Banoffee Macarons
Decadent and gooey macarons reminiscent of a banoffee pie - but without the calories!
Ingredients
- 200 g icing sugar
- 100 g ground almonds
- 3 egg whites
- pinch of salt
- 40 g caster sugar
- yellow food colouring paste
- 50 g yoghurt coated banana chips
- For the ganache filling:
- 150 g dark chocolate flavoured with caramel - we used Lindt caramel
- 150 ml double cream
- 1 tablespoon light muscovado sugar
- pinch of salt
- For the banoffee filling:
- 75 g caster sugar
- 1 large ripe banana
Instructions
- Mix the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor until well blended.
- In a separate, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until a firm peak begins to appear.
- Continue to whisk as you add the caster sugar, one teaspoon at a time, until the mixture is thick and glossy.
- Add a small amount of food colouring paste and mix well in until you have a bright yellow colour.
- Fold the almond mixture into the eggs until you have a smooth dropping consistency.
- Lay a sheet of baking parchment onto a heavy baking tray, and use a circular template (we used the larger end of our piping bag nozzle) to draw circles into which you will pipe the mixture. Alternatively, use a silicone macarons tray to create the perfect circles.
- Pipe using a 1cm nozzle on a piping bag.
- Once all the mixture is piped, bang the tray on the work surface to cause any air bubble to rise to the surface, and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes - this is important to form the skin which will give you the distinctive frilly edge of the macarons.
- Break the banana chips into smaller pieces and top half the macarons with a piece each.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 170 deg C (325F).
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray.
- For the ganache:
- Chop the chocolate and tip into a heatproof bowl.
- In a small saucepan heat the cream and sugar until it comes to the boil.
- Pour the cream mix over the chocolate and stir until melted.
- Leave to chill in the fridge.
- For the banoffee filling:
- Place the sugar and 2 tbsps water in a pan over a low heat, and let the sugar dissolve.
- Increase the heat and bring to the boil, continuing to heat until the liquid turns a caramel colour.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the sliced banana.
- Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth, then chill.
- To assemble the macarons:
- Spread the underside of the plain macarons with ganache. Drop a teaspoon of banoffee mixture onto the ganache, and top with the banana chipped macarons.