Raspberry, white chocolate and champagne macaroons

There is something so romantic and pretty about macaroons so what better time to make them than right before Valentine’s Day.

The beauty with macaroons is that you can make whatever flavour you like and choose whichever colour you want. The world is your pearlised macaroon oyster. For these macaroons, I have made a plain macaroon shell. This means you can make different flavours using the same batch by making a variety of fillings and I like the pop of colour you get from the filling alone. If you prefer, you can add some food colouring to the mixture before baking.

For this batch I mixed the raspberry, white chocolate and champagne macaroons with some blueberry ones by filling those with blueberry cream cheese icing but tonight it is all about the champagne.

RASPBERRY, WHITE CHOCOLATE AND CHAMPAGNE MACAROONS

There are a number of different ways to make macaroons. I followed Leiths How to Cook to make these but pretty much the same recipe is available here. Make sure to leave the macaroons on the worktop for about 30 minutes before baking to allow them to form a skin. This is what creates the smooth shell on top of the feet.

The macaroons can be hard to get off the greaseproof paper after they have been baked. Once you have taken them out of the oven, remove the greaseproof papers from the baking tray and place on a cold surface. Allow them to cool completely before removing them from the paper. I find it best to run a sharp knife between the macaroon and the paper to make sure that they maintain a smooth bottom when removed.

For the raspberry, white chocolate and champagne filling:

50g raspberries
3 tablespoons champagne/prosecco/sparkling wine
100g white chocolate
1 teaspoon raspberry powder

Method:

• Place the raspberries in a small saucepan with the champagne. Heat over a medium heat and allow to cook down for about 5 minutes. Pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.
• Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once melted, add in the raspberry and champagne puree and mix. Make sure the puree is still warm. If not, the chocolate will instantly seize up and become grainy and unusable.

To assemble:

• Brush the inside of each pair of macaroons with some raspberry powder. You can buy this at Squires Kitchen. You don’t have to use it but it gives an extra blast of raspberry flavour and I just love the colour.
• Place a teaspoonful of the raspberry and white chocolate ganache in the centre of one macaroon and sandwich the other on top. The ganache will push out to the edges as you do this.

Now enjoy with a glass of chilled champagne.