MacAttack #17 Blackberry Cardamom Macarons

Its Mactweets time of the month and this time MacSweethearts Jamie & Deeba asked us to create macarons incorporating both fruit & spice. 

Sugar & Spice everything fruity....perfect for spring!

I have made blackberry macarons with a hint of cardamom..my favourite spice after saffron. I made the macarons using the Italian Meringue method as I find them the best. I find feet consistently now.
Coming back to Cardamom, its a very unique spice native to India and grown especially in and around the places I grew up in, South India. Its used in most of our everyday cooking, especially Indian sweets, and also added as an important ingredient in Ayurveda. Our early morning Masala Tea is always enriched with Cardamom and Ginger. Although, with the black berries, its very unusual, its a combination that cannot go wrong. 

Blacberry Cardamom Macarons 

Ingredients

27g egg whites
75g caster sugar
20g water
1tsp cardamom powder
75g ground almonds
75g powdered sugar
1tbp freeze dried blackberry powder
27g egg whites

Method:

Pulse the almonds,blackberrypowder, cardamon powder and icing sugar in a processor until fine. Sieve twice. Mix one part of the egg whites to this. Meanwhile whisk whites till frothy. Bring the sugar and water to boil and let it reach 115-118 C in a candy thermometer. Add this to the whites and whisking all the while on high as you pour till it form glossy peaks. Mix a part of the whites to the almond mixture gently folding it. Mix in the remaining whites till you get a smooth mixture that forms ribbons when lifted. Do not over-mix as the mixture will turn liquidy and difficult to pipe. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe onto a baking sheet with silpat/ non-stick sheet. Leave it to form a skin for 30 minutes. When you touch them they should not stick to your hand at this point, if they do leave them for some more time. Preheat oven to 140C and bake these babies for 12-15 min depending on size. They should come off the sheet once cooked. Transfer to wire rack and cool. Pipe desired filling and sandwich the macarons.

For the filling I used buttercream with a drop of violet colour.

SoulCurry celebrated its 1 year bloganniversary and I am giving away a fantastic cookbook "Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the Macaron Cafe" by Cecile Cannone to celebrate this grand day. A winner will be picked at random by entering the names in random.org. If you would like to win it , please leave a comment in this post before the 30th of March 12 midnight GMT and and I will announce the winner in the following post.