Ispahan Macaron - Macarons with lychee, rose and raspberry

Another genius creation from my pastry hero Pierre Hermé.  This is a romantic little macaron, with sweet and floral notes of rose, lychee and raspberry.  The first bite releases an intoxicating perfume of rose essence, followed by a fruity lychee white chocolate ganache, the surprise is hidden in the middle:  a cube of raspberry puree jelly, adding just enough tartness to balance the sweet white chocolate.  Bliss.  Little morsels of edible bliss.



"Ispahan", named after the city of Isfahan in Iran, is an ancient type of damask rose, native to the Middle East.  I love the way Pierre Hermé romanticizes his creations.  Every pastry has an unique, artistic title...the way artists entitle each piece of work.  Monsieur Hermé's medium happens to consist of eggs and sugar.

While this is not a particularly difficult recipe, it is incredibly time-consuming.  It also requires a little preparation ahead...one week, to be exact.  The recipe calls for 'liquefied' egg whites; egg whites that have been separated from yolks and stored in the fridge for a week, which in turn allows them to lose their elasticity.  Pierre Hermé recommends placing them in a bowl covered with clingfilm, pierced with small holes.  And as with all macaron-making, ingredients need to be carefully measured and each step needs your full attention.  A couple of extra turns in the batter, and you will be doomed to bake little flat pancakes, not macarons!  Not enough mixing or too much heat, you will be baking volcano-like cookies.  Yes, much effort and dedication required...though one taste of this delicious confection will justify all your hard work!  And when your macarons come out perfectly, the feeling is indescribably euphoric!

I have followed this recipe to a tee, which only one minor adjustment: the color.  Instead of using strawberry and carmine colors, which will yield a fuchsia-colored shell,  I used only 2 drops of red food coloring to achieve a light blush color.  And since that would not go well with the ruby glitter as suggested, I've decided to dust my macarons with a silver glitter.




Ispahan Macaron
(from "Macarons" by Pierre Hermé)

makes about 72 macarons

For the raspberry jelly:
420g raspberries
35g caster sugar
2 leaves of gelatine (2g each)

For the macaron shells:
300g ground almonds
300g icing sugar
110g 'liquefied' egg whites
4g strawberry food coloring
4g carmine red food coloring
+
300g caster sugar
75g mineral water
110g 'liquefied' egg whites

For the lychee and rose ganache:
410g Valrhona Ivoire couverture or white chocolate
400g lychees (preserved in syrup)
60g liquid crème fraîche or whipping cream (35% fat)
3g rose essence

To finish:
Edible ruby glitter

Start by preparing the raspberry jelly.  Soak the gelatine leaves for 15 minutes in cold water to soften.

Using a hand blender, blend the raspberries and sugar to a purée.  Strain the purée to remove the pips.  Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C.  Drain and dry the gelatine and add to the hot purée.  Stir and add the rest of the raspberry purée.

Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingfilm up to a depth of 4mm.  Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature then put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours.  Turn out the jelly and cut it into 1.5cm squares.  Return the jelly squares to the freezer.

For the shells.  Sift together the icing sugar and ground almonds.  Stir the food coloring into the first portion of liquefied egg whites and pour them over the mixture of icing sugar and ground almonds but do not stir.

Bring the water and sugar to boil at 118°C.  When the syrup reaches 115°C, simultaneously start whisking the second portion of liquefied egg whites to soft peaks.  

  

                           

When the sugar reaches 118°C, pour it over the egg whites (while continuously beating on low speed).

                          

Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50°C, then fold it into the almond-icing sugar mixture.  (The batter is ready when it becomes glossy and start to resemble a thick pancake batter.)  Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.

                         

Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5 cm in diameter, spacing them 2 cm apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment.  Rap the baking trays on the work surface covered with a kitchen cloth.  Sprinkle every other row with pinches of color sugar or ruby glitter.  Leave the shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin. 

                 

 

                 

Preheat the fan oven to 180°C then put the trays in the oven.  Bake for 12 minutes quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during the cooking time. (Once at the 8 minute mark and once at the 10 minute mark.)  Out of the oven, slide the shells on to the work surface.

 

                 

For the lychee and rose ganache.  Drain the lychees.  Blend then strain them to obtain a fine purée.  You will need 240g purée.  Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.

                  

Bring the cream and lychee purée to the boil.  Pour it over the melted chocolate a third at a time.  Add the rose essence and stir.

                   

Pour the ganache into a gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of the ganache.  Set aside in the fridge for the ganache to thicken.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.  Pipe a mound of ganache on to half the shells.  Lightly press a square of frozen jelly into the center and finish with a dot of ganache.  Top with the remaining shells.

 

                    

                  

Allow the macarons 24 hours in the fridge for the flavors to meld and bring back out at the point of serving.