  La Maison du Chocolat makes these amazing almonds coated with a gianduja paste that I love.  Anyway, what I do know is I've always loved the combination of hazelnut and chocolate so whatever you call it, for me, it's simply delicious.  The filling is basically chocolate ganache that I've mixed with some hazelnut paste (leftover from the hazelnut cake I made recently) so I guess we could just call it a chocolate-hazelnut ganache filling.

I'm happy (and relieved) to report this was my second successful batch of macarons.  I would love to figure out how to get my macaron shells a bit denser, less hallow, in the center, but I'm not complaining.  I'm learning a little something and becoming more comfortable with the process each time.  As I get older, I realize things can't and don't need to be perfect, and it's futile to try to impress other people.  That attitude makes life a lot more relaxing.  Afterall, it's about enjoyment and things don't need to be perfect to be enjoyed thoroughly.

I had a lot of fun making and eating these hazelnut macarons.  Hazelnut macarons are sometimes labeled as praline flavor at the bakeries.  Instead of using all almonds in the batter, you substitute half with toasted hazelnuts.  If you're like me, you might wonder why half and not all.  I've seen recipes doing either but I decided to stick with Helene's (from her beautiful blog, Tartelette) advice.  She explained to me that nuts other than almonds have a higher fat content, which is less conducive to making macarons.  Hence, the inclusion of the almonds is a good thing even when you're making other flavors.  I asked her about this on her blog and she answered - how cool is that!

Just for fun, I sprinkled some toasted chopped hazelnuts on top of a few of the macarons.  It's nice to look at them and be able to tell what you're about to bite into.  I was concerned that the hazelnut flavor would not be strong enough using the equal mix of almonds and hazelnuts but the toasted hazelnut flavor was quite prominent.

And I know it's still winter (even though it's been a relatively mild one here) but I thought I'd played around a little more.  If you've visited macaron shops like Ladurée in the summer, you might have seen they sell ice cream with a macaron shell on top.  So I made my own imitation of that. 

Then I thought to myself, why not make an ice-cream sandwich out of it?  And so I did!  Our resident macaron connoisseur (you know, the six-year old) devoured it.  It actually holds up pretty well in the freezer (though I only stored it there a few hours).  Just take it out of the freezer and let it sit out at room temperature for a little bit before eating.  Let me just say that macarons do indeed go very well with ice cream.  It helps that the shells freeze quite well.

Other macaron experiments to be continued...