I always find it much easier to make a large batch of macs, after all they freeze so well. Given the time that it takes to make them (4 hours start to finish this time!!!), it's definitely worth making a batch.
This time I experimented a little and made four flavours:
Peanut Butter
Milo
Strawberry/Raspberry
Lemon
I always use the same shell recipe, no matter the filling. For a full tutorial on macarons, look at my previous step-by-step post.
Because you leave the macs to rest overnight, the flavour of the filling permeates the shell, therefore there is no real need to flavour the shell. It also allows you to make a huge batch of mixture, then portion and dye it, rather than having to make individual batches.
Unfortunately I do not use a recipe for my fillings, I generally make a big batch of buttercream then flavour it. For example I added a ton of milo into the buttercream for the milo macs, pureed raspberries and strawberry jam into the buttercream for berry macs, lemon butter for lemon macs etc. You honestly don't need a recipe - just experiment and taste, taste, taste!
This time the favourite amongst friends was the peanut butter macaron. For this filling I simply blended up a heap of salted peanuts, added some icing sugar and then a touch of butter.
I really do love making macarons, despite the time involved I find it quite relaxing piping shell after shell. I think this time I made over 200 shells!
Any suggestions as to what flavours I should make next time?
Sarah xx
