Raspberry Macaroons

Raspberries are great, I went foraging recently down along the country lanes and in the bogs and found wild raspberries and black berries growing in abundance.  They are so versatile  so why not have them in macaroons? It's like the saying; when life hands you raspberries, make raspberry macaroons.


150g Egg Whites
100g Castor Sugar
180g Ground Almonds
270g Icing Sugar
Red Colouring

100g Butter
30g Honey
1 Egg
10g Cornflour
50ml Whiskey
50ml Whipping Cream
10g Fine Porridge
100g Fresh Raspberries, Pureed

Method:

1. Whisk the egg whites to a meringue, add the sugar and the rest of the dry ingredients, put in na piping bag and pipe to the size of a €2 coin, allow to restfor 15 minutes before putting int he oven, they should develop a skin on the top.  
2. For the filling: cream the butter
3. Whisk the egg and honey, add the cornflour
4. Heat the whiskey, cream and raspberry puree and pour over the egg mix
5. Mix in the porridge and whisk in the creamed butter
6. Bake at 120/150 degrees or gas mark 2-3 for 12-15 minutes 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Beetroot Macaroons

Beetroot is great in salads, in risotto, soup, borscht it can be boiled, roasted, caramelized....it can do almost anything, I love doing sweet savoury, and beetroot has this sweetness to it. This is a classic sweet savoury combination, if you are looking to try something a little different. The only thing is when you are dealing with beetroot you must wear gloves or your hands will be purple for a day or 2.

150g Egg Whites
100g Caster Sugar
180g Ground Almonds
270g Icing Sugar
30g Cocoa Powder

200g Dark Chocolate
180g Whipping Cream
2 Drops of Ginger Extract
400g Unsalted Butter
100g Cooked Beetroot, Finely Grated/Pureed

Beetroot:

1. I would roast it, so preheat the oven to 200/ gas mark 5/6 depending on your oven, wrap the unpeeled beetroot in tin-foil and bake for 45 minutes, if you have a pair of rubber gloves - wear them, having pink/purple hands for the day or two is not fun at all. 
2. Take them out of the oven and when they are still warm, unwrap the tin-foil and peel the skin of the beetroot, then you can grate it and set it aside, if you want you could puree it to get a smoother texture. Then allow to cool.

Method:

1. Whip the egg whites to meringue and add the caster sugar.
2. Fold in the dry ingredients
3. For the filling: whipe the cream and fold in the beetroot puree - check for sweetness, add a pinch of suagr if you think it is necessary.
4. Bake at 120 degrees/gas mark 2-3 for 12 minutes

Macaroons

These are great, you can do them in whatever colour you like, mix it up. You could serve these after a dinner as a petit-four or as something you produce to show off a bit. Either way you should give it ago they are great! once they are done you can leave them in the fridge even put them in the freezer, just allow them to thaw out a little before serving.

This recipe makes 15 portions.

100g Icing Sugar
56g Ground Almonds (*Blitz to a powder for smooth finished texture)
26g Cocoa Powder*
2 Egg Whites
5 Tsp Castor Sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150/gas mark 3
2. Sieve the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa powder into a bowl.
3. Whisk the castor sugar and egg whites to stiff peaks. it is to this you add the colouring.
4. Using a piping bag and a small nozzle, pipe out circles about 1 inch in diameter. 
5. Pipe onto a tray lined with grease-proof paper.
6. Leave to rest on the tray for 25 minutes or until a skin develops.
7. Bake for 8 minutes until firm. They should also have risen in the oven.
8. To check they are cooked leave to cool for a few minutes then break in half the inside should be chewy and the outside crunchy.

*Optional

Filling:

125ml Double Cream/ Single Cream
120g Chocolate
15g Butter

Method:

1. Melt the butter and the chocolate together.
2. Allow to cool.
3. Whip the cream til its stiff but not over-whipped! if you do over-whip your cream you can add some un-whipped  cream to it and fold it in.
4. Fold the chocolate mix into the cream and using a piping bag pipe some onto one side of the macaroon and sandwich with another macaroon - like Oreos. Kind of!