Wednesday Specials: Wintery Delight

Hello sweeties! As you are reading this I am on my way (or I even arrived) to the Latvian capital, Riga. And since the weather forecast is for a little colder weather compared to the hellish heat we are experiencing in Bucharest aaaaand the first Christmas tree was in Riga, you cannot blame me if today’s specials is not a summery popsicle or a fruity smoothie. We are going to discuss some heavy baking and spicy flavour, all thanks to the Baking Bird.

Candy Cap Mushroom Macarons

Makes approximately 20-24 regular/medium-sized macarons

For the Macaron:

165 grams ground almond flour (approx. 1 1/2 cups)
165 grams powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons ground dried candy cap mushrooms
4 egg whites, separated and sealed in separate jar 1-4 days prior
150 grams fine or granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
brown and yellow food coloring gels (about 5 drops of each)

For the Filling:

2 egg yolks
5 ounces neufchâtel cream cheese
3 Tablespoons creamed honey
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Making the Macaron:

Prepare two insulated baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Place a good handful of the dried candy cap mushrooms in a food processor (I eyeballed what might end up as 2 Tablespoons when it was ground up… it’s ok if you have more or slightly less). Grind until the pieces are as fine as possible. Parts of it may be powdery, parts of it might still be dried mushroom, both are ok to put in the macaron mix. Keep the ground candy cap in the food processor.
Weigh or measure out your almond flour and powdered sugar. Place both in food processor and pulse with the candy caps until they are fine and fully mixed. If you own a sieve, you can sift them but I didn’t and they came out just fine.
Measure out your fine granulated sugar and have ready. Pour the egg whites and lemon juice into a large stainless steel bowl and under medium speed whisk them until they begin to look more white and bubbly (about 30-60 seconds). Reduce the speed to low and gradually start adding the sugar. Once all the sugar is in, increase the speed to medium again and mix until it is glossy and stiff. While they are turning into stiff peaks, I added a bit of the food coloring to get it started and see where I liked it. You can also add it during the next phase while folding the almond flour into the egg whites. It’s up to you.
Gradually add the ground almond/powdered sugar mixture into the egg white bowl and carefully fold the ground almond into the mixture with rubber spatula. Adjust the color here also if you’d like. Keep folding until all of the almond mixture is incorporated and you’ve achieved the color you like. Consistency should be smooth and slightly runny but not too stiff.
With a piping bag already fitted with your tip, spoon the mixture into the bag and evenly pipe mixture out onto your baking sheets. I fit about 20-24 shells on per sheet, counting to about 7 seconds as I piped out each one to help my consistency of sizing. Some may be a bit bigger or smaller than the others, but usually in the end they find their match.

Tap the bottom of each sheet on your work surface to release the air bubbles. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, up to 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 280ºF. Bake the macarons for 15 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Check for doneness by looking at the “foot”, it will be slightly browned but not overly so.
Let cool before you put in the filling. Macarons should release easily from the sheet. Pair up with similarly sized and matching shells.

For the Filling:

In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks for about 10 seconds. Add the cream cheese and creamed honey until combined. Add the powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments until you reach your desired consistency. It may be a little runny, so I put it in the freezer to help solidify it a bit. Also, I didn’t end up using all of the filling because there was so much of it once I added in all of the powdered sugar, so you can reserve for another use or try halving the recipe if you’re prefer.
With a small butter knife, slather on a small amount of the filling on one side of the macaron shell pair and gently press together.