Blueberry French Macarons with Italian Meringue Buttercream

Mummy, can I have a blueberry macaron, please?

I always hear this request whenever we are on our road trips as we like to stop at cafes (mostly McCafé) for our coffee breaks. After finishing his macaron, my son often ask for a second one but we usually stop at just one.

Mummy, can I bake me many blueberry macarons? You know that one is never enough for me...

I know. I know. I'm feeling extremely obliged whenever my son says this. Since the last time that I have baked strawberry cream cheese French macarons, I have not been baking any macaron for my little one and this guilty thought has been staying in my mind.

I have to bake blueberry macarons!!! To commit myself, I have suggested French Macaron as the theme for our bake-along Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings. And so, I have baked these...

Finally, I have baked these! Blueberry macarons with blueberry buttercream... 

To start, I'm using these frozen blueberry to make a compote.

The compote that I made has intact blueberries in it... You will see the reason why I did this.

To make good macarons, the icing sugar and ground almond mixture has to be triple-sifted.

My son said blueberry macarons have to be blue and so I did this. Hmmm...

Notice that I have beat this Italian meringue to near-stiff peaks.

Doing the macaronner step...

Happy that this is a successful bake again :)

For the buttercream, I have beat this Italian meringue to stiff peaks.

Keep beating if the buttercream looks slightly curdled but DO NOT beat when the mixture looks curdled after stirring in the compote.

Pipe dollops of cream into macaron shells.

... and sandwich them.

We have lots of macarons to enjoy here!!!

Before proceeding to munch these macarons, I must warn you something!

There will be exploding flavours and oozing juice inside your mouth when you eat these. Now, are you ready for this???

Wow!

Mummy, I like your blueberry macarons the most because they have real blueberries in them. More, please???

These macarons are absolutely wow!!! This is why I have made the blueberry compote with intact blueberries!

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Here are the recipes that I have used to make my blueberry macarons with Italian meringue buttercream.

This is the Always-Successful-Italian-Meringue macaron recipe that I always use. It is mostly adapted from here including what I have also learned at William Angliss

Makes about 18 macaron or 36 shells
(number can vary depending on the sizes that you made)
100g almond meal (ground almond)
100g icing sugar
75g egg whites, divided into 2 portions
100g caster sugar
25ml water
a few drops of colouring or flavoring or decorations - I used blue colouring gel for this bake.

Preheat the oven to 150°C (NO fan forced).

Combine almond meal and icing sugar and sift them three times or more and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat one portion of egg whites at medium low speed at first for about 10 mins. While beating, combine water and caster sugar in a small saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium high heat and cook the sugar water syrup to 118°C but not over 125°C.

Increase the mixer speed and continue to beat the egg whites while pouring syrup into the egg whites slowly in a steady and fine stream. Continue beating until the meringue is glossy and near-stiff peaks. Allow the meringue to cool to about 40°C.

Place almond meal-icing sugar mixture in a mixing bowl and mix in the remaining portion of egg white to form a thick paste. Add a drop or two of any colouring that you desired in the almond mixture if you wish to have your macarons coloured.

Fold in half of the cooled meringue first into the almond paste, scooping it up from the bottom of the bowl until the mixture is well-combined. Then, fold in the rest of the meringue into the almond mixture until the mixture is well-combined again.

Continue to mix in order to "deflate" some fluffiness of the meringue in the mixture and this step is usually referred as "Macaronner". In the book, I love Macarons by Hisako Ogita, it suggests scooping the batter from the bottom and turn it upside down for nothing more or less than 15 times but I like to gauge this stage by the look of the batter. I reckon it is ok when it looks firm and dripping slowly from a spoon.

Attach a 1 cm tip (I used Wilton tip 1A) to the pastry bag. Place the pastry bag, tip down, inside a cup or container and pour the macaron batter into it.

Pipe out the batter onto baking tray lined with silicon mat in circles and any shapes that you like. Gently tap the baking sheet firmly against flat surfaces to allow the batter to settle.

Rest the batter at room temperature, uncovered, for 5 mins. Bake for 15 mins or until dried and slightly crisp. Note: My oven doesn't have bottom heat function and had to bake for another 5 mins at 130°C with NO fan forced to get the bottom of the macarons crisp.

Allow macarons to cool on baking mat as they peel off easily only when they are completely cooled.

Italian Meringue Buttercream mostly adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes about 1 cup

50g caster sugar
1 large egg whites, 30g
100g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 30ml water to a boil. Boil until syrup reaches 118°C on a candy thermometer (soft-ball stage).

In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites with an electric mixer on low until foamy.

With mixer running, pour syrup down side of bowl into egg whites in a steady stream, and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form but not dry. Change the whisk attachment to paddle attachment. Beat in butter a few pieces at a time. Add vanilla and beat until smooth. If it looks curdled at any point, keep beating until smooth.

Blueberry Compote mostly adapted from Food Network (Ellie Krieger) as mine is the thicker version.

Make 1/2 cup

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1 tbsp water

25g sugar

Combine 3/4 cup of the blueberries, water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over a medium heat. While cooking, squash the soften blueberries with a mixing spoon and stirring occasionally. Cook for about 20 min or until the mixture is thick and viscous. Add the rest of the blueberries and cook for about 10 mins more, stirring frequently but gently so that the second addition of blueberries can stay intact. Set aside and allow mixture to cool completely.

This can be made ahead and store in a fridge (up to 1 week) or freezer (up to 3 months) or until required and I have made extra because we like to eat the rest with pancakes.

To assemble:

Stir in blueberry compote into the buttercream gently. Not to worry if the cream look curdled as the flavours will infuse into each other eventually. Transfer buttercream into piping bags. Make a large nip on the tip of the piping bags so that the blueberries will not pop while squeezing through the piping bag. Pipe dollops of cream onto the macaron shells. The combination of the 1 cup buttercream plus 1/2 cup blueberry compote can fill about 20-22 macarons.

Sandwich with another macaron shell. Press it slightly to secure. As these macarons are made with the firm kind of buttercream, they taste better after resting in the fridge on the next day.

Enjoy!
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