Cookies & Scream Ghost Macarons

Ingredients

• 144g Egg whites (divided into 2 parts of 94g and 50g)
• 135g Almond meal
• 135g Pure icing sugar
• 253g white sugar
• 62g water
• 1 Edible Ink Pen (Black) 

Cookies and Cream Ganache

• 200g couverture white chocolate
• 100g cream
• 30g black cookie crumbs (pulsed into tiny pieces)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 145º Celsius.
2. Combine almond meal, pure icing sugar and mix well.
3. Pass this mix through a sieve to break up the clumps.
4. Add the 50g portion of the egg whites and pour this into the bowl of sieved ingredients then mix until it becomes a homogenous paste (macaronage).
5. In a saucepan, bring the water and sugar to the boil. Use a sugar thermometer to monitor the temperature of the syrup – you’re aiming for 118ºC (soft ball stage).
6. When the syrup reaches 114º, start whisking the 94g portion of egg whites to soft peaks.
7. When the sugar reaches 118º, pour it over the whisking egg whites. Continue to whisk until the meringue cools so that the bowl is warm to the touch (about 50ºC).
8. Take out 192.5g of meringue out of the mixing bowl and set aside.
9. Add a third of the meringue that has been set aside into the macaronage and mix hard to incorporate and soften the paste.
10. Add the remainder of the meringue and mix gently, ensuring that you scrape the bottom until it is fully incorporated. *Be sure not to over mix as it will ruin the rise of the shells. A good way to ensure this is to slow down your mixing once the batter looks evenly streaked by meringue and macaronage. At this stage, you are two-thirds of the way there. The batter should not be shiny. If it is shiny, you have overmixed it.
11. Put the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
12. Line baking trays with baking paper and pipe batter in teardrop shapes (around 3.5cm in diameter) onto the trays, leaving 2cm between each teardrop.
13. Tap the tray quite firmly against the bench to remove air bubbles and settle the batter.
14. Bake for 8 minutes.
15. Check to see if the shells are done by gently touching it to see if it moves. If it still wobbles to the touch, bake for another minute.
16. Remove the trays from the oven and allow to cool completely.
17. Carefully remove the shells from the trays and baking paper.
18. Put the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. (See recipe for ganache below)
19. Pipe the filling onto half the shells and top with the remaining shells.
20. Place in the fridge and allow to set.
21. Draw any faces that you like onto the macarons using the edible ink pen. Make them scary, funny or just plain ghoulish but they will all be equally as delicious!

Cookies and Cream Ganache

1. Bring cream to the boil in a saucepan.
2. Melt white chocolate over a bain-marie.
3. Mix white chocolate, cream and cookie crumbs.
4. Do a setting test.
5. Place in piping bags and refrigerate until ready to be used.