Blood orange macarons look like fall with the swirls of orange and yellow on the macaron shell. The citrus taste reminds me that the holiday season is upon us.
Blood Orange Haiku
Dark mysterious
Sweet and bitter in one bite
Taste delights my tongue
First, I made a blood orange marmalade using a recipe that was written by Alison Roman in Bon Appetite. Peel the rind and pith from four blood oranges. Slice very thinly into strips and place in a large bowl or container. Slice fruit into rounds and add to sliced peel. Cover fruit with 2 quarts water and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Transfer fruit mixture to a large, wide, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring mixture to a boil and reduce heat to medium.
Simmer until peels are completely softened, and water is reduced by 3/4, about 1 1/2 hours. Add 4 1/2 cups of sugar and stir to incorporate. Continue to cook until mixture is thick and syrupy, another 30–40 minutes. Test the marmalade by spooning a bit onto a chilled plate and see how it sets up. It should form a skin and start to gel within 5 minutes. If it doesn’t, keep simmering, testing every 10 minutes until it does.
Once marmalade is ready, remove from heat and add 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, stirring to incorporate evenly.
The blood orange marmalade can be processed or stored unprocessed in the refrigerator for up to two months.
Personally, I thought the marmalade was too sweet. It lost some of the natural bitterness of the blood oranges. The next time I make it I will only add 3 1/2 cups of sugar, I think that will allow the blood orange flavor to shine.
Now on to making the blood orange macarons. I always use the basic macaron recipe found in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook for the macaron shells. It uses an Italian method that takes longer to prepare than the French method, but gives me consistently good shells. During the macaronage phase, I divided the batter in half adding orange and yellow food paste to one half and orange and red food paste to the other half. The two completed macaron batters were added to the pastry bag and piped.
The piped macaron shells
The baked macaron shells
The filling consists of a circle of Italian meringue buttercream, recipe also found in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, flavored with the blood orange marmalade. I attempted to color the buttercream a deep dark blood red to match the blood orange pulp but the resulting color was gray which was disappointing. I then added a bullseye of the blood orange marmalade.
Blood orange macaron filling
The blood orange macarons were a taste success despite the marmalade being a little too sweet and the gray coloring of the buttercream.
Blood Orange Macaron sitting on a peeled and sliced blood orange
Stay tuned for the next stop in my macaron journey.
Stay tuned for the next stop in my macaron journey.