Hello Friend! Let's celebrate our friend of the month, Tuxedosam! Did you know this adorable penguin is a dapper and fashionable guy who loves collecting bow ties? Talk about a snazzy hobby! In honour of Tuxedosam and summer let’s make cute ice cream macaron sandwiches!
About the Guest Blogger
Jules is a macaron artist, baker and mental health advocate based out of Toronto, Ontario. She loves using macaron batter to create adorable artwork and she occasionally experiments with other baking mediums, like cupcakes and madeleines, as well! Jules knows that even the most adorable baked goods also need to TASTE delicious, so she makes sure her creations are always just as yummy as they are cute.
Even though it can get pretty cold where she lives, Jules is still a huge fan of ice cream – just like our friend Tuxedosam!
You can explore more of her cute confectionary creations on her Instagram @petite.meringue and TikTok @macaronbarbie.
About the Recipe
This recipe puts a summer twist on the classic macaron treat!
Traditionally, macarons are comprised of two delicate almond meringue cookies filled with ganaches, curds, jams or buttercreams. Today, we’re straying from convention and filling these sweet meringue cookies with a slab of rich ice cream! The resulting treat is refreshingly sweet and perfect for celebrating the end of summer with your friends. Rather than piping round macarons, we are going to channel out inner artist and pipe the batter in the shape of Tuxedosam. Macarons are tricky confections to master, so be sure to read the recipe and instructions in full before starting your bake! Remember, all of the best baking adventures start when you’re willing to take “whisks”!
The Macaron Method
We are making Swiss method macaron shells today. Which means, rather than simply sprinkling our raw sugar into our egg whites as they whip (like you would when making French method shells), we will be heating our egg whites and sugar over a pot of simmering water before whipping. This helps to yield a more stable, long-lasting meringue – which certainly comes in handy when you’re piping character macarons!
Tuxedosam Ice Cream Macaron Sandwiches
(yields 5 large character macaron sandwiches)
Ingredients:
Macaron Shells
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115g almond flour
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115g powdered sugar
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100g castor sugar
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100g egg whites (roughly 3-4 egg whites)
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OPTIONAL – 4g egg white powder or ¼ tsp cream of tartar
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Gel food colouring (blue, yellow, pink, white, brown, mint green, beige)
Royal Icing
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100g powdered sugar
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5g meringue powder
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8g light corn syrup
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15g warm water
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Tiny splash of vanilla extract
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Gel food colouring (yellow, pink, black)
Ice Cream Filling
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A package of your favorite store-bought ice cream! (I recommend trying to find one that comes in a box and is sliceable!)
Tools:
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Kitchen/ food scale
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Candy thermometer
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Stand mixer (with whisk attachment) or hand mixer
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Sifter
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Small pot
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Whisk
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Spatulas
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Large glass or stainless steel bowls (2)
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Smaller bowls (7)
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Piping bags
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Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
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Baking tray
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Tuxedosam macaron template (fronts and backs)
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Scribe or toothpick
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Preparing your Work Station
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Wipe off ALL of your bowls, whisks and tools with vinegar to ensure everything is grease free; oil is the ENEMY of meringue and macarons!
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Preheat your oven to 245 degrees F (convection/ fan setting)
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Download and print out your macaron character templates
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Line your baking trays with parchment paper or a silicone mat and slide your macaron Tuxedosam template under the paper/mat.
Macaron Shells
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Sift your almond flour and powdered sugar together into a bowl. Repeat this process 3X to make sure the dry ingredient mixture is very fine. Discard any larger pieces that don't pass easily through the sieve each time you sift. You should be left with about 215 grams of dry ingredients. Set aside.
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Set a small pot of water to boil. This is going to act as a double boiler over which you will whisk your egg whites and sugar!
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Whisk your egg white, granulated sugar and (optional) egg white powder in a heat proof glass bowl and place over the simmering pot of water. Continually whisk until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture reaches 45 degrees C on a candy thermometer. (if you don’t have a candy thermometer, rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers and make sure you don’t feel any sugar granules).
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Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer or get ready to use your hand mixer.
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WHIP your egg whites and sugar mixture on medium speed until stiff, glossy peaks form! This will take different amounts of time depending on your mixer and the humidity. Usually it takes about 7 minutes for the meringue to reach stiff peaks.
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Sift your dry ingredients into your meringue and start gently folding the batter with a spatula. Work slowly, careful not to deflate to much of the air that was whipped into the meringue. Fold the batter by going around to the top of the bowl and then gently cutting down through the batter. Keep folding until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated; STOP as soon as you don’t see any more chunks of almond flour/ powdered sugar.
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Separate this batter into 7 bowls for colouring. You’ll need about half of the batter for blue, a third of the remaining batter for white, small amounts for pink, yellow and brown and tiny amounts for mint green and beige.
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Once your drops of gel food colour are added, continue gently folding the batter in the same way we did before. You want to fold until the batter is smooth and flows off the spatula in a thick ribbon without breaking.
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Transfer your batter into piping bags and tie off the ends.
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Now you’re ready to pipe your character macarons! You’ll be piping each coloured section of the macaron separately. Snip the tip off of the piping bag with the blue macaron batter and begin by piping the blue penguin body, following the template underneath the parchment paper/silicone mat. Pipe the blue bodies for all five macarons. Use your scribe or toothpick to smooth out the batter and pop any air bubbles. You want to let each section dry before piping the section next to it. When you can run your finger over the piped macaron batter without it sticking to your finger AT ALL, then you can pipe the adjacent section. It usually takes about 10 minutes for the piped macaron batter to dry. Pipe the white sections next, followed by the yellow feet. Once those sections are dry, pipe the pink ribbon on the hat and, lastly, pipe the yellow beak and pink bowtie. NOTE: If you are piping the macaron design featuring the ice cream cone, pipe the beige cone, the chocolate drip and the mint ice cream scope using the same technique. Wait until each coloured section has dried before adding the next. This ensures your character macarons have definition and reduces the chances of cracking in the oven.
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Place the tray of piped macarons into the pre-heated oven for 3 minutes with the door ajar. This is called oven-drying and it ensures all of the seams between sections are dry and do not crack.
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Take the tray out of the oven and set it aside. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
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Pipe the backs of your macarons on another baking tray! The backs are easier to pipe as they are made of one solid colour. Simply follow the outline of the template and fill in with macaron batter. Set this tray aside to dry (we do not need to oven dry these as there are no seams). NOTE: Make sure your templates for the backs of the character macarons are mirror images of the fronts! This way, you’ll be able to sandwich them together perfectly after they bake!
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Once the oven has preheated to its new temperature, bake your macarons one tray at a time starting with the fronts!
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Bake for 15 minutes, covering the macarons with foil halfway through the bake to prevent browning.
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Let the macarons cool on the baking tray completely before peeling them off the parchment paper or silicone mat.
Decorating:
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Make your royal icing by combining your powdered sugar, meringue powder, corn syrup, water and vanilla. Whip all ingredients together with a hand mixer or a stand mixer until a honey-like paste forms. We want our royal icing to be thick enough to hold its shape on the macaron, but thin enough to not be bumpy and lumpy. Thin down this paste with more water if it seems too thick. Add more powdered sugar if it seems too thin.
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Separate the royal icing into three bowls (equal amounts) and color them black, pink and yellow with food gel coloring.
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Place the royal icing in piping bags and get ready to decorate your macaron shells!
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Start by piping the small round black eyes, then pipe the pink, rosy cheeks!
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If you are decorating the macaron shell with the ice cream cone, pipe small yellow and pink sprinkles on the chocolate drip sections!
Filling:
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Take your favorite ice cream out of the freezer and slice off a large slab.
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Place the ice cream slice onto parchment paper and, using a small knife, carefully cut around your Tuxedosam template (the same one you used to pipe your macaron shells).
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Cut out 4 more ice cream shapes and place them in the freezer again to harden up!
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Once the ice cream fillings are frozen solid again, take them out of the freezer and get ready to assemble your ice cream sandwich!
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With a cake lifter (or your hands if you’re okay with getting messy!), place your ice cream shape onto one of the macaron backs. Top with one of the matching macaron fronts and gently press down!
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TA DA! Your Tuxedosam macaron ice cream sandwiches are complete and ready to eat! You can enjoy them right away or pop them back in the freezer for up to 24 hours!
