Need some passion in your life? I got you…
Those who know me- know I’m crazy about passion fruit. I always have a packet of passion fruit puree in my freezer. I use Goya brand that I find in my Asian grocery store in the frozen fruit section. I use it to make passion fruit curd, passion fruit cheesecake, and also this passion fruit ganache. Sometimes I’ll see them on sale in Sprouts grocery and will grab a few fresh one when they are discounted.
Recently I’ve been using invert sugar in my ganache recipes as it helps extend the shelf life of baked goods and in this case the ganache and it aides in giving a nice smooth texture and mouth feel. I make a batch of it and keep it in a glass canning type jar and keep it in my fridge. It will start to crystallize a bit in the jar if you don’t use it all the time, but don’t worry it keeps for quite a while.
Passion Fruit Ganache
85 g passion fruit puree
200 g white chocolate
pinch of fine salt (I like Himalayan pink salt)
20 g invert sugar (see below how to make invert sugar) (If you don’t want to make invert sugar- you can use corn syrup or agave syrup in place (same amount).
In a medium bowl over a bain marie melt the white chocolate. In a small pot, bring the passion fruit puree and inverted sugar, and salt to a simmer. As soon as it starts to simmer, remove from heat. Pour the hot passion fruit mixture over the white chocolate in 3 parts. Use a rubber heat proof spatula instead of a whisk as you want to avoid a lot of air bubbles. Once it is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a deli type tall container and using a hand blender, keep the blender below the level of the ganache and blend to emulsify to make smooth ganache. Pour the ganache into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Let the ganache sit at room temperature to set up- it will take several hours. You can do this the day before and once the ganache is set- place it in the fridge to chill.
Macaron Shells
95 g almond flour
85 g confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
80 g egg whites
75 g granulated sugar
purple gel food coloring (I used a mix of regal purple and electric purple) Optional- before I poor the batter into the piping bag. With the batter still in the bowl after finishing the macaronage, I put a few drops of regal purple into the batter spaced far apart and swirl with a toothpick. Then I gently pour the mac batter into the prepared piping bag. You can kind of see the swirl in my shells.
Drying macs w/ oven method: (known as the Sugar Bean method). She has videos on you tube if you search for her.
I preheat my oven to 248° degrees F before I have piped my macs. I place one tray in the oven and immediately turn off the oven, then open the oven and place something like an oven mitt or something to keep it ajar a couple inches. Then I immediately turn back on the oven at 248° F again, and time for 2-3 minutes. After 3 minutes I close the oven door and turn up the oven to 293° F. Once the oven temp comes up to 293° F, I then start timing my bake time for 15 minutes. After the bake time I open the door and check a macaron; if it’s super wiggly still I bake for another minute. If it barely wiggles or not at all, I turn off the oven and open the oven door ajar and time for another 2-3 minutes; “Sugar bean” calls this the “oven shower”. After the 3 minutes, I remove the tray and then let them cool over a wire rack. Now; since the second tray has already been drying at room temperature; I usually only oven dry for 1.5 minutes and repeat the bake as I did for the first tray.
*A word about oven temperatures: EVERY one’s oven is different and after painstaking doing several batches of macarons I determined that in MY oven 293 F convection setting is best for me. Check your oven temperature against a thermometer placed in the middle of your oven. Some people bake there’s at 285, 290, 310 etc. unfortunately it’s something that you have to play around with and determine what is best for you and your oven.
How to make invert sugar:
2 Cups + 3 Tbsp. Fine granulated sugar
1 Cup filtered water
1/8 tsp Citric acid
In non-reactive sauce pan, place the water, sugar and citric acid to combine. On medium heat- bring mixture to heat just until sugar starts to dissolve. Then lower the heat to low- you don’t want any color to the syrup so you must go on low. If you get any crystallized bits of sugar on the side of the pot- use a wet pastry brush to brush down the sides. On low heat, continue to heat the mixture and simmer until it reaches 236 degrees F. Remove from the heat snd allow it to cool. Once cooled- place in a glass jar and keep in the fridge. It will keep for 6 months.
