Since I first started making the popcorn and malteser macarons, I have had lots of practice at them as they are certainly my most popular variety. It also happened to be one of the first posts on my blog and so some, well the majority, of the photos left a lot to be desired.
Even though I have made them quite a few times since, and have always meant to take some more photos, I never did. When the time came to make the macaron tower I thought I would at least get a couple of new feature photos rather than doing the step by step process again.
In case you missed the original photo, this was it:
It was a quick pic taken on my phone as I was heading to work with the container full of macarons. A little bit atrocious.
But since then I have learned a few things, got a better camera (a Canon DSLR) and have built my own light box. I am still learning how to drive my camera properly, but I certainly do get a lot better photos these days.
I have had this ceramic popcorn bowl for years, but it had been packed away in our storage shed as when I moved in with the hubby there wasn’t enough room for all of my kitchen stuff. When we built our new house, we slowly started getting the boxes for the storage shed and I found this bowl again.
Immediately I knew I had to get some photos of my popcorn and malteser macarons in it.
And don’t they look cute! Like little clusters of popcorn, definitely reminiscent of eating popcorn and maltesers at the movies with my friends. I am very happy that I got a few snaps so that I can share them with you.
If you want to see the step-by-step photos, please check out the original post as they aren’t too bad. I do say in the post that I do not sieve the mixture, but since I got my food processor back up and running (after being a bit too hard on the gear and breaking the bowl and lid… oops), I have started running the almond meal and icing sugar through the food processor and then through a sieve to get nice shiny and smooth shells. A little bit more effort, but apparently people who have been using the method know what they are talking about and they turn out brilliantly.
I will also be changing how I add the popcorn to the shells. Previously I sprinkled the popcorn over the shells after they were piped. Most of the time this works, but the odd shell tends to burst when cooking which doesn’t make it look very attractive. Next time, I will be brushing a little butter over the top of the shell and then sprinkling the popcorn on and hopefully it will stick.
Given there is no recipe card on the original post, I thought I would add one below for you just in case you want to give these bad boys a go yourself.
| Servings |
macarons
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- 225 g almond meal
- 225 g icing sugar
- 82.5 g egg white(s) fresh
- 225 g caster sugar
- 55.5 g water
- White food colouring optional
- 82.5 g egg white(s) old
- 1.5 g powdered egg white
- popcorn chopped/processed into small pieces
- 150 ml heavy cream
- 150 g malted milk powder (1 cup)
- 200 g milk chocolate
- 60 g dark chocolate
Ingredients
For the macarons
For the malted chocolate filling
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- Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the fresh egg whites to form a paste.
- Place the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and place over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and then increase the heat to medium to bring the mixture to a boil. Add the food colouring and then bring to 119°C. Remove from the heat, and the temperature of the syrup will continue to rise slightly and will need to be added to the whisked egg whites at 121°C.
- Place the old egg whites and the powdered egg white into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until combined. Slowly pour the syrup (which should be at 121°C) into the bowl whilst whisking on a medium speed until the mixture is fluffy and glossy. Continue to whisk until completely cool.
- Fold one third of the whisked egg whites into the almond paste. Continue to gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites until thoroughly combined.
- Transfer the mixture to a large piping bag and onto a lined baking tray pipe 4cm circles approximately 2 cm apart.
- Sprinkle the chopped popcorn over the piped shells and gently push in slightly.
- Set the trays aside for 30 minutes until a skin forms on the macaron.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C and place the trays into the oven and immediately turn it off. Leave for 10 minutes and then turn the oven back on at 155°C for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.
- Place the cream into a saucepan and whisk in the malted milk powder until the mixture is smooth.
- Into a heat proof bowl, place the two types of chocolate.
- Put the saucepan on a medium-high heat and bring to the boil, constantly whisking to prevent the mixture burning to the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for one minute, pushing down any chocolate so as much of it is covered by the cream as possible.
- Whisk the ganache until it is smooth and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Pair similar sized macarons together and place one face up.
- Pipe filling onto the macaron facing up leaving about 3-5mm around the edge.
- Place the other macaron on top and gently squeeze together, pushing the filling to the edge.
- Put the completed macarons in an air tight container in the fridge at least overnight. To serve, bring to room temperature.
You can grab a template to help you pipe the shells from my template library.
Feel free to share a few words before you go