Chinese New Year 2023 is on the 22nd of January.
It is the year of the Rabbit, and these Rabbit shaped macarons will work great as a centre piece on the table. They make perfect gifts for friends and family too.
Macarons do not take long to make– you just need patience.
My go to recipe for Macarons is the French method. I have tried the Italian ones and they turn out nice, but I find the process longer and a bit messy.
To make 20 rabbit/bunny macarons here is what you need:
Ingredients
- 90 grams of sifted ground almond
- 80 grams of sifted icing sugar
- 70 grams of sifted granulated sugar
- 66 grams egg whites (about 2 medium eggs)
Here is the method I use and some of my tips can be found on here.
Piping the Rabbit Macarons
Cut the tip of the piping bag smaller than you would for round macarons so you get more definition.
Now for the rabbit shape. I was surprised they turned out the way they did first time around. If you look closely you will notice some are more bumpy and have piping lines. After working on 3 trays, I can confirm the best way to pipe these is start with the ears.
Try to work in one sweeping movement, so you get less lines/less start and stops. If you start with the ears, then the face, body and finish with the tail you get more of a neater finish. Watch the video on Pinterest to see how I piped and made them.
Here is the template I created for the macarons. If it does not upload the way you want it to please drop me a message on any of my social media platforms or even through the contact form and I will email it to you. The macarons come out about 6cm high and 4cm wide.
Remember to pipe both the forward and back facing rabbits so they come together as a macaron.
Place the template under a silicone mat/baking paper and follow the pattern as above. Once you have done one set, just put the paper out from beneath the mat/baking paper and repeat.
Click this link for the to Rabbit Macaron Template:
Filling
Ganache always makes the best macaron filling for me. For these ones I went with a Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate.
Ingredients
- 100ml double cream
- 125g good quality salted caramel chocolate (Aldi’s Moser Roth range always works great for me)
Method
- Warm up the double cream until it starts to get steamy. Make sure the cream does not boil
- Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over some simmering water (bain-marie method)
Assembling the Macarons
Pair the macarons so the front and back are similar sizes. This is much easier when they are round. The flat sides are in the middle.
Once you have paired them, take the top shell off and place next to the bottom on so you know which ones are a match.
Then pipe the bottom one with the ganache. Pipe all of them then place the top shells back on.
Let these chill for about 30 minutes so they set before decorating.
Decorating the Macarons
Gold and red for me are the colours of Chinese New Year. I went with the Sugarflair Colour, Poppy Red. You need around ½ teaspoon to ensure you get a vibrant colour.
TIP: Never use an oil based food colouring like the Colour Mill ones for macarons. Every time I have tried it, it flattens the meringue mix and makes it watery which is no good for macarons.
I tried spray painting them with a stencil and Dr Oekter shimmer spray. That did not turn out as effective as a I had hoped. The key is to spray from higher up so only a bit of the spray goes through the stencil.
The most effective way to paint these is to use a thin brush and either use gold paint or lustre. My preference is the latter. Mix some gold lustre with a drop of lemon juice or alcohol (the alcohol evaporates leaving a nice finish.
If you have any queries drop me an email via the contact page. Alternatively drop me a Direct Message.
