Doughnut Macarons

Did you know Macaron Monday was a thing? Well it's a hashtag at least and if you use Twitter or Instagram and macarons are your kind of thing.. #macaronmonday needs to something you search. 

So in our house, we really like macarons. We also really like doughnuts. (Well no,  that's a lie. Champ doesn't like any cake. At. All. He's only 2 so I figure he'll grow into it.) When I spotted the two combined on Pinterest, I thought the universe had aligned and all was right. There are still macarons. There's nothing doughnut about them apart from the glaze and shape but damnit they are cute!

Champ pretty much eats sprinkles, Dolly doesn't eat sprinkles (I know, I know.. my kids are weird right!) so there were some un-sprinkled doughnut macs glazed and filled for her. 

Doughnut Macarons (or The DMac, macanut, dougharon??)

aged egg whites (and by aged I mean crack the eggs, leave them covered over in a bowl on your counter over night- up to 24 hours.)

100g caster sugar

150g ground almonds

280g icing sugar

Start with a clean, grease free mixing bowl and a mixer. (I use the silver bowl and whisk off my stand mixer but, a hand mixer will do perfectly if that’s what you have!)

On a high speed, whip your egg whites until soft peaks form. Continue whipping the egg whites on a high speed and start pouring the caster sugar into the mixing bowl. I start off with a slow and steady stream and stop after 1/3 has gone in. I let it whip for a while and start again, adding another 1/3 and then stopping pouring sugar. Repeat for the third batch. 

Continue whipping for a further 3-4 minutes until your egg whites form a thick and glossy stiff peaked meringue. 

Sieve together the icing sugar and ground almonds into a large bowl and discard any large lumps or bumps you found were too big to go through the sieve. 

Taking a spatula, fold the egg whites into the almond, dry mixture. Your aim here is to squash out any air in the meringue. You can be rough with your folds, just make sure to keep folding through, making sure all the dry mix has been incorporated into the meringue.

You’re going for, what the internet describes as, a “thick ribbon” consistency. Essentially that means the mix almost falls back on itself in around 10 seconds.

I use a macaron silicone mat as a guide, under my parchment paper to pipe my macaron shells to size.

You can print off macaron templates which are very helpful in giving you a good reference for size. Line a few baking trays with parchment, and using your template, pipe circles onto the tray. You know, make the doughnut shape. Allow a good sized gap in the middle.

Holding your tray about a foot off above the counter top or table you are working it... drop it! They will fall back in on themselves as you do this but hopefully you will have left enough of a gap in the middle. Repeat this procedure a few times to pop any air bubbles left in your shells and allow the circles to settle. 

Leave the shells to rest so that they form a skin and have become dry enough on the outside that you can lightly touch them.  This process could take up to an hour. (TIP: Leave them in a warm part of your house, like the windowsill where the sun is shining in.. they’ll be dry in no time!)

Preheat your oven to 130’. Once the macarons are ready for the oven,  pop them in for 8 minutes. After the 8 minutes, insert a wooden spoon into the oven door to keep it a little bit open. Continue baking for another 4-6 minutes until the top of the shell is crisp and if you wiggled it, gently, from side to side it should be one piece!

Remove from the oven onto a cooling tray and cool completely before filling. Continue baking whatever other shells are left in the same way. 

The DMac (let's try it out) Glaze

30ml milk

120g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Combine the above ingredients in a bowl over a pot of boiling water,  and whisk until smooth.

Remove from the heat and immediately start dipping the tops of your cold macarons. 

Sprinkle with some sprinkles or 100's & 100's and leave to dry completely.

Sandwich your macarons with your favourite buttercream or try the ultimate in vanilla buttercreams...

Allow to sit for a while in the fridge, even better if you can wait until the next day and let all the flavours infuse and the yuminess set in. But if you can't, no one will judge you, go ahead stuff your face. You will just be like everyone else!