The Savour teachers keep saying these little morsels are on their way out, but honestly, I keep seeing them around. Adriano Zumbo's business is built on the back of his initial appearance on Masterchef with his macarons & when at his Melbourne shop a few weeks ago, people were buying them by the dozen. Chez Dre, which I featured in my post titled "sweet Melbourne", are producing them. Ganache Chocolate retail them. Mind you, Melbourne is probably the first place to see new trends in food, whereas Newcastle is a lot slower to catch on.
So, the macarons produced in this class are a step up from the entrance level class, but not quite as developed as the continuing education 2 class. More developed & layered flavour pairings & the decorating of the shells with a textural component are all a step up from the basic macaron with its simple, single flavoured filling. Again, we looked at the three different methods of making macarons, French, Spanish & Italian.
So, down to the all important flavours. From L-R we have:
St Clements - contains an orange jam encased in a lemon butter crème
Citrus & rosemary - a kalamansi pate de fruit is layered with a citrus & rosemary ganache
Apple crumble - the pairing of a refreshing poached apple gelee & a cinnamon mousseline cream, with additional texture provided by a shortcrust pastry crumb sprinkled over the shells
Les macarons au chocolate - chocolate mass is used to flavour this shell. This is teamed with a blackcurrant curd
Peanut brittle & milk chocolate - crushed peanut brittle flavours the shell & the milk chocolate ganache. With the shell, we noticed that being too generous with the sprinkle of peanut brittle affected its shape & structure
The three levels of classes have opened my eyes to the idea of providing different textures & increasing the number of flavours within a macaron. I've only ever done a single flavoured ganache or buttercream centre. Fitting a number of layers within that tiny macaron shell & not have it as thick as a hamburger provides a challenge, however. As with a hamburger, there's nothing worse than having your fillings shoot out the back, as you bite into it!
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