Ellie

A few days ago, I had posted my first recipe for my new project, Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache for Carl Fredricksen. For my next recipe I had decided to tackle Ellie. She's a quirky girl, the opposite of Carl. But they suit each other and they live a long happy life together. Suddenly, Ellie becomes ill and passes away before Carl and he is left heartbroken. I had decided to do macarons but with pistachios instead of almonds. And to give her dessert a bigger kick, I decided to fill the macarons with a lemon buttercream frosting.

Ingredients for Pistachio Macarons:

• 1 part egg whites
• .6 parts almond meal
• .65 parts pistachios
• 1.6 parts icing sugar
• 0.8 parts granulated sugar

Directions:

Combine the almond meal, pistachios, and icing sugar in a food processor until well blended. In a separate bowl, whip up the egg white with a hand mixer and slowly add the granulated sugar once the egg whites look foamy. Mix the egg whites until they form a glossy meringue. Fold in the nut/sugar mixture until the batter is thoroughly mixed. The batter should ribbon for about 30 seconds. Any less and the batter is in danger of becoming runny. Fill a pastry bag with the mixture and pipe out macaron shells that are one-inch in diameter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Space out the macaron shells so they don't have a chance of touching during the baking process. Let the shells sit out for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Let them cool and remove from the parchment paper. Place one big tablespoon of buttercream on one shell and top with another.

Ingredients for Lemon Buttercream:

• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 100 grams of sugar
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 splash of lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest

Directions:

Put the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir constantly and heat the mixture for about 3 minutes. Transfer to another bowl and beat the mixture with a hand mixer on medium speed. Beat for about 5 minutes or until it becomes glossy. Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, until the buttercream is smooth. Then beat for another 7 minutes until it becomes a thick and very smooth buttercream. Add in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Fold until the lemon juice and lemon zest are fully incorporated.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Would you have chosen this recipe to represent Ellie? What other quirky desserts would have suited Ellie? Leave a comment please!