Christmas pudding filling for macarons - help!

loveisdivine

I'm making some macarons next weekend. They are just for home, but I really want them to be perfect. It takes so long to make them that I want them to be really worth it.

I'm gonna do vanilla mac shells and I want to use some leftover christmas pudding in some sort of buttercream for the filling.

Does anyone have any ideas how to do this? I was thinking of just making a normal buttercream, blitzing the pudding in a processor and adding it to the cream? Buttercream isnt always great though.

Does anyone have any ideas for a filling recipe that I can add christmas pudding to?

Magic Monkey

Macaron shells and mincemeat filling tend to be quite sweet, so you can choose a relatively unsweet filling to balance it out.

Your idea of puréeing mincemeat and adding it to buttercream is a good one, but you'll lose the textural aspect of the mincemeat. You could blend 50% mincemeat as a purée and fold it into the buttercream, and add the remaining 50% as chunky pieces.

In terms of filling, brandy and custard are two things that complement mincemeat quite well. So you could make a German Buttercream a.k.a. Crème mousseline, basically softened butter beaten into pastry cream. The pastry cream will give the filling a nice custardy flavour. Some brandy could be mixed in too, to make a brandy custard buttercream filling.

loveisdivine

Thanks for the reply!

I dont mind losing the texture of the pudding too much as the shell will (hopefully) have a nice crisp exterior. But I wouldnt blitz it too finely, I dont want it too much like powder.

I think a cream like the one you suggested is probably the way to go. A heavy buttercream might be too much with the sweetness of the pudding.

I wonder if theres anything I can put in the shell mix that might balance out the sweetness?

Magic Monkey

loveisdivine wrote: »

I wonder if theres anything I can put in the shell mix that might balance out the sweetness?

You could add in fine citrus zest to the macaron batter. Some macarons have jelly inside (http://ladymacaron20ten.blogspot.ie/2011/09/busy-busy-little-bee.html?m=1), which could also be used as a flavour/texture contrast. Maybe a tart apple jelly would complement yours.

shinikins

How about grinding up the dry ingredients you would normally use in mincemeat and add them to the macaron mix rather than as a filling? Then fill with the brandy butter cream as suggested. For me, the texture of the macaron is nicer with a smooth filling.

loveisdivine

This is why I dont make macs very often, theres too many flavours to choose from. I originally wanted to do cinnamon and apple butter ones but we have this christmas pudding to use up and the other half said he would prefer that.

Might have to put my foot down and go with the cinnamon apple. I have a proper recipe for that so I know it will work.

I'm not sure I could blitz the pudding mix fine enough to put it into the shell mix.

Edit - heres a link to the apple ones, they look great! http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-recipes/caramel-apple-macarons-with-cinnamon-apple-butter-frosting.html