Sweetness & Light - Buttercream

It always amazes me how the combination of sugar, creamy butter and a little of this and that can combine into so many mouth watering, luscious and light confections.

With just the combination of egg whites, sugar, butter, a little flavouring and some fruit puree you can whip up a lovely buttercream to mound on top of cupcakes, spread over cakes or sandwich between macarons.  This rich frosting is in a category on its own and if you are used to a prepared product found on the grocers shelf, you know the one with the 30 ingredients, none of which you can pronounce, you may be intimidated by the couple of steps to make this.  But have no buttercream fears, give it a try and you will marvel at how incredible you are in the kitchen.

Spoonful of Whipped Buttercream

One tip before we get started...you need a stand mixer for this.  It takes quite a long time to whip up your egg mixture and to mix in your butter, probably 15-20 minutes in total, so you don't want to be standing with a hand mixer.  Well you could do it if patience is your virtue...it is not mine!  Also you do need to weigh your ingredients for best results.

This is a Buttercream recipe from Bonnie Gordon for a Brown Sugar Buttercream but I have used regular white sugar (not icing sugar) instead.  You can whip this up with brown sugar for an icing with a more caramelly (is that a real baking word??) taste.

Oh, there just seems to be more and more....I omitted the vanilla as I added in about 1/2 cup of smashed strawberries and about 1/4 cup of seedless strawberry jam after my mixture was complete.  Add in a little at a time and mix well to incorporate.  At first you may get the 'curdled' look but keep mixing.  If you are unfamiliar with the curdled look and it happens during your attempt with this recipe I think you will be able to identify it.  It sort of looks a little like cooked scrambled eggs...the mixture sort of separates instead of having a nice soft together consistency....sort of like a container of Cool Whip when you spoon it out.

Buttercream

200 grams white sugar
5 egg whites (I used pasturized egg whites found in egg section-conversion is on side of container)
2 cups unsalted soft butter
Pinch of salt
2 tsp. vanilla

Warm the egg whites, sugar and salt together over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of your mixing bowl doesn't touch the water or get too close (remember we are just heating up the egg whites and the sugar until the sugar dissolves, we are not cooking these eggs).  Use a whisk and keep whisking until all the sugar has dissolved and the whites are hot.  Now put your bowl onto your stand mixer and with the whip attachment whip this mixture on a medium-high speed until the mixture is cool and has tripled in volume. (The bottom of your bowl should not be warm when you are finished whipping.)  The mixture should also hold a fairly stiff peak.

Now have your softened butter cut into little pieces and with your mixer on a medium speed add in bits at a time and keep it going....toss some more in and mix, mix, mix.  Once all the butter is added you need to add in your vanilla if using or other flavouring and mix until there is no curdled look.  The appearance should be smooth and satiny.

Buttercream all done ready for my fruit puree!

Once you have reached this stage you can fold in melted, cooled chocolate or whip in some seedless jam or some fruit puree.  Not too much though.  The mixture cannot support a large onslaught of liquid or purees so add a little at a time.  

Now I took this yummy mixture and piped it onto my extra macarons and packaged some of them up real pretty.  I did manage to sample a few too many but I am a one-woman show and have no quality control staff to suffer through that dirty job! 

Strawberry Buttercream filled Macarons

Macaroons

Every country, or so it seems, has it own style of macarons.  Growing up a macaron was known as and still is that coconut, egg white and sugar concoction mounded up in a little pile to resemble a white snowy mountain.  Then it would be baked to a golden brown colour and cooled.  Maybe a little melted chocolate would be drizzled over the top to take it to the next level of beauty.

Today when you hear people refer to macarons, especially soon-to-be brides, they are probably referring to the pastel or brightly coloured egg white based  European cookies with a center of buttercream.  These tasty beauties have no coconut but still contain the egg whites and sugar of it's Canadian cousin plus ground almonds or almond meal or almond flour.  You know a rose by any other name....

So you may ask, what tickled my fancy to whip up a batch of pretty little macarons.  Well, somehow tonight I started thinking about my age and how in places like France woman of  'a certain age' are more appreciated for their beauty and experience (don't we just call these appreciated woman Cougars here...) and that made me think of France and of Paris and of French Meringue also known as Macarons.  So what started out as me feeling old and fat and tired ended up in light teal macarons with a vanilla buttercream filling.  My mind never ceases to amaze me!

These are not perfect and if I were in a classroom I would have my hand slapped as the tops (and bottoms) do have a little peak.  But after taste testing about 5, you know quality control is important, there was no flavour difference between the ones with the peaks and the ones without.  Plus vanilla buttercream makes the world a better place even if it settles in the wrong spots on 'women of a certain age' bodies.

I used the Swiss Meringue recipe I have as it is more forgiving than the French Meringue recipe.  Macarons are very sensitive to humidity and if you don't believe that try making them on a humid day even with your air conditioner on.  The recipes are similar but the method is not.  Please use a scale and weigh out your ingredients for this and using the egg whites you purchase in a container in the grocery store works well.

Today I have given you the recipe for the macarons I made above.  Please note you could easily 1/2 this recipe as I was able to make 3 large trays out of 1 batch.  

Almond Macaron (Swiss Meringue)

250g ground almonds or almond flour

250g icing sugar (powdered sugar)

200g egg whites

250g sugar

Pinch of salt

2.5ml almond extract

Line a couple of jelly roll pans with parchment and set aside.  If you wish you can draw circles about 1-2 inches on the parchment with about 1 1/2 inches of space between each circle and place the circle side face down on your baking tray as a guide for piping batter.

Place sugar and ground almonds in a food processor and buzz for about 1 minute until a fine powder forms. Put through a sieve and discard any large pieces.  Set mixture aside.

Place sugar and egg whites in heat proof mixing bowl, like your Kitchenaid bowl, and place over a bowl of just simmering water.  Using a whisk, whisk the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches about 45-50C.  (Tip: if you rub the mixture between your fingers you should not feel any roughness or any sugar granules.)

Now beat the mixture on about medium-high until the whites form soft peaks.  Add in the pinch of salt and your gel type food colouring.  (Liquid food colouring doesn't work so well.) Keep beating until mixture forms medium-stiff peaks.

Using a large rubber spatula, fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture, and combine well.  Fold in the next 1/3, combine well and add in the final 1/3 and combine well.

Now fit a large piping bag with a large round tip and fill with mixture.  Pipe 1-2 inch circles on parchment paper and once piped BANG YOUR TRAYS ON THE COUNTER UNTIL THEY FLATTEN SLIGHTLY.  Now let sit on the counter for about 20 or more minutes.  The tops become firm or develop a slight skin.

Bake at 300F for about 10-12 minutes.  Bottoms should be set and the centre will be slightly moist.  You will be able to lift one right off the sheet without it sticking when they are baked!

Let cool completely and match up sizes so when you put your filling in they look uniform.

You can fill these with chocolate ganache, your favourite Swiss meringue buttercream or your favourite buttercream.  Flavour up your buttercreams with raspberry, strawberry, mango or whatever you love.  Go one step further and divide you batter into 2 or 3 smaller bowls and colour each batch a different colour and match up your fillings.

Starting out...don't be intimidated!

Ready to pipe

Ready to pop into the oven

Voila.