Passionfruit Macarons

Recently, in my dessert club, a fabulous lady made passionfruit creme brulee and I fell in love. The only problem was that she used a frozen passionfruit concentrated puree, The Perfect Puree from Napa Valley. You can purchase it from Amazon, but since it has to be shipped overnight with dry ice, the shipping rates are insane. So, two other ladies went in on an order with me and now I own my very own jar of passionfruit puree, which should last me a lifetime.

Besides using it for creme brulee, I've been trying to be creative and try new things that call for passionfruit. I thought it would be fun to make some macarons with passionfruit puree and they turned out wonderful!

Macarons

2/3 c. almond flour

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

3 egg whites

5 T. granulated sugar

1 t. vanilla extract
yellow food coloring

Heat oven to 280 degrees and place the racks on the two lowest positions. Cut pieces of parchment paper to fit two cookie sheets perfectly and then make 1-inch circles all over the papers, leaving at least 1/2-inch of space in between circles. With practice, you will be able to skip this step and pipe your macarons without the circles, while maintaining a fairly consistent size of circles. Also, silpat baking sheets are so much easier than parchment, if you want to make the investment.

Whisk the almond flour and powdered sugar together and set aside.

Place egg whites in the bowl of a mixer and start to mix on med-high. When they start to get frothy, add sugar, 1 T. at a time. Continue to beat until glossy, stiff peaks appear. To test it, pick up the whisk and if the egg whites peak and the top doesn't fall, they are ready. If it falls down, keep mixing. Make sure you don't over mix (it will become clumpy). Add a good amount of yellow food coloring and vanilla and beat only until combined.

Add half of the dry mixture to the egg whites and fold it about a dozen times until just mixed. Fold with a spatula, going up the sides, pushing down the center. Finish mixing the rest of the dry ingredients, being careful to fold and not stir. When you lift your spatula, the mixture should pour off like thick molten lava. If it's not flowing when you lift the spatula, it is too thick and needs more mixing.

Use a piping bag (ziplock bag with the tip cut does not work) with a large round tip. Place it in a large cup and fold over the sides. Pour in half of the mixture and twist the top. Start piping the batter into the circles. The best way to do it is hold just over the pan (not touching) and let the batter come out until the circle is perfectly filled. Then quickly turn your wrist as you lift the tip to try and not leave a tail. Once the first pan is filled, hold the pan with both hands and tap hard on the counter 3 times. Turn the pan so your hands are on the opposite ends and tap again 3 times (helps get any air pockets out and flattens the cookies). Continue until both pans are filled and the rest of the batter is used up. Let them sit on the counter for at least 15 minutes, or until the tops are no longer wet when you touch them.

Place the cookie sheets on the two bottom oven racks. You will have to experiment with the cooking times, but this is what worked for me. Set the timer for 2 minutes and when it rings, open the door to let any humidity escape. Then set the timer for 7 minutes. Once the time is up, change the pans so that the top one is now on the bottom, as well as turn around so the back of the pan is now in the front. Bake for 7 more minutes. To test the doneness, carefully lift the cookie off the sheet. If it comes off the parchment easily, they are done. If the cookie separates in half, bake one more minute, and so on. Cool the macaroons completely before filling with the passionfruit curd.

Passionfruit Curd

8 egg yolks

1/2 c. passionfruit juice, or 1/4 c. concentrated puree plus 1/4 c. water

1 c. sugar

10 T. butter, cold and cut into chunks

On medium heat, cook egg yolks, passionfruit and sugar, stirring constantly. Continue to cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon, or until it reaches 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Remove saucepan from the heat and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time until all the butter is combined. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve (I skipped this part because I used passionfruit concentrate and didn't think there would be lumps. However, there were some chunks of cooked egg throughout my curd and I wished I would have strained it.) and put it into a medium bowl. Cover the curt with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface to avoid causing a skin to form. Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to a day.