Mango Curd + Mango Macarons For The Win!

My kitchen smells pretty tropical right about now. I was glancing at the grocery store sale ads and came across a 3 for $1 sale on mangoes at Sprout's. I mean who doesn't love mangoes, eating one transports you to a tropical paradise. I know that I wanted to try to make something with the mangoes, but I didn't know what. I ended up buying 6 juicy mangoes, the bag was so heavy because they are so big. I know most desserts with mango that I have seen are things like mango mousse or mango sorbet. So basically things that are not baked. I also wanted to find ways that I could enjoy the mango flavor longer than the shelf life of the mangoes, like stuff I could freeze or jar. So this is what I came up with; a mango puree, a mango curd, and mango macarons. I felt like as far as the puree, I could use it for different things like putting it in drinks (cocktails, lemonades, teas), I could flavor butter creams (which I did for some macarons), and that it would freeze well. As far as the mango curd I filled some macarons with it and I also plan on making mango meringue tarts this Sunday. I've never had mango curd, but it was the same process as the grapefruit and lemon curd that I have made before. It taste great on toast, bread, or seriously just with a spoon out of a jar. Now with the macarons I knew I wanted to make mango flavored macarons, and I wanted a different variety since the recipe I had produces around 3 dozen macarons. I wanted variety but I didn't want to make it so complicated as far as doing a ton of different flavored and colored shells. I was able to come up with some quintessential mango flavors like mango with chile (mango con chile), mango coconut, just mango, and mango strawberry macarons. Everything turned out amazing and I will definitely be making these mango treats again.

Pretty plate of Mango-Strawberry Macarons

First the easiest thing to get started on is the mango puree. This is and can be the basis for a bunch of things, butter creams, mango curd, or as a stir in for drinks. It's also a great idea to freeze and use when mangoes are out of season. Ok cool this part is easy, mango puree is literally just blended mangoes. That's simple right! If you have a food processor just put one cut up mango in  your food processor. I didn't want to pull out my food processor so I used my little magic bullet blender. This will make about one cup of mango puree.

Take one mango and cut around that big seed (I used a mango slicer that I bought off of Amazon)

***Hey I saw mango slicers at Daiso for like 1.50 today, that's so cheap because I didn't pay $1.50 for mine***

One whole mango

Now dice up your mango into smaller pieces, they don't have to look pretty or be uniformed sizes because they will just get blended. I also had a tiny bit of water, and some sugar handy (if you think your mangos are sweet enough you don't need to use the sugar, so just taste it as you go)

* I didn't use all that sugar guys, and I just used a few teaspoons of water and sugar

After you blend this with whatever kitchen tool you have, run the mixture through a sieve to get out any mango that didn't blend, you want a nice smooth puree.

Eat the chunks, or reprocess it with a tiny bit of water

Now you should have a really smooth and beautiful puree, I just covered it in plastic and placed in the fridge till I was ready to use, at this point you could place it in an airtight container and put it in your freezer. Defrost it when you are ready to use.

Mango Puree

Ok you did it you made a mango puree, just like the cool people on T.V.

Let's make something cool now, a mango curd.

Mango Curd Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Mango Puree
• 3 tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice (1 large lemon or 2 small lemons)
• 4 large egg yolks (keep the egg whites for macarons)
• pinch of salt
• 4 teaspoons of corn starch
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

Start by pouring your mango puree, sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and pinch of salt into your saucepan and whisk all together.

Now add in your 4 egg yolks and whisk together

Take your saucepan and place it over medium/high heat. Whisk the mixture for 5-7 minutes, keep whisking so it will not burn. (I normally just stand there whisking with the oven timer on, I set I whisked for 6 minutes) The mixture will become thick, think like a pudding or custard thickness.

Now take it off the burner and whisk in your cold butter a little at a time

look at that butter melt

After all the butter is incorporated, I placed it in a jar with a lid and sat it on the counter, then after a few hours I placed it in the fridge. It taste so good ya'll. If you like lemon curd, or lime curd you will love this. Mango curd is a little tart, but not like lemon or lime, so it has a subtle tart taste and then that sweet mango flavor. I'm excited about the mango meringue tarts I'm making this weekend. I also like the shade of yellow this is, if you make lemon curd you know it is a pale white-ish yellow, so you really don't need to add any additional food coloring.

Anything in jars is cute

Now on to the Mango Macarons

Macaron shells

• 120g of room temperature egg whites  (divide them into two bowls 60g each)
• 150g of almond meal
• 150g of powdered sugar
• 150g of granulated sugar
• 50g of water
• 35g of granulated sugar
• orange+yellow+red gel food coloring
• chili powder, coconut additional food coloring and brushes for decoration

Mango Buttercream

• 1 stick softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons of mango puree

So much stuff, it's easier when you have things organized.

Ok for the macarons

First take your powdered sugar+almond meal and run that through a fine mesh sieve. Then take a whisk and mix all the ingredients after they have been sifted, then just set aside.

Take 60g of your room temperature egg whites and mix it into your dry ingredients. This is going to form a thick almond paste

This is where you can add your gel food coloring, I added 2 drops of yellow, one orange, one light brown, and tiny bit of red (remember when you add meringue and bake they do tend to lighten)

Now take your other 60g of egg whites and place them in your stand mixer on low until they start to get foamy.

When your egg whites get foamy add in the 35g of granulated sugar slowly and mix on medium speed until soft peaks form

Keep your egg whites beating on low speed 

Now take your 150g of granulated sugar and 50g of water  and place it in a saucepan on medium heat. 

Let this boil until the temperature on your thermometer hits 240F

Carefully take your sugar syrup and pour it down the side of your stand mixer ( in a slow steady stream) while the egg whites are whipping.

Continue whipping this mixture until your bowl cools down and stiff peaks form so about 10-15 minutes you should have a very glossy, shiny merengue, flip the bowl over and it shouldn't move.

Now take 1/3rd of the egg whites and fold it into your almond paste

Don't worry about being gentle, this is just to moisten the paste again, add in the rest of the egg white mixture and continue folding

You will know when your mixture is done when it ribbons off of your spatula in a continuous motion.

Take your macaron batter and place in a large piping bag with a round tip attached.

On a parchment lined tray pipe out 1.5 inch circles, tap your tray on the counter top once finished piping. I then placed chili lime powder on some shells for garnish so they would remind me of my favorite Mexican snack Mango con Chile.

These look so cute and delicious and they aren't even baked yet.

I topped some with shredded coconut

Finally left some plan because I was going to decorate them after they baked

Preheat your oven to 300F

Let them sit on your counter to create a skin (I like to let them rest at least 30 minutes, normally an hour as I clean up the kitchen) You will know they are ready when you touch the macaron shell and nothing sticks to your finger. The macaron will also turn a flat matte finish.

Place your macarons in the 300F oven for 14-16 minutes (I rotate the tray at the 7 minute mark)

I then take them out of the oven and off of the baking tray and place them on the counter top still on the parchment paper to cool 

After a few minutes I like to match up the macaron shells of similar size and get them ready to be filled with the Mango buttercream

Ooooppps I didn't take any pics of how to make the buttercream (just look at the other macaron posts on this blog, the only difference for mango buttercream is literally pouring in a few tablespoons of mango puree)

So here's how it went down

This is the Mango con Chile macaron I piped this one with mango curd (it taste like the mango chile cups from the fruteriá). It isn't spicy but it gives you that salty-sweet combo that is amazing and I think they look cool.

I like the Mango curd color and the contrast with the macaron shell

Look at the shell with all that yummy chile

Next were Mango Macarons with Strawberry-Mango buttercream. These I just added 1 big tablespoon of strawberry jam to the already made mango buttercream. Nisha tried these and said they tasted like Hi-Chews (Japanese candy). I also wanted to experiment with decorations and I ended up dipping a pastry brush in red gel food coloring that is diluted with almond extract (to make a edible paint) and brush lightly against a few shells. They look and taste great.

I like how these visually turned out

My only regret for the Mango-Strawberry Macarons are that I should have colored the buttercream pink or something, I will next time I use this buttercream (I have a pastry bag in the freezer with this buttercream)

Ok for the Mango-Coconut Macarons I filled them with coconut buttercream and in the center I placed a small dollop of mango curd. ( I had coconut buttercream leftover that I pulled out of the freezer and it still tasted amazing)

These certainly transport me to the beach

I should have only put the coconut on one side of the macaron but these taste very tropical.

Lastly I have just Mango Macarons with a Mango Buttercream. I painted them with gold luster and red and green food gel coloring. I just thought it was something different.

I should have just painted these gold only, oh well.

Overall this was a great day for baking.