Amélie (Peach) Macarons

This month’s MacTweets challenge was to create a macaron inspired by a movie. The one movie that I can watch over and over again is Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain. Why? Well, it is set in my favorite city—Paris, and you can’t help but love Amélie and her quirkiness.

The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and the carousel at Montmartre, both appear in the film. Last time I was in Paris the carousel played Yann Tiersen’s La Valse d’Amelie.

The film is so rich in details that every time I watch it I discover something new that I have not noticed before. And once I watched the movie a dozen times for the story, I started noticing other things like the use of color and composition and how it relates to the characters.

I love the story about the suicidal fish, the story about the long-lost bag of mail that is found many years later, the imagined shapes in the clouds, the book of photo booth pictures, the three scenes with roasted chicken…

I originally wanted to make raspberry macarons because of little Amélie eating raspberries off her fingers, but the raspberries at the farmers market didn’t look great. On the other hand the peaches were divine and sweet, so I made peach macarons instead. I also had to make peach mascarpone macarons for another project, so it worked out in the end. I have discovered that peach is my favorite summer fruit. I’m determined to use peaches in everything until the peach season is over.

Peach Macarons

Macaron Shells
(Check out instructions with pictures and tips here)
Ingredients:
• 300g almond meal
• 300g powdered sugar
• 110g egg whites
Plus
• 300g granulated sugar
• 75g water
• 110g egg whites
• 5 drops peach essence
Procedure:
1. Pass the almond meal and powdered sugar through a mesh strainer. Add first 110g of egg whites into the almond/sugar mixture without mixing them.
2. Boil water and granulated sugar to 118° (244°F). When the water and sugar reaches 115° (239°F) start whipping the 2nd 110g of egg whites in the stand mixer using the whisk attachment.
3. Pour the 118°C (244°F) sugar on the side of the mixer while mixing the egg whites so that it does not splatter. Continue mixing until the mixture cools down to 50°Celsius (122°F). Fold almond mixture into the egg whites/sugar mixture.
4. In a small container mix about 2 tablespoons of mixture with ½ teaspoon orange gel food coloring and 5 drops of peach essence, then fold into the rest of the macaron mixture.
5. Pipe on cookie sheets lined with Silpats. Firmly rap the cookie sheets against the counter twice. Let the piped shells stand uncovered for 30 minutes.
6. Pre-heat oven to 180°C (356°F). Bake for 12 minutes. Let them cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets with a small offset spatula and let them cool completely on racks.
7. Pipe the ganache on the inside of one shell, and place another shell on top. Refrigerate macarons in an airtight container for 24 hours before serving. Makes about 75 macarons.

Peach Ganache
Ingredients:
16 ounces white chocolate
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup strained peach preserves
¼ peach preserves
10 drops of peach essence
Procedure:
1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler until just melted
2. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream, butter, and strained preserves.
3. With a whisk, add the heavy cream mixture into the melted chocolate in two additions, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add in the remaining ¼ of peach preserves and peach essence. Whisk until blended. Refrigerate for 2 hours before piping.

Peach Preserves
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs peaches, peeled and cut into slices
½ cup sugar (or more depending on sweetness of your peaches)
Juice of ½ lemon
Zest of ½ lemon
1/4 cup dessert wine
Procedure:
1. Macerate peaches with sugar and lemon juice for 1 hour
2. Place peaches and juices in a saucepan, add lemon zest. Cook over medium heat until juices have reduced and thickened. Once the peaches have caramelized, and the texture is close to what you want, add in the dessert wine. Cook until the wine has reduced and the preserves are thick. Turn the heat off. With a hand-held blender blend the mixture to your preferred consistency. Store in glass jars in the refrigerator.

On August 20th, check out the round-up of macarons at MacTweets inspired by different movies.