Milo Macaron Goodness

I've attempted Macarons a couple time before, sometimes successful and other times... not so much. I am always planning the next chance to try again. So this week I set aside the egg whites to sit ready to go to make them this weekend. I found a great recipe through Pinterest for Milo Macarons, link here Recipe.

Building my courage and fingers crossed hoping not to have an unsuccessful attempt, I got all my ingredients ready and measured. I think one of the hardest parts, for me anyway, is knowing when my meringue is at soft and stiff peaks.

Luckily for me, today was a success! Although my piping of the shells wasn't the neatest, they cooked very nicely :)

Note: The recipe says use of powdered egg white is optional, and seeing as I didn't have any available anyway, I chose to leave it out.

Below is the recipe as used from the link above to the Raspberri Cupcakes blog.

Makes 12-15 macarons (I managed to get 16 out of my mix, just depends how big you pipe them)

For the shells
100g egg white, at room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
185g icing sugar
15g Milo powder plus extra for dusting (replace with equal amounts of icing sugar if you want to try baking plain, unflavoured shells)
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites, helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary

Line two baking trays with good quality baking paper. Place icing sugar and Milo in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. (If you don’t have a processor just sift together with a fine sieve.) Sift into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

(I chose to sift my icing sugar, milo and almond meal together, as my food processor seems to miss some of the stuff at the bottom of the bowl)

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt (and egg white powder) in a medium mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue to your dry mixture and mix together with a spatula, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, which is easily done by smearing the mixture on the bottom and side of the bowl with your spatula), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds.

Place mixture in a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip. Pipe rounds about 3cm diameter on your prepared trays, leaving at least 2cm space around each one. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles. Leave to dry for about an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break/stick to your finger. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs.

Preheat your oven to 130-150°C, depending on your oven. You can place the sheet of piped shells on top of an upside-down roasting tray or another baking tray, for better heat distribution. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it’s still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer.

Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet, dip in extra Milo powder to dust the shells and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Milo Ganache
100g good quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
100ml pure (heavy) cream
50g (about 1/2 cup) Milo powder

Place chopped chocolate and Milo powder in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat cream in a small saucepan on medium heat until it just comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate and Milo. Leave for 5 minutes to allow the chocolate to melt, then use a whisk to combine all the ingredients until smooth.

Chill in fridge until mixture thickens but is still pipeable, whisking it every 10 minutes or so. Spoon or pipe between macaron shells.

Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow them to mature. Remove from the fridge about half an hour before serving so they come closer to room temperature.

So glad that I came across this recipe. I'm always happy to find an excuse to eat more Milo!

Happy Baking!