Macaron, I.C., and Panna Cotta

My first plated dessert!

Top Left: Chocolate Macaron filled with Chocolate Ganache

Top Right: Tahitian Vanilla Panna Cotta

Bottom: Coconut Ice Cream on a bed of crushed almonds

Ispahan Macaron

The split second I succumbed to my constant need to concoct new macarons, I let my obsession with the Parisian treat consume me as I face the challenge of making an Ispahan macaron for the first time. I attempted, and eventually failed, at using the Italian Meringue Method to further stabilize my egg whites because a candy thermometer does not simply appear out of thin air during finals week.

Above: Macaron filled with a rose-water buttercream with a raspberry pâté de fruit and fresh lychees in the center

My macaron, as it turns out, did not need anything other than the classic French Meringue (although the Italian Method would have given me better feet and shinier shells).

Vanilla Macaron with Mascarpone filling

Above: Vanilla Mascarpone Filling

Above: Piping filling onto macaron shells

Above: Vanilla macarons with vanilla mascarpone filling

Matcha and Chocolate Macarons

J'ai gagnée!

Top: Chocolate macarons with chocolate buttercream

Bottom: Matcha macarons with matcha buttercream

Just in time for Lunar New Year...only thirteen attempts too late. In light of my new success, I vow to never contemplate on depriving my macaron recipe of even the slightest grain (or two grams, cough*) of sugar.

Above: Chocolate macarons

 Since it's my first successful batch, I decided that the macarons deserve no less than some embellishments of brush-strokes that I meticulously hand-painted. All of my hopes that my artwork would become the next Picasso came to an end once my sister insisted that I subconsciously drew cannabis on my matcha macarons, while my guests laughed nervously and brushed them off as merely palm trees. I was shooting for an abstract concept that elicits some pensive mood, but instead, I got illegal substance and Caribbean plant.