Cinnamon Apple Macarons and failed Pina Colada Macarons (13th June)

        So when I am left with 12 egg whites from making Leche Flan, I thought it would be the perfect chance for me to try my hand at making macarons again. I've had my hand at making macarons before and it's quite a daunting task as it relies on so many elements turning  out right to give you the perfect macarons. I envy those who have mastered the art and turn out perfect batches every time. I however, have yet to master the art and even the thought of them turning out badly already sends shivers down my spine. If it were the same time last year I would have just been content with popping out and buying these but being able to make your own just gives such a sense of accomplishment.

        I love the apple cinnamon combination and Ryan loves anything coconut so I thought I would attempt to make cinnamon shells with an apple fruit filling and coconut shells with a pineapple Malibu/buttercream filling. For the apple filling I was going to just cook some apple and puree it and thicken with a bit of cornflour and for the coconut shells I was intending to flavour them with some coconut cream powder and for the pineapple filling I was thinking of trying to get some pineapple flavoured Malibu and mixing it through some buttercream.

        I couldn't find any coconut powder at home and Mum wasn't home to ask and I tried finding some up at the local shops and even Woolies but had no luck. All the local liquor shops also didn't sell the pineapple Malibu so I had to think of some Plan B's. I buy a bottle of coconut Malibu instead and ended up trying to put through some dessicated coconut through the processer with the almond meal and icing sugar but the coconut doesn't really break up as I had hoped.

        When I see that the coconut is still quite coarse I kind of had this feeling that it wouldn't work but I decided to ignore that feeling and thought I would be okay.

        I also have this feeling that I had overdone the egg whites as they were quite stiff.

        When I mix through the almond mixture I immediately have this sinking feeling that I had stuffed up. I could just tell that it was way too thick due to the egg whites being too stiff and was farely coarse because of the coconut.

        I thought I would take the risk anyway and piped out my macarons and hoped that they would turn out okay.

        The state of my kitchen bench after the first batch of macarons, and I hadn't even done the fillings yet. I thought I would wait until I see the state of my first batch of macaron shells before I start on the filling. I am usually not quite this messy of a worker.

        While I was working on my first batch of macarons I had finely diced up an apple and had it in the oven on a low heat to dry it out. I was hoping that this would add a bit of texture to the apple filling for my macarons - if they turned out.

        When peering into the oven it appeared that my biscuits had spread quite a bit and had feet of sorts but upon pulling out the trays I saw these hideous looking monsters. Erm they have feet?! I kept trying to cook them longer as they didn't seem to want to cook but the longer they were in there the darker they got. I ended up with these really soft gooey almond 'biscuits'.

        I still had 9 egg whites and not wanting to give up I thought I would give it another go. During my macaron google researching I came across a macaron recipe by the blog named tartlette which according to other websites/blogs seemed to be the fail safe one to use. But you really do have to understand all the processes and carry them out precisely, I used the same base recipe for my batch of coconut shells but as my small adaptions wern't really adapated properly I failed. This time I followed the base recipe precisely with the only difference being that I added a few teaspoons of cinnamon into the batter. The batter seemed pretty spot on when I piped it onto the sheets and they looked as they were suppose to.

        Anxiously watching the oven making sure that they 'pop' and have the frilly feet.

        I jump for joy at the sight of these! So far they look absolutely perfect *fingers crossed*.

        So I proceed to make my apple filling for the macarons. I have no real recipe for this except to cook by instinct. I dice some apples and cook them with a bit of brown sugar and a dash of water and lemon juice.

        Once the apples are cooked I put them through a blender and then transfer the puree to the pan and add some cornflour and cook it through until the puree thickens.

        My cinnamon macaron shells with feet ready to be filled and sandwiched together.

        Had to just taste test some while I assembled all the macarons. The perfect combination of flavours.

        Innards shot, Ryan absolutely loved them. One thing I discovered though is that there was too much moisture in the apple filling, perhaps I needed to store them in the fridge too, or only fill them before serving. I left the filled macarons in a container overnight and found that the filling had 'leaked' and completely saturated the shells and they just fell apart upon the slightest touch. I will have to rethink my filling for next time but am definately keen to do the same flavour combination again.