Oreo Macarons

 Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great Christmas Season and great New Years celebrations!It's 2015, wow. I can't believe I started blogging 2012, it feels like such a long time ago.. almost 3 years.
I hope this year brings much joy and hopefully holds great things for all of us. I have a good feeling about 2015.
I also had a good feeling about these macarons and look how they turned out! They look so cute and tasted so good. The icing was almost an exact copy of Hersey's Cookies n' Cream® chocolate bars. So good.

Oreo Macarons

Shells

100g                         ground almonds
200g                         icing sugar
100g                         egg whites
4 tbsp                        castor sugar
2 tbsp                        finely crushed oreos (without filling)

Sift the ground almonds into a medium sized bowl. Dispose of any large lumps. Measure them out again, add more if needed, sift again with the icing sugar. Set aside. In a large bowl whip the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar 1 table spoon at a time and whip until it holds stiff peaks. Dump 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the egg whites. Fold from top to bottom scraping down the sides. Add the second 1/3 and repeat. Add the last 1/3 and fold until it forms ribbons. When dropped from a spoon it should take 15 seconds to flatten out. Don't over mix!
Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe onto a trays lined with parchment paper. Don't pipe too big, 1" is enough. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Let your cookies sit at room temperature until they form a dry "skin", this will help for feet. When you tap them it shouldn't be sticky. Bake for 8-10 minutes. You can test by touching the sides, if they wobble they are not done. Let the shells cool before removing from the sheet.

Oreo Ganache

260g                          heavy cream
260g                          white chocolate
100g                          finely crushed oreos (with filling)
1 vanilla bean

Pour the cream into a saucepan and scrape the vanilla bean seeds from the vanilla pod. Add the vanilla bean seeds and pod to the cream. Over medium heat let it come to a boil, then strain it over the chopped white chocolate. Wait a minute, then use a rubber spatula and mix until it is completely smooth. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Once chilled, chop the oreos into very small pieces and fold them into the ganache. Transfer into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip and pipe onto half of the macarons. Sandwich two together and repeat with the rest of them. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy!

These were really fun to make and eat! I hope you try these on your quest in this new year. May it be filled with joy, laughter, love and of course delicious food.
I hope to keep blogging for many years to come, thank you for sticking around and making this all worth while, couldn't have done it without you guys!

Elanne Boake