Raspberry Pinkarons for Pinktober

It's MacTweets time again and this month officially being the Breast Cancer Awareness month, Jamie and Deeba the MacTweets Duo asked us to create Macarons in vivid shades of pink. So here it is, my Pink Raspberry Creation aptly called "Pinkarons".

Apparently, one in nine women develop breast cancer at some point in their life. Finding breast cancer at an early stage can make a difference and so it is important for women to be aware and lookout for the changes.

Raspberry Pinkarons
Ingredients
Egg whites - 30gms(aged for 2 days)
Caster Sugar - 20 gms
Powdered Sugar - 55gms
Ground Almonds - 30gms
Freeze dries Rapsberries powder - 1/2 tsp
Cream of Tartar - a pinch
Egg Whites Powder - a pinch
Salt - a pinch
Pink food colour - a few drops
Method:

Prepare the stencil for macarons on a parchment paper and place it on a baking tray. Place another sheet of greaseproof paper on top of this. In a processor, process the almonds along with the colour and freeze dried raspberries until fine. Sieve this and powdered sugar into a bowl. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, adding the whites powder, salt and cream of tartar. Gradually, adding the caster sugar a tbsp at a time, whip them until they form peaks.The texture should be similar to hair mousse, not too dry. Dot some of this onto the sides of parchment so that they stay intact.Slowly add the whites to the almond mixture in two to three addition, gently folding the mixture. The mixture when lifted should fall back in ribbons. Fill a pastry bag with this mixture and pipe them onto the grease-proof paper. Leave them to form a skin for about 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven at 150C. Bake the shells for about 12-15 minutes depending on the size. Gently lift the baked shells and transfer them to cooling rack. Pipe the cooled shells with a filling of your choice and sandwich them. 

Pink Raspberry White Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
White chocolate - 50 gms
Double Cream - 1/4 cup
Vanilla Icing Sugar - 1 tbsp
Freeze dried Raspberry Powder - 1/2 tsp
Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave until smooth and glossy. Whip the cream with vanilla sugar and freeze dried raspberry powder until soft peaks are formed. Pour the cooled melted chocolate and whisk until smooth. Fill a pastry bag with this and pipe onto cooled macaroon shells.

Verdict: Although I did play around a bit with the recipe, the Macs turned out perfect with perfect feet. I was just praying and standing next to the oven for the first few minutes and the moment I saw happy feet, tweeted  Deeba & Jamie about it, my Mac Experts. Going with the pink theme, I made a white chocolate ganache the unusual way to cut standing time and added raspberry powder to it. This is probably the best ever chocolate ganache and couldn't help licking it as I was piping the shells ;-). Thanks to mactweets blog for a wonderful theme and I so enjoyed making these babies!