Hello Kitty Macaron

Had wanted to share my Mother's Day bentos today, but since I usually have more time to blog on Friday night, I wanted to update my Hello Kitty macarons first. I'll probably blog about my Mother's Day bentos next week, after the occasion is over. So, here's wishing all mothers a very Happy Mother's Day in advance. :)


These Hello Kitty macarons have been on my to do list for super long! I'm so happy to finally attempt them.


I filled these Kitty macarons with strawbery lemon swiss merigue buttercream. Have enclosed the recipe in this post, together with the instructions to recreate these Kitty macarons.


I can't wait to try more characters, need to find time to bake more macarons. :)


I actually made some round ones too just in case the ones with ears did not turn out well. I was not too confident since it's my first attempt at making odd shaped macarons. Thankfully they turned out fine. I made one into Kitty just to show you that you can also use round macarons to create Hello Kitty too. :)

HELLO KITTY MACARON RECIPE
Ingredients:
80g ground almond
160g icing sugar
60g egg white, separated for 24 hours in advance

Buttercream:
60g egg white
110g butter, room temperature
110g fine castor sugar
1/2 cup strawberries
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Method:

1. Sieve 80g icing sugar together with ground almond twice. Alternatively, you can also use a food processor to pulse them till fine before sieving them once. Set aside.


2. Beat egg white on low/medium speed until foamy, sieve 80g icing sugar in 3 batches, change to high speed and beat till soft peak form. You can turn up the speed and continue to beat till stiff peak, if you prefer a thicker macaron.

3. Add step 2 icing sugar/almond mixture into egg white in 2 batches, folding well to combine.

4. Scoop batter into pipping bag with nozzle tip #1A attached. Pipe small circles on a non-stick baking sheet. Use a toothpick to prick the air bubbles. 

5. You can either pipe on Kitty's ears using a smaller tip or use a toothpick to pull out the ears. I pulled out mine using a toothpick. Dry the macarons shells for 30 minutes under room temperature.

6. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius. Bake macarons at middle rack for around 12-15 minutes. Once the feet appears (they should do so before 5 minutes) , place an oven rack above the tray of macarons and continue baking till 12-15 minutes is up. (this is to prevent the top of the macarons from browning) When baking is complete, do not remove the macarons from the tray, allow them to cool for a while before removing. 
7. To make the buttercream filling, first, grate yellow part of lemon to get lemon zest. Set aside.

8. Puree strawberries, strain away the juice and set aside.

9. Combine egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk over a gentle simmering hot water bath, till all the sugar have melted. Remove from heat.

10. Place on mixer and whisk on high till stiff peaks are formed.

11. Turn down the speed and add in the butter gradually, mix well.

12. Mix in puree strawberries, lemon zest and lemon juice. Fill in pipping bag, refrigerate around 15 minutes before pipping onto your macarons. 

13. Draw Kitty using black and yellow food markers. I used 2 heart shaped sprinklers for Kitty's bow, stick them on using buttercream.

Note:

• The measurements for the ingredients is crucial. It is also important to whisk the egg whites and fold in the sugar/almond mixture correctly.
• The need to use aged egg whites is debatable, but you should at least use egg whites at room temperature. I usually separate them the night before, leave in a bowl covered with cling wrap at room temperature.
• Please ensure equipments are dry when beating egg whites, else you will have problem beating them till stiff peak.
• It is necessary to leave the batter to rest for at least half an hour before baking, this is for the macarons to form a shell on top.
• It's important to use a non-stick baking sheet, I usually bake mine on silpat mats.
• Macarons taste better the following day, so if you can wait, keep in fridge and eat them the next day.

Where to get same item used in today's post: