In recent years – speaking of the last decade in particular – much has been discussed in the way of super-foods. These include things such as spirulina and quinoa, but good old blackcurrants are as important and as healthy as any other ‘super-food’ that is currently deemed fashionable. The blackcurrant is the super-food that people seem to have forgotten. And the best thing about it is that most people can grow a blackcurrant bush in their garden and expect as much as twenty years of fruit from one. It is a remarkable fruit, and here is a remarkable recipe:
How to make peppermint blackcurrant macaroons
The ingredients required to make twelve macaroons:
- 110 grams of icing sugar
- 60 grams of ground almonds
- Three egg whites, one of which should be lightly whisked
- A pinch of cream of tartar
- 40 grams of caster sugar
- Grape violet gel food coloring
- Finely chopped mint leaves for decoration
The ingredients required for the filling:
- 200 grams of white chocolate
- 300 grams of blackcurrants, which will make 100 grams of blackcurrant juice
- One half of a teaspoon of peppermint essence
- Raspberry extract, five drops of
- One tablespoon of dark raspberry liqueur
The process:
- The oven should be preheated to 150 degrees Celsius. Take the icing sugar and almonds and blend them into something resembling a fine powder. Use a food processor to achieve this.
- Whisk the egg whites with the caster sugar and the cream of tartar, slowly, but progressively increasing the speed. Add the coloring in at the last moment before the mixture is at its softest.
- Into a different bowl, sift the flour and almond powder, and then fold into it one third of the meringue. Add the rest slowly. The mixture should be almost shining.
- Take the macaroon mixture and fill a piping bag. Use parchment paper to line a baking tray. Pipe circles of a three centimeter width and three centimeters apart onto the parchment.
- Tapping underneath the tray is an advisable trick that will remove the trapped air bubbles from the macaroons. They should be left for around a quarter of an hour, or until they are dry.
- The macaroons should be baked for around a quarter of an hour. They should lift quite easily from the parchment. Leave them on a wire rack to cool.
- The attention turns to the filling at this point. Over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate.
- Use a food processor to blend the blackcurrant(or as the Danish call it solbaer), and bring 100 grams of the juice to a boil in a saucepan. Add the essence of peppermint and the raspberry extract.
- Combine the two mixtures by pouring the fruit mixture into the chocolate. Combine the two mixtures thoroughly. Then pour the mixture into a cling-film sealed bowl to be kept in the fridge. The mixture should thicken a little.
- When the mixture is cooler and thicker, move to a piping bag and cover one half of each shell of macaroon. Press one shell onto another to complete the macaroons, and then firm them by moving them to the fridge.
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