Okay, these look delicious.
There’s no denying that there’s been a lot of baking going on in 2020. Banana bread, sourdough, just about every sweet treat we could think of — there’s just been no shortage of baked goods around.
However, we reckon we have found the perfect thing to make if you’re looking for a tasty treat this holiday season: Baileys macaron ice cream sandwiches.
Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, they are just as delicious as they look.
Baileys shared the recipe with Her to coincide with the release of their 2021 Treat Report, which looks into all the glorious treats we’ll be seeing next year. And this may be our favourite one yet — because, really, just look at those treats.
If you fancy making your own version of these, you can check out the recipe below.
Makes: 6 macaron sandwiches
For the macarons:
- 170 grams icing sugar
- 160 grams ground almonds
- 20 grams cocoa powder
- 120 ml egg whites from about 4 medium eggs, separated into 2 equal batches
- 160 grams granulated sugar
To assemble:
- 2 x 1 ltr blocks vanilla ice cream
- 75 grams white chocolate
- 75 ml double cream
- 60 ml Baileys Original
- 100 grams freeze dried strawberries, lightly crushed
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- Small handful basil leaves, finely chopped
And now it’s time to make some macarons.
- Place the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa powder in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until fully combined.
- Sieve the mixture into a large bowl, discarding anything left in the sieve. Add the first half of the egg whites to the almond mixture, mix to a very thick paste and set aside.
- Tip the second batch of egg whites into a clean bowl and get an electric whisk ready. Place 50ml water and the granulated sugar into a small saucepan and set it over a medium heat.
- Bring to a boil and cook until the syrup reaches 110 C then begin to beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks start to form.
- Once the syrup is at 118 C pour it slowly into the egg whites whilst continuing to whisk until the mixture has cooled slightly and you have a thick, shiny meringue. You could do this stage in a stand mixer as well.
- Add 1 large spoonful of the meringue to the almond paste and mix well to loosen the mixture. Spoon the remaining meringue onto the almond paste and gently fold together. It is important not to over-mix the batter – it should fall from the spatula in a thick ribbon that disappears back into the batter within about 20 – 30 seconds – if the batter is too thick, simply continue to fold.
- Heat oven to 170 C / 150 C fan. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment and transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle. Pipe rounds about 5 cm in diameter onto the prepared baking sheets. Leave to rest for 30 mins, or until the macarons have developed a skin.
- Bake the macarons for 18 mins then leave to cool for a few minutes before gently peeling the macarons off the paper. Leave to cool.
To make things even tastier, make sure to add the Baileys White Chocolate Sauce.
Make the white chocolate sauce by melting the white chocolate and double cream together in a bowl set over a Bain Marie until smooth. Remove from the water and stir in the Baileys Original.
To assemble
- Place the crushed freeze-dried strawberries, black pepper and basil in a bowl and mix together then use a 5cm cookie cutter to stamp out rounds from the ice cream block.
- Roll the ice cream rounds in the strawberry mixture then sandwich an ice cream round between 2 macarons and enjoy immediately.
Photo and recipe courtesy of Baileys.
