Floating islands dessert inspired parfait with vanilla macarons, smooth vanilla cream filling, sweet marshmallows, light whipped cream and some tangy dried cranberries. Perfect recipe to use leftover or cracked macarons.
Today (20th March) is macaron day in Hungary! Macarons are everywhere and everybody loves them. I am not a huge fan, because they are too small for me. I mean I like to bite into a generous sized cookie but macarons are so tiny you have to eat them with miniature bites. They are delicious though!
Lots of people think they are really difficult and complicated to bake. I have made a few times before and they have always turned out perfect…until now! I was so mad because this time, of course when I wanted to take photos, they turned out cracked! Really? This was the first time they didn’t end up perfect.
Then an idea came into my mind. Parfaits! They are perfect, because you can break the macarons so nobody sees them. I wanted to share this idea even though the macarons look ugly 1. because this is a really easy way to use cracked macarons. 2. I am 100% sure I am not the only one whose macarons turned out „not so impressive”. And 3. because I wanted to show that I can make mistakes too and not everything I bake is perfect.
But now let’s see the macarons. I looove floating islands! It is my favourite summer dessert. The cold, creamy vanilla custard and the egg white meringues are soo good on a hot afternoon. This dessert inspired me to make macarons for one of my best friends birthday last year. They turned out perfect. (I have a photo to prove that I can make good macarons too ) ).
So first I made simple vanilla macaron shells. I have tried two kind of recipe one with a sugar syrup and one without it. I don’t like to make sugar syrup, so usually I use the other recipe but the amount of the ingredients are a little bit different. This time I didn’t have enough powdered sugar so I had to make a sugar syrup. I think this was the reason why they turned out cracked. I over mixed the egg whites. Learn from my mistake and don’t beat the egg whites for too long! But I am definitely sharing the easier recipe.
Then I made my favourite smooth, sweet, vanilla custard. This is seriously the best! You can use store-bought vanilla pudding instead, but please don’t! You really need to try this fast and easy filling. I filled the macarons with small marshmallow chunks as the egg white meringue in the floating islands dessert. So you can make these macarons or you can use the ingredients to make an amazing parfait. I am sharing both versions!
For the parfaits I used the macaron shells, the vanilla filling, marshmallows(I am in love with these cute flower ones), some whipped cream and I added some dried cranberries. You can leave those out, but they really balance out all the sweet flavours with the tangyness.
Either one you choose, these desserts are both super delicious. Give them a try because they are really not too complicated, you just have to follow the instructions!
Have a happy macaron day!
P.S.: When is macaron day in your country?
Floating islands-macaron parfaits
Prep Time: 40 min. Baking Time: 45 min. Total Time: 2 hours Portions: 4 parfaits or 35 macarons
Ingredients:
Macarons:
110g almonds (or almond meal/flour)
200g powdered sugar
4g vanilla sugar
3 egg whites
50g granulated sugar
Vanilla custard:
50g granulated sugar
1 egg
60 ml milk
80g butter (cut into small cubes)
4g vanilla sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
100g marshmallow
200ml whipping cream
3-4 tablespoons of dried cranberries (optional)
Directions:
Macarons:
Make sure you measure out everything in gramms!
Put the 3 egg whites into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for a few hours before using them.
Preheat your oven to 210 F or 100 C.
If you use whole almonds put them into a food processor and ground them. Sift them and ground the bigger bits again. Spread them on a baking sheet and bake them for 15 minutes.
Let them cool down completely then ground them again with the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla sugar.
In a large bowl whip up the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then add the granulated sugar. Beat until stiff peaks forms and it holds it’s shape.
Sift the almond mixture into the whipped egg whites then fold them carefully together. Make sure you don’t stir them, just fold! It’s good when the mixture sticks to the spatula, but slowly drips down.
Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe around 3 cm rounds onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet. You can use spoons to make them too.
Let them rest for at least 1 hour or until the top of the macarons are dry enough so when you touch them gently, nothing sticks to your finger.
Preheat your oven to 300 F or 150 C. Bake them for 10-12 minutes.
Let them cool down completely on the baking sheet!
Vanilla custard:
Put all the custard ingredients, except butter into a medium metal or glass bowl and mix them together.
Start cooking it on a bain-marine. ( Fill a pot with water and start boiling it. Then put the metal or glass bowl on top of the pot. Be careful and make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water and the bowl is big enough. When you stir the custard use a kitchen cloth to hold the bowl because it can be hot.)
Stir the custard constantly until it thickens.
Take it off from the stove and let it cool down for a few minutes. Then mix in the butter cubes one at a time with a hand held mixer. It will become runnier. Cover it with plastic wrap and put in the fridge until it’s completely cold and thickened.
Assembling the macarons:
Put a teaspoon of vanilla custard onto a macaron shell.
Cut marshmallows into small pieces and put a few on top of the custard.
Put an other shell on the top.
Or assembling the parfaits:
Whip up the heavy cream in a large bowl with an electric mixture until stiff peaks.
Crush 2-3 macaron shells into a glass.
Add a tablespoon of the vanilla custard.
Put a few marshmallows on the top.
Add some cranberries.(optional)
Cover it with around 2 tablespoons of the whipped cream.
Repeat the process again. Decorate the parfaits with the leftover macaron shells, marshmallows and cranberries.
These are the macarons I made last year for my friend. :)
