SUCCESSFUL Macaron Isaphan... fluke or what?

Please excuse my serious delay between posts. I was in London all week, and then arrived just before Easter, had a pig out and am now back in the real world!

I attempted to make some passionfruit daiquiri macarons and margarita macarons... but I didn't feel like my fillings had a strong enough bacardi/tequila taste to them... so they were therefore not worthy of blogger-ing!

I bought Pierre Herme's book of macarons (in French... out of pure desperation)! and have spent many hours looking at all of the pictures, attempting to understand the recipe with my limited GCSE knowledge of the french language.

My chocolate-hating friend (crazy girl) wanted to make some macarons with me before going back to uni... so she picked the famous MACARON ISAPHAN from the 'bible'. So my job was to make them.
Normally I make half a batch of macarons as that always seem to be enough. However, this time, I was persuaded to make a whole batch... macaron mania!

SO, the onto the Macaron Isaphan.

The first thing I made was the filling. (this recipe was my take on the original, but tastes just as good)

2 cans Lychees
400g White Chocolate
60g Double Cream
4 teaspoons Rose water
(30g Butter)  (read on to understand need for brackets)

Raspberry jam
Fresh raspberries

1. Drain the lychees. (Keep some of the juice. 100ml will suffice)
2. Blitz/Blend/Process the lychees into a puree. This puree is quite liquidy and runny. So I poured it into a sieve and removed some of the lychee juice that was straining out.
3. Put puree into container and leave to one side. (240g is needed. If you have too little then make up the weight difference with the juice that you had kept. The remaining juice/syrup can be disposed of)
4. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie
5. While chocolate is melting, put rose water, lychee puree, and cream into a pan and heat.
6. When chocolate is melted remove from bain-marie. To prevent chocolate burning remove from bain-marie when there are still some lumps in chocolate. Continue to stir and lumps should melt.
7. Bring cream/lychee/rose mixture close to boiling. Remove from heat.
8. Add hot mix to chocolate in thirds. Only add more once previous addition is totally encorporated. DO NOT WORRY if chocolate 'burns' and forms a hard dough like consistency. As you continue to add hot mix SLOWLY, chocolate should return to previous consistancy.
9. Pour into shallow dish, cover with clingfilm (make sure the clingfilm is touching the ganache. A bit like a duvet!) and put in fridge.

Then move onto the shells. Click here for macaron recipe. (Double if you want far too many macarons1)
ONLY DIFFERENCE... add your food colouring (pink) to almond paste before setting aside. Colour will dilute when you add white meringue, so make sure paste is a darker shade to how you want them to be.

Once I piped my macarons, I sprinkled them with brown sugar before they had time to crust. This looks very pretty. :D

If you are doing a full batch, be prepared for several oven sessions! Also, Try not to pipe all your macarons at once, start piping 15 minutes before they go in the oven as, if they have to much time to 'crust' they may stick to the paper, preventing feet. DISASTER!

I then checked on my ganache... it was still too runny. SO, I peeled off the clingfilm. Melted my butter (amount mentioned above) and mixed it in to my ganache. I then put it back into the fridge and left it for another 20 minutes. It was then perfect piping consistency!

If you leave your ganache to long... bring it out and leave it for 30-40 minutes to warm up slightly before piping. I am normally VERY impatient and just go ahead... but it seriously alters how they look.... NOT TO BE DONE AGAIN!

When piping your isaphan beauties this is how you do it

1. Pipe a ring of ganache leaving a hole in the middle.
2. Fill hole with raspberry jam (use a sandwich bag if you don't want to waste a piping bag) but make sure you cut a TINY hole for the jam to come out of.
3. Put a quarter of a fresh raspberry in the raspberry jam.
4. Assemble with lid.

They should look LOVELY.

My friend took the photos and has now gone WITH the photos, but I shall add them when I get them off her.

Good luck macaroners!!!

xxxxx