Valentine's Day Bear with Heart Macarons

cute macarons in the shape of a bear holding a heart filled with chocolate ganache

Valentine's Day Bear with Heart Macarons

5 from 7 votes

These cute macarons in the shape of a bear holding a big heart will make the perfect Valentine's Day gift for your special person. They're filled with a chocolate ganache to be even more irresistible.

Course: Dessert

Yield: macarons

Calories: 116kcal

Author: Emma Choi

Prep Time: 1 15

Active Time: 13

Total Time: 1 28

Equipment

Ingredients

meringue

100 g almond powder
100 g icing sugar
80 g egg whites at room temperature
80 g caster sugar
brown and red gel food coloring
black edible food coloring pen

chocolate ganache

120 ml heavy cream
120 g dark chocolate

US - M

Instructions

Make the chocolate ganache

Using a knife, shred the chocolate into thin pieces. Transfer the chocolate to a bowl.
In a saucepan, add cream. Bring it to a boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and combine together until smooth.
Let the ganache cool down, then refrigerate for at least 5h until the ganache has hardened.

Prepare the meringue

In a food processor, add almond powder and icing sugar then process to make them as fine as possible (Note 2). Do not overmix, it could become a paste.
Place egg whites and caster sugar in a glass or metal bowl. Place the bowl over a bain-marie and beat the whites using a whisk until their temperature reaches 50°C / 122 °F. Put in a cooking thermometer to check when the temperature is reached.
Remove the bowl from the bain-marie.
Transfer the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer or keep it in your bowl if you’re using a hand mixer. On low speed, start beating the whites for 2-3 minutes or until big bubbles disappear.
Increase to medium-high speed and keep beating for 3-4 minutes. Increase to high speed and keep beating until you see the meringue becomes very firm (Note 1). When sufficiently firm, the meringue should agglomerate in the middle of the mixer whisks and you should obtain firm peaks when taking the whisks out.
Sift all of the icing sugar/almond powder over the meringue. Discard any remaining bits.
Using a spatula, start the macaronage process (Note 1). Fold the meringue with the spatula against the borders of your bowl. No need to be gentle. This process will help break bubbles and smooth the meringue. Keep folding until the almond powder/icing sugar mix is fully integrated with the egg whites.
Stop the macaronage process here. Separate the mixture equally into two bowls.
In one bowl, add brown gel food coloring to the mixture. In the other bowl, add red gel food coloring. The gel food coloring quantities depend on the pigmentation of your food coloring (Note 4). Keep adding gel food coloring until you obtain the desired color shade.
Continue the macaronage process for both brown and red meringues.
Keep folding with a spatula. Constantly check the consistency of the meringue. You can stop the macaronage (folding) once the meringue falls very slowly as a ribbon. You should be able to draw several “8” figures without the meringue breaking.
Preheat the oven to 120°C (250°F). Use convection mode.
Prepare your piping bags.
Fill one piping bag with the red meringue (use a 6mm / 0.24 inch nozzle).
Fill another piping bag with the brown meringue (use another 6mm / 0.24 inch nozzle). I use piping bags which have interchangeable nozzles. If you are using regular piping bags, separate the brown meringue into two piping bags (ratio ⅕ / ⅘). One with a 6mm / 0.24 inch nozzle to make the bear head, the other one with a 3mm / 0.12 inch to make the nose, ears, hands and feet.

Piping macarons (+- 21 macarons)

Lay some baking paper over the macaron template and secure the sides of the baking paper to avoid it from slipping.
Bear’s face: Pipe the brown meringue out (6mm / 0.24 inch nozzle) holding your piping bag vertically. Then cut the meringue by doing a quick circle motion to stop it from running.
Heart: pipe the red meringue out (6mm / 0.24 inch nozzle) holding your piping bag vertically. Start at the top of the left side of the heart, and pipe the meringue down to the heart’s bottom. Do the same on the right side. After piping 3 hearts, use a toothpick to spread the meringue and make it fit the heart shape. Do this after piping 2 or 3 hearts, meringue dries quickly. If you pipe all of them first, it may be impossible to use the toothpick method afterwards as the meringue will have hardened.
Ears/nose/hands/feet: pipe the brown meringue out (3mm / 0.12 inch) holding your piping bag vertically. Draw the ears, nose, hands and feet of the bear.
Transfer the baking paper and macarons onto a baking tray. Tap the baking tray several times on a bench. That will get rid of extra air bubbles and smooth out the macaron surface.
Place the macarons in your preheated oven. Turn off the heat to 0 but leave the convection fan on. Leave the oven door slightly open (2-3cm / 1 inch) and let the macarons dry for 2 minutes. This will dry the macaron shells instead of leaving them dry at room temperature for 1 hour. This process also gives shinier shells.
After 2 minutes, close the oven door, increase the temperature to 130°C (265°F) and let the macarons bake for 10-14 minutes (depending on your oven) - my oven requires 13 minutes (Note 5).
Once baking time is up, turn off the heat and leave the macarons in the oven with an open door (2-3 cm / 1 inch) for 2 minutes.
Take out the macarons. Let them cool down. Macarons should come off easily from the baking paper once cooled. If sticky, they’re undercooked.
Once macarons have completely cooled down, use a black food coloring pen to draw the eyes and nose.
Use a piping bag to fill them in with chocolate ganache.
Place macarons in the refrigerator for at least one night, to give them some moisture. They're best consumed after 2 days left in the refrigerator, the ganache will moisten the macaron shells.

Notes

1. The two most crucial points are:

firm whites: beat the whites long enough so that they get firm enough. You know that they are firm enough when the whites agglomerate in the middle of your whisks. Even if your whites already hold when turning your bowl upside down, do not stop beating if whites have not agglomerated in your whisks yet. The whites won’t be firm enough, your meringue will likely be too runny.
the macaronage: keep checking every time you fold 2-3 times if the meringue is slowly falling in like a ribbon. Then directly place the meringue in the piping bag and pipe out the macarons. If you do not fold enough, the meringue will be too thick. If you fold too much, the meringue will be too runny. In both cases, macarons won’t come out as they should. This is the importance of checking regularly if the meringue falls like a ribbon.

2. almond powder: grind it quickly in a food processor helps the powder become as thin as possible, for an increased chance to obtain smooth macaron shells.

3. caster sugar: adding sugar all at once to the whites or adding them in several batches gradually does not make any difference. To make it easier, add it all at once before starting.

4. food coloring: food coloring quantity highly depends on the brand you’re using. Some brands are more pigmented than others. For macarons, use either gel or powder food coloring. DO NOT use liquid food coloring. It may liquefy a little your meringue.

5. oven temperature: baking time and temperature can vary from oven to oven. You may possibly have to run a few tests. My oven is particularly strong, so I bake at 130°C (265°F). For the average oven, you could try baking at 140°C (285°F). As for the timing, it varies between 10 and 14 minutes. Here too, make a few attempts if required. Macarons are cooked when they come off easily from baking paper. If they are too sticky, bake them longer.

6. drying macarons: quite a lot of people tend to let macarons dry out for an hour before baking them. Instead of doing this, I dry macarons in a preheated oven, door open, for 2 minutes. This is a technique used by famous Youtuber and macaron artist Sugar Bean. It reduces the drying time and actually gives macarons a shinier shell. And, quite frankly, waiting an hour or not to dry macarons out did not make any difference to me.

7. ingredient quantities: cups and spoons are not appropriate measuring tools for recipes such as macarons where quantities have to be exact to the point. A scale is necessary.

Nutrition