Macarons for grown ups- Cosmopolitan and Mojito macarons

OK! I'm super duper excited about these macaron flavours and even more about the photographs, that turned out exactly the way i imagined. It was a crazy week of baking for us at Bobo Macarons. More than 1000 macarons baked, printed, filled and packed for a wedding and I was beyond exhausted. I did not want to do any baking for a really long time, or so I thought, until this fabulous idea for flavours developed in my head. I HAD to make it immediately. And so I did.

I decided to go with two of my favourite cocktails- Mojito and Cosmopolitan. I make these at home quite often and I'm soooo in love with the flavours, it HAD to work in a macaron. I must admit though, it wasn't easy. I wasn't sure how to make the flavours pop and if adding liquid to the filling was a good idea, but I had to give it a go to see if it was feasible...and well, here they are...spot on with the cocktail flavours. Next on the list is margarita and sangria and maybe even a pink champagne one ;)

I have a basic macaron recipe that I fall back on and it fetches me perfect results. I halved the batter and added hot pink to one set and kiwi green to the other. I got 12 macarons in each colour. For the mojito macarons, I grated some lime zest and sprinkled over the shells about 10 minutes after I piped them out. This totally made a difference.

Mojito Macarons

The mojito ones- lime, mint and rum being the main ingredients, were easy to put together. I mean I decided to do a white chocolate ganache filling and incorporate these flavours into it, keeping the base simple. I would however increase the alcohol a bit more the next time, as the lime was overpowering (in a good way, of course) with this batch. I'm so kicked about how the styling for this came through and its one of my favourite shoots till date.

Double cream- 45ml + 1/4 to 1/3rd cup to whip

White chocolate- 2 oz, roughly chopped

White rum- 1 tbsp

Lime juice- 3 tbsp

Lime zest- of one lime

Mint leaves- 2 to 3, finely chopped

Gently heat the double cream, either in a sauce pan, or in the microwave and pour over the chopped up white chocolate. Keep aside for a couple of minutes.

Gently stir, without incorporating air into it, till you get a smooth mix. Keep aside to cool.

Add the rum, lime juice, lime zest and chopped up mint leaves and mix it in well.

Keep refrigerated till ready to use.

When ready to pipe, whip the ganache with 1/4 to 1/3rd cup of double cream with a hand held blender or in a free standing mixes with whisk attachment, till stiff peaks form. Make sure you don't over do this, or you'll end up with split cream.

Transfer into piping bags and pipe on to macarons and sandwich them.

Keep refrigerated in an air tight container till ready to use.

Cosmopolitan Macarons

These - taste wise- were spot on but I did have a bit of trouble getting the right consistency. I used a butter cream filling for the macs and the amount of liquid that went into it, made it a lot difficult. I know that vodka is an important component in a cosmo, but i shied away from it because of the Cointreau and cran juice that was already making it quite fluid. I had to keep adding icing sugar to reach the desired consistency, which meant, the filling was a bit too sweet for my liking. I will find a way to work around that, but for now here's the recipe. 

Unsalted butter- 55 gms, at room temperature

Icing sugar- 6 tbsp

Cointreau- 1 tbsp

Cranberry juice- 1 tbsp

Orange zest- 1/4 tsp (optional)

Beat together the butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy.

Add all the liquid ingredients plus zest and continue beating till they all come together.

If the mix looks like its curdled, add some more icing sugar to bring it back to desired consistency.