Malteser Macarons

Maltesers are my absolute favourite chocolate, when I am given them as a gift there is no chance that I will be using the resealable tab and I will without a doubt, gobble them all in one sitting. To avoid this with some of my birthday chocolates I decided that I would bake with them. My theory was that this will reduce my malteser intake. My plan worked flawlessly! I made these macarons to take to the ladies at work in honour of the office tradition that when it is your birthday you take goodies in. (I've never quite understood that logic but I am happy to play along to keep my desk neighbours happy). I didn't actually get to try a one of these macarons as they were gone before I had a chance - however they were very warmly received and I was told they were delicious. As far as my aim to eat less chocolate I only ate the four or so maltesers I kept back for photo purposes. I think I'll adopt this technique in the future - bake and give it away to save my own waistline!

Don't be put off giving macaron making a go, it really is quite simple. As long as your follow the steps your guaranteed reliable results each time. The oven we have is a little dodgy - this is the only thing that impacts on the consistency of my baking so I did end up throwing a few shells away as I wasn't happy with them.

This recipe can be adapted any which way you like - just change the chosen confectionary!

Banoffee Macarons

A family favourite in our house is a good ol' banoffe pie - so for this post I have taken inspiration from this and created a banoffe macaron. The yummy flavours of our favourite dessert pie all combined into a tiny little fancy mouthful of deliciousness. These are sure to impress your friends and family and are perfect for any afternoon tea party.

Experimenting with my own recipes is something that is very new to me - and an area I need to improve if my baker dreams are to become a reality. I've made a few changes to recipes  in the past but this is my first real baking creation without a tried an tested recipe (from a book) behind me.

So, lets get started!

Macarons are little french meringue cookies. These ones are going to be filled with a banana toffee cream, sprinkled with digestive biscuit crumbs and topped with tempered chocolate and banana chips. If you were being really good you would make your own digestive biscuits to crumble. I haven't done this as shop brought ones save time. However, if I were making these for Paul and Mary I would definitely make my own!