Red, sweet, juicy strawberries covered with smooth, creamy chocolate is a delectable, sensual dessert and one of my favorite indulgences. I incorporated those luscious flavors in a chocolate strawberry macaron for this month’s MacTweets’ challenge Ice Cream Dreams. We were challenged to concoct an ice cream sandwich with homemade ice cream and home-baked macarons. An irresistible dessert on a hot summer day.
My first idea for the challenge was to try and recreate the luscious lemon gelato we had at the fabulous Vintage Mixer dinner at Vinto Pizzeria. (If you haven’t eaten there yet, you’re missing out!.) Then I starting thinking about their equally delicious strawberry gelato, which lead me to think about what a fabulous combination a chocolate macaron and strawberry ice cream would be, and once I started thinking about chocolate covered strawberries there was no going back.
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I’ve posted in the past about the strawberry ice cream I’ve been making since I got married 33 years ago. It’s loaded with crushed strawberries! I love eating it when it’s just been churned, but it isn’t firm enough to fill a macaron and it gets a little icy when it sets up in the freezer. So I decided to change it up a bit.
Many ice cream recipes inspired by David Lebovitz The Perfect Scoop add just a splash of alcohol to prevent the ice cream from freezing hard. Megan, A Sweet Spoonful, wrote a cute post about her love of ice cream and her Strawberry Frozen Custard which includes a splash of vodka. Since both David and Megan said you couldn’t taste the vodka and it makes for a softer consistency, I decided to give it a try.
I couldn’t taste the vodka in the ice cream and just one tablespoon of vodka made a big difference. The ice cream was soft, not icy and a perfect scooping consistency after being in the freezer for several hours. After 24 hours it was harder than commercially made ice creams, but not icy and scoopable after a few minutes on the counter.
While Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Macwiches will never replace my love for chocolate covered strawberries it is a fantastic flavor combination. (Although my favorite mac flavor is still a chocolate macaron with a caramel filling.) This month’s MacTweet round up of luscious Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches will be posted on or about August 5, 2011. Be sure and stop by.
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Chocolate Strawberry Macarons
Ingredients
- 100 grams powdered sugar
- 50 grams almond meal/flour
- 20 grams unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder sifted
- 60 grams egg whites at room temperature
- 40 grams granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 310º. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and have a pastry bag with a plain tip (about ½-inch, 2 cm) ready. (Setting the pastry bag in a glass while you fill the bag makes it easier to fill.)
- Combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and almond meal. (Pulse in a blender or food processor to grind you almonds a bit finer. A mini food processor works best for this if you have one.)
- With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they’re foamy. While whipping, gradually beat in the granulated sugar and continue beating until egg whites are very stiff and firm, about 2 minutes. (To test to see if egg whites are ready, whip until the tip of the peak doesn’t fold over when you pull the beater out of the meringue.)
- Carefully fold the dry ingredients, in two batches, into the beaten egg whites with a flexible rubber spatula. When the mixture is just smooth and there are no streaks of egg white, stop folding and scrape the batter into the pastry bag. (You can put a spoonful on a plate to test it. If it slowly flattens out it’s perfect. If it just stays in a blob, give it a few more folds.)
- Pipe the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch (3 cm) circles (about 1 tablespoon each of batter), evenly spaced one-inch (3 cm) apart.
- Rap the baking sheet a few times firmly on the counter top to flatten the macarons. Leave out, uncovered for 15 minutes, then bake them for 15-20 minutes. Give the macs a gentle little shake with the tip of your finger to see if they’re done. You want them set but not firm. It’s better to undercook them a little so they are a bit chewy and not crisp.
- Let cool completely then remove from baking sheet.
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Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups whipping cream not heavy cream
- 1 cup half & half
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups crushed strawberries
- 1 tablespoon vodka
Instructions
- Combined all ingredients in a large bowl. Churn according to your ice cream maker’s directions
jane
Oh my Goodness! What an amazing looking recipe. Not to mention it looks like the perfect treat during this sweltering heat. Seasonal strawberries and ice cream. The macaroons are such a wonderful and chic twist. I’m going to do my best to recreate this. Then maybe I can pretend I’m enjoying them in Paris and escape for a little while. Thanks so much for this!
Maria
I love the ice cream filling!
Kelley
These are beautiful and I can only imagine delicious as well! What a great combo!!
Cathy at Wives with Knives
What a GREAT post, Barbara. Your little macaron ice cream sandwiches are perfectly beautiful. Fantastic photos as well. Love it!
Kristen
Those are absolutely beautiful!!
Aggie
These are just beautiful!!
Nuts about food
These are beautiful!
Rosa
A lovely combination! So summery.
Cheers,
Rosa
Jamie
I love chocolate covered strawberries and this is a great idea for a perfect combination! And thanks for the tablespoon of alcohol tip – I’ll do that! As usual, perfect macs, Barbara and you do know that chocolate macs are my favorites! Perfect, perfect combo and dessert!
Krista {Budget Gourmet Mom}
What a wonderful flavor combination. Your pictures are mouthwatering!
Marla
Barbara these macarons are so pretty & such a special treat!
Kim
I find that if my homemade ice cream find it to the freezer then it’s usually a little too hard for my taste. I’m definitely using the vodka trick next time around. Totally makes sense.
These macarons look adorable! I’d love to snack on a few:)
Michele faubert
very cute macarons !
deeba
ooooh GORGEOUS! What a great flavour combination and how pretty! Vodka does make a huge difference to texture and I love sneaking a tbsp in! Your macs and ice cream look fabulous GF! Lovely to see you back in action at MacTweets!! xo
Ali
How adorable 🙂 I’ve never made macarons, they always intimidated me 🙂 But I love the strawberry and chocolate combination of flavors. Great choice!
If you’d like, I wanted to invite you to share your best recipes over at my new party, Recipe Sharing Monday at Jam Hands. I’m going to be featuring my favorite submissions during the week and I’d love it if you’d join in the fun. :O)
Katrina
After making my first ever macarons a couple weeks ago, I’m hankering to make them again and again. These look great!
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel
Adorable!!! the vodka tip makes perfect sense since alcohol doesn’t freeze – or at least it’s not suppose to right? But wouldn’t even the slight addition make it not okay for kids etc? Totally a dumb Q I’m sure. I wonder if there is an alternative to the vodka to keep it softer?
Barbara
Thanks! I’m not a drinker, so I did give the issue some thought. I decided I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to kids if I had added 1 tablespoon of vanilla which is 35% alcohol. In fact, you could probably try just upping the vanilla if you’re more comfortable doing that.
cindy
I have yet to make a macaron–yours are beautiful. Looks like I better try them.
Shumaila
I am yet to master macarons- for me they act very temperamental- sometimes coming out perfectly, sometimes with utter failure. In fact my next post is going to be about the utter failure I have had with macarons!
On the other hand, your macarons look great. And, trust alcohol to make things right ;)!
Barbara
Thanks! It took me a long time to find the technique that worked for me consistently too. I hadn’t made them for months, so I was so happy that they turned out so well.
Maris (In Good Taste)
These are absolutely gorgeous! I am not sure which I now crave more, the ice cream or the macaroons!