Macaron Tuesday: Ube Macarons??

You're probably thinking two things: 1) that sounds delicious or 2) that sounds a little weird!

So what exactly is ube? Ube (pronounced oobeh) is purple yam, not be confused with purple potatoes or with purple sweet potatoes. Purple yam is not uniquely found in the Philippines but in Filipino cuisine it's widely used to flavor and color their sweet treats and breads. Ube is a popular ice cream flavor, and in addition to ice cream it's made into a traditional yam (paste like thick pudding) that's added with macapuno (young coconut) and into different breads and other desserts. For me there's no really no specific way for me to describe it, other than it is a GREAT dessert that I gladly take over chocolate.

Many people often confuse Ube with taro, and although they share similar color and similar tastes somewhat, ube is richer and more flavorful in my opinion. My mom happened to make some ube yam for Thanksgiving and we ended up getting some leftover yam. The yam was perfect for macaron filling because it has a paste-like consistency almost close to a ganache but a bit more thicker. The recipe follows for a typical almond nut based macaron shell, and for the filling I just whipped up the yam into a more moldable consistency and sandwiched that between two shells. It was perfect. Just perfect.

Out of sheer time limits, my macarons shells did not come out as perfect, the feet were a little messed up and they had some mild hollowness, however it is the BEST tasting macaron yet.

I did have a few mess ups with my shells this time. However it's not too bad consider I was pressed for time and I only worked with almonds for my choice of nuts (which I don't enjoy -- almonds are so sensitive). I also over mixed just a tad bit (like 3-5 strokes more) and it made a difference in the way they turned out. Just think... only 3-5 strokes and it's not perfect. That's how frustrating macarons are. Other than that they were delicious and they still had some shape and only had some mild hollowness.



And without any bias, these have been my parent's favorite macaron flavor. The filling takes away the sometimes overwhelming sweetness of the shells which I find to be a miracle as usually the filling adds on to the sweetness.

Many people have messaged me and said I need to start my own bakery. I say I would... except let's face it, I'm not pro yet and I do these just for a kick and to enlighten my heart ;)

I wish you could try these!!

The typical dry ingredients

Piped and ready

Yumm

See how awesome it is??

Only a tiny bit of hollow in the shells

Love,

Jacq