These macarons are just the bomb. I loved crunching on boiled rhubarb and custard sweets when I was little, so the combination of the two flavours taking on one of my favourite   forms EVER (le macaron)  is so special to me!

The macarons are so beautiful and really eye catching! I gave my macaron shells a marbled finish which looked very cool too! 🙂

❤

These macarons are almooooost too sweet, almost. But I believe that’s the way they should be – a little bit bursting with flavour and sweetness!

I use a natural rhubarb flavouring in my macaron shells, and in the buttercream as often the flavour declines dramatically when baked! The buttercream is also made with Bird’s custard powder, which gives the most beautiful canary yellow hue.

As always with macarons, I follow the basic recipe for the shells from the Indulge with Mimi blog! Enjoy ❤

Ingredients: (for 12 macarons)

• 65g ground almonds
• 65g icing sugar
• 45g caster sugar
• 50g aged egg whites, ideally separated and left in the fridge over night
• pinch of salt
• pink gel food colouring – not liquid!
• Natural rhubarb extract, I source mine from Foodie Flavours
• 75g butter, softened
• 150g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp. Bird’s custard powder (or equivalent)
• 1tbsp. milk

Method:

1. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
2. Sift together your ground almonds and icing sugar together into a bowl, discarding large lumps and replace with some more ground almond! I also like to give my ground almonds and icing sugar a whizz in the food processor – so the consistency is super fine.
3. In a clean glass bowl, whisk your egg whites until foamy and frothy. Add you salt and continue to whisk until ‘soft peaks’ – this is when the egg whites are starting to get thicker, but don’t yet retain their shape. Add your caster sugar in 3 stages and continue to whisk until you get a nice glossy meringue – I would say for another 2 or 3 minutes. Add a small amount of the pink food colouring paste and whisk until its a light pink/ peach colour.
4. Add 1/3 of the almond mix into the egg whites and fold with a spatula. With your spatula make figures of 8 patterns, scooping the ground almond mix around and down in the meringue. You don’t have to be too delicate at this stage!
5. Next, add 5-6 drops of your rhubarb extract to the mixture.
6. Add the rest of the almond mix and continue to fold gently. This stage is called ‘Macaronage’, and is so critical!
   1. Stop folding when your macaronage has a ‘lava-like’ or honey consistency – this consistency is thinner than I had ever been achieving before I started using Mimi’s recipe. Another great tip is to draw out a figure of 8 into the macaronage with your spatula – if the trails of the macaronage mix stay in place then it is ready (see pic below). Check this if you’re at all worried! 🙂
7. I then added a blob of pink food gel to the mixture, and folded gently until a striped pattern appeared.
8. Next, fill up your piping bag, and pipe the macaron mixture into equal sized circles.
9. After piping, bang your tray on top of your work surface… by tap I men actually hit your baking tray down onto the surface with quite a force. This is to get rid of any air bubbles in your shells which cause cracking when baking. I tap my tray about 3 or 4 times, but try not to get carried away..!
10. If there are any visible air bubbles on the surface of your macarons, pop them with a toothpick.
11. Turn on your oven to 160°C.
12. Leave your macaron shells to rest on a work surface for around 30 mins. This is so your shell’s develop a ‘skin’, which allows little macaron ‘feet’ to form when baking. I have always rested my macarons, although some cookery books will miss out this step. You’re looking for the appearance of your shells to become matte and not shiny at all, this could take 15 mins, or even 45!
13. Bake for 12-14 mins, one tray at a time! 🙂 Remove your macarons from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 mins on the tray
14. To make the buttercream, beat together your softened butter with the icing sugar and custard powder. Add your milk to obtain a smoother consistency, and add 3-4 drops of rhubarb extract – make sure to taste the buttercream and add more extract or custard powder to obtain more flavour, its up to you to judge (and taste, woo) this one!
15. Pipe a blob of buttercream into the centre of an upturned macaron shell, and place another shell on top 🙂

WAHOO, you’ve made macarons!! ❤ Lots of love, Sofia xxxxx

p.s don’t forget to post any questions below 🙂