Cherry Ripe Macarons - one tasty little morsel!

Cherry Ripeâ is one of my favourite chocolate. This chocolate could potentially be available only in Australian and New Zealand. I never came across this bar before until I came to Australia. It is made by Cadbury Chocolate and made of juicy cherry and coconut wrapped in dark chocolate.

I love creating macaron flavours. I think about macaron concoctions continuously, non-stop. One of the flavours that I like to think about is the replication of chocolate bar. Think about famous chocolate bars like Snickers (caramel, peanuts, chocolate), Toblerone (chocolate, almond, nougat), Mars (caramel, chocolate). There are reasons why they are so popular and classic hits. It’s because the combination of flavour works. It stands the test of time. Instead of inventing your own flavour and invest in the trial-and-errors of flavour combination. It’s a short-cut to borrow the idea from what is proof to be a successful concoction.

I got a bag of unopened organic desiccated coconut that was going to expire in a month. As I hate throwing away food, there’ll be more baking with coconut on the way.

I love opening a new packet of coconut. The aroma is sensational. It transports me back to the streets of Thailand. I can picture the street stalls selling sweets, puddings, or even grilled satay chicken. It smells deliciously sweet, creamy and toasty. It wows me every time.

To replicate Cherry Ripeâ flavour, there were three ingredients that came to my mind. As you might have guessed, they were coconut, cherry and dark chocolate, which I combined them into the macaron filling. I also added ground desiccated coconut into the macaron shell mixture as well (I grind them in a food processor). My house smelt fantastic when the macarons were being baked.

I took some of the macarons to work and my workmate named the flavour straight away that it was Cherry Ripeâ. Maybe she was good with the flavour or maybe it is an Aussie icon thing that people will be able to sense it from miles away. It also meant that my macaron turned out to be something I intended to. Quite happy with that!

Here is the recipe….

Cherry Ripe Macaron Recipe

Inspired by Cherry Ripeâ chocolate by Cadbury

Makes 25-28 3-cm macarons

More details on Basic Mararons using Italian Meringue techniques can be found here.

You can also see more detailed intructions on making macarons in my Basic Macaron Recipe and I heart Macarons blogs (however, they are recipes using French meringue method. Most of the processes are similar between Italian’s and French’s. The only difference is the handling of sugar and egg white).

Macarons shell ingredients
125 g pure icing sugar
75 g almond meal (almond flour or ground almond)
50 g ground desiccated coconut (grind them in a food processor)
100 g egg whites (separated 24 -48 hours in advance and is at room temperature)
125 g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
30 ml water (2 tablespoons)
red colouring powder or liquid

Chocolate Cherry Ripeâ filling
70 g dark chocolate, chopped
100 ml thickened cream (minimum 35% fat content)
20 g butter
40 g desiccated coconut
60 g glace cherries
 
Making macarons shells
 

Grind desiccated coconut in food processor until finely ground.

Sift almond meal, ground desiccated coconut and icing sugar together through fine sieve and set aside.

Divide egg whites into two equal portions (50 g each portion).  Pour the first portion of egg white (50 g) and red colouring powder or liquid into the almond meal/icing sugar mixture.  Don’t mix or stir them, just leave it as is.

Put the water and caster sugar in a heavy-base saucepan over medium-high heat. When the syrup starts to boil. Place the rest of egg white (50 g) into a mixing bowl, using the whip attachment, whip egg white to the soft peak. When the syrup reaches 118°C (on a thermometer), take if off the heat and let it cool down to 115°C (or until the bubbles slightly subside).

While the mixer is still running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl. Be careful not to pour syrup onto the whip as it might spatter.

Continue mixing until the meringue cool down to slightly above body temperature (50°C) or when the side of the mixing bowl is warm to touch. The whipped egg white will be (very) stiff and glossy.

Mix a third of whipped egg white into the almond meal mixture and combine them well. At this step, I work the mixture very vigorously to blend the egg white with almond meal mixture. Fold the rest of whipped egg white into the mixture and mix well, yet gently, until the batter is smooth. The batter will be thick. It resembles a very thick cake batter, or as many web sites describe it as a magma-like consistency (I believe it means the thick batter would flow slowly like a magma).

Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 1-cm plain tip (size #11). Pipe the staggering rows of 1-inch rounds onto baking papers or baking sheets. You will need two trays for this recipe.

Let the piped shells stand at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes to let the crust forms. This depends on the room temperature and humidity. When the piped shells are dry to touch without it sticking to your fingers. They are good to go into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan-forced or convection oven, increase the temperature by 20°C if you’re using conventional oven) for at least 15 minutes. Just before baking, turn the temperature down to 150°C and bake the macarons for 15 minutes.

Lift the baking papers/sheets off the baking tray to the cooling rack and let it completely cool down before removing macarons (it is easier to remove cool macarons off the sheet. They are also less likely to stick to the paper).

Sandwich cool macaron shell with chilled chocolate Cherry Ripeâ filling.

Store macarons in a covered container in a fridge. Macarons will taste better after they are chilled overnight.

Making Chocolate Cherry Ripeâ Ganache

Grind glace cherry with desiccated coconut in a food processor, until roughly chopped. Set aside.

Put dark chocolate in a separate bowl.

Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove it from heat as soon as it comes to the boil. 

Pour hot cream into chocolate. Leave it for about 10-20 seconds. Stir the chocolate and cream mixture until melted. Scatter butter pieces on the mixture and stir until well combined.

Mix in cherry and coconut mixture until all combined.

Chill the ganache at least an hour before using.