One a Penny, Two a Penny.. Hot Cross Buns er, Macarons

It's Easter. And for those who aren't Christian- like me- Easter is all about food (isn't every holiday all about food?!) There's chocolate. And cakes. And hot cross buns. I was planning on blogging an awesome recipe for hot cross buns but never got round to it so that I could take some decent photos in time. #bloggerproblems.

Buuuut. I have been making macarons again recently with quite good success so I combined the two to make hot cross bun macarons. Hint of cinnamon and cocoa in the shells paired with silky smooth cinnamon, ginger and orange zesty Swiss meringue buttercream. (On a side note: my Mac keeps autocorrecting macarons to macaroons which is annoying me somewhat…) 

This macaron uses the French method (oh geez macaron just autocorrected to macaroni- good job I checked) and admittedly I still have problems making decent macs. Italian method is more stable however I find the pouring boiling hot syrup step a bit of a fuss. For details and tips on how to make macarons- refer to this. For those ready to brave the macs- recipe is further down. 

HOT CROSS BUN MACARONS

Recipe from My Baking Cottage

Yields approx. 30 macarons, depending on what size you pipe.

Macaron Shells

100g egg whites (approx. from 3 eggs), room temperature.

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

200g icing sugar

110g ground almonds

25g caster sugar

1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsp cinnamon

Orange & Cinnamon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

150g Egg Whites

250g Caster Sugar
340g Butter, room temperature
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

Zest of 1 orange

To Decorate

75g white chocolate, melted and cooled

1. Sieve ground almonds and icing sugar into a bowl- if there are any large lumps, blitz in the food processor. 
2. In a squeaky clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy before adding the cream of tartar and sugar. Whisk until you have stiff, glossy meringue peaks.
3. Add the dry ingredients into the whisked egg whites- using a folding/ pressing against the bowl action (you need to deflate the meringue) fold the mixture until you get a smooth moving lava texture. This should be achieved in less than 50 strokes. Be careful to not over mix- otherwise you will need to start again!  I'd strongly recommend researching some macaron techniques first if you're new to making macarons.
4. Using a round tip in a piping bag, pipe blobs of batter onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicon mat. (I piped mine approx 1 inch diameter.)
5. Leave shells to air dry until the tops are no longer tacky to the touch. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
6. Bake the shells for 15 mins. Leave to cool slightly before attempting to peel off the baking parchment. Cool the shells entirely before filling.
7. Place egg whites and caster sugar in a squeaky clean heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir frequently with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Test b rubbing a little between your fingers- there should be no grains of sugar. (Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water, and keep whisking so the egg whites don't scramble!)
8. Using an electric whisk, or pour into the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the egg whites on medium high to stiff peaks and the bowl is cool to touch
9. Add butter, approximately a tablespoon at a time to the meringue and whisk on low until each addition is incorporated. Turn the speed up to medium high and keep whisking until the butter and meringue mixture come together into a silky smooth buttercream. Lastly add the vanilla extract, spices and orange zest and mix to incorporate.
10. Pipe buttercream onto one shell and sandwich with another (of a similar size!). Once all shells have been filled, place cooled, melted white chocolate into a sandwich/ freezer/ ziplock/ piping bag, snip a little off the end and pipe white chocolate cross on top of the macarons. Leave chocolate to set before placing macarons in an airtight box in the fridge to mature for a day or two.