pandan gula melaka macarons.

What inspired me to bake these macarons? Hmm...

Honestly, I was more than just slightly euphoric after my long-standing battle with macarons ended, with me (hah!) emerging victorious. Empowered with newfound confidence, I whipped up another batch just to prove that once you got it, you've got it. 


And probably just to supplement my ego.

Gula melaka, also known as palm sugar, has this unique taste and should not, I repeat, should not be substituted with brown sugar, although they do resemble each other. It is also extremely hard to melt, so I advise you to finely chop it so that when heating the egg, you won't end up with it in a repulsive scrambled state before the sugar has liquified completely. Also, if pandan leaves are not readily available to you, 1/4 teaspoon is easily exchangeable for 1 pandan leaf. It's much more convenient, anyway.

I tried to paint the macarons shells with a mixture of pandan paste and water but it turned rather splotchy instead of a nice clean stroke. I think I diluted it too much.

I noticed recently how my shells soften up way too much in the refrigerator in a matter of two days. There were some that were so soft they were pliable and stuck to my container. That never happened with my previous tries. It may be the humidity where I live- its the monsoon season right now, or I should have baked them longer. They didn't have a good enough chew to them too.

Pandan Gula Melaka Buttercream
recipe adapted from MACARON FETISH


Ingredients

1 large egg
250g butter (soften at room temperature)
125g gula melaka (chopped finely or ground it)
1 pandan leaf, cut into 4-5cm pieces

Methods

1. Warm up a pot of water on the stove. (large enough to sit your metal mixing bowl inside)

2. In the mixing bowl, add the egg, gula melaka and the pandan leave. Put it over the pot of water, using a hand beater, beat the egg and sugar. Beat until you obtain a fluffy mousse texture.

3. When the mixture becomes lukewarm, remove from the pot. Continue beating to cool down the mixture.

4. Add in the soften butter little by little into the mixture. Stop mixing when you get a smooth creamy texture. It should takes about 10 minutes to get the texture.

5. Pipe the buttercream on one of the macaron shell, then close up with the other shell in similar size.

6. After finish piping all the macarons, pop them in an air tight container. Leave them in refrigerator overnight. You could keep the macarons up to 48 hours in the frige. if not consumed, freeze them up. Because after 48 hours they will lose the texture.