I had some green macarons left from a larger bake I did over the weekend. And i kept thinking what could I use them for.. I needed some type of filling that would go well with the colour green – it was more of a pale green, so very light. Whilst deliberating, I needed to go to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner, and there it was! Staring right at me – an After Eight chocolate box! I thought this could be absolutely perfect! I came home, and obviously, instead of cooking dinner, i chose to create my wonderful new after eight minty flavoured macarons! 😀 I made a chocolate ganache, with a few of the after eights melted into it, and then cut tiny discs of the after eight, and placed them in the centre. È voila! the After Eight Macaron is born! 🙂 .. and the taste.. absolutely delightful! 😉

Here’s how you bake them!

INGREDIENTS : 

For the Macaron Shell – 

• 150 g sugar
• 150 g egg whites (keep in fridge until use, they are better when cold)
• 187 g almond flour
• 225 g icing sugar
• Light green gel food colouring

For the After Eight Ganache – 

• 255 g Dark Chocolate, chopped
• 230 ml heavy cream
• 10 after eights, cut into half’s
• 1.5 tsp sea salt

Filling – 

• 1 Box of After Eights (roughly 30-40)

METHOD : 

For the macaron Shell – 

1. n a stand mixer – I use Kenwood Chef XL (or using a hand held electric mixer) – whisk the egg white, while slowly adding in the sugar bit by bit. Let it whip until a medium merengue. Add you green gel food colouring, and whip until properly incorporated.
2. In a separate bowl, sieve the almond flour and icing sugar together. Once the merengue is ready, then pour half of the dry ingredients into the merengue and using a spatula, fold gently until fully incorporated. Then add the remaining half, and fold until shiny and smooth. The best way to know its ready when you lift you spatula with some batter on, and it falls down creating a layered ribbon effect.
3. Then pour the batter into a piping bag, and pipe onto a tray (lined with baking paper or silpat) small circles, roughly 4cm diameter.
4. Leave them to rest for 30 min. Turn the oven on to 140C (300F).
5. Bake in the oven, each tray separately, for 18 min. Do not open the oven door, just leave them in there to do their thing. Once ready take them out and leave to cool COMPLETELY before trying to remove them off the paper. Keep on the side until time to fill.

Filling – 

Get your After Eights out, and using either a small cookie cutter (I used a cookie cutter the size of my macarons) or doing it my hand or the lid of a jar, cut out small discs of the after eights. Keep in fridge until assembly. With the remaining ends of each after eight, add it to your ganache mix.

For the After Eight Ganache –  

1. Put the chocolate, after eights (ends and all) and sea salt into a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized saucepan, heat up the cream until it JUST starts to boil. Remove from the heat and IMMEDIATELY pour onto the chocolate. Leave it without touching it for 5 min. Then take a spoon or spatula and whisk slowly u til it becomes thick and glossy.
3. Put it into the fridge to thicken, about 1 hour. Then take out and whip it up on high speed using a stand mixer or hand held. Once the ganache has become a thick fluffy frosting, it’s done. Place into a piping bag, and put into the fridge until time to pipe.

Assembly – 

Count how many macaron shells you have, then divide it in half. Take one half, and pipe on a small dollop of ganache, and then place one after eight disc on top, close with a macarons shell from the other half. Repeat until all are filled.

And there you have it! Your After Eight Macarons are done!

Enjoy!