Strawberry Basil Macarons

I headed out to the little town of Benalla yesterday and visited the local fruit grocer. They had beautiful strawberries for only $2 a punnet and I knew right then that I would love to make some strawberry macarons with them.

I made plain macaron shells and painted them with red and gold lustre dust mixed with vodka. The colors don’t show up very well unfortunately. I filled them with a white chocolate strawberry ganache and a small basil leaf. The basil really cuts through the sweetness making this macaron a very satisfactory mouthful.

Filling recipe as below (fills a 100g almond meal shell recipe)

50g white chocolate
50ml cream
50g strawberries, roughly chopped
1 tsp powdered gelatine

1. Heat white chocolate and cream together in microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring between each heating until chocolate is fully dissolved.
2. Add chopped strawberries into ganache and incorporate.
3. Sprinkle 1 tsp of powdered gelatine into 2 tablespoons of cold water and heat in the microwave for about 20 seconds or until gelatine dissolves.
4. Pour ganache mixture into gelatine while stirring to avoid gelatine clumps.
5. Leave in fridge to cool and thicken.