The MacTweets Macaron challenge this month was Adventure. I don't have much of that in my life currently. Don't get me wrong. I love my life. I really do, but I am on the tail-end of parenting. The most adventure I've had lately is the drama of trying to attend every end-of-the-school-year function. Deeba and Jamie wrote a great post using the jungle, Tarzan, Jane, and Cheeta pictures.
This is my "Cheeta". He is the sock monkey from Itty-Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson that I just happened to have been knitting for a awhile. I finished knitting him today. I rushed home from the knitting session and put together my macs (again the adventure was trying to get them finished on time).
I've been experimenting with different nut flours. This time I used peanut. What monkey doesn't like peanuts? And bananas, and coconut? And these macs just screamed out for a little chocolate ganache; the best jungles should all be stocked with chocolate, in my humble opinion.
I laid out half of my macs and put vanilla Italian meringue butter cream on them, and sprinkled some flaked coconut and chopped peanuts on top. The second half of the macs were covered with ganache and a thin slice of fresh banana. When you "smoosh" (that's a technical term) the two sides together, make sure that the fillings totally enclose the banana slices or they will turn brown.
Just refrigerate the macs for a few days and then devour them. You'll want to - I promise. THESE ARE GOOD! Not the average mac, but so tasty and flavorful and the banana is the hidden surprise. Now that's adventurous, right?
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Such a fun flavor. Love your little monkey. Your macs look perfect.
ReplyDeleteLove it all. The cute monkey that was hand knit and your delicious sounding macs! They are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteBanana and chocolate with peanuts and coconut - very adventurous indeed! They look very tasty. I love the idea of the "hidden surprise" !
ReplyDeleteBanana and chocolate with peanuts and coconut - very adventurous indeed! They look very tasty. I love the idea of the "hidden surprise" !
ReplyDeleteOh, I LOVE your monkey and love the matching macs! You made my favorite flavors, too, banana with chocolate and coconut! Yum! I do want, but wait a few days? You kidding? Would any monkey wait for these macs? They are gorgeous! Perfect Wild Side Macs!
ReplyDeleteThe monkey is adorable. Very creative fillings!
ReplyDeleteOh I love the flavour too and I am intrigued that you used different flours. I tried coconut ones a while back and used coconut in place of some of the almonds and they were a total disatster. Yours, however, are beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThese look better than the average mac! Your filling sounds so delicious-YUM! I sure love your little monkey, especially his expression:) I'm going to have to look into joining the "mac" group because everyone's macs look so fun!
ReplyDeleteI'm posting to let you know how the bananas held up later. They did not turn brown (hurray) and I think it is because I made sure that the filling enclosed them. And they really do taste good today as well.
ReplyDeleteYour macs turned out pied-perfect and I luv the color of your macs! How do you get it that color? We must totally be on the same wavelength of mac ideas :)
ReplyDeleteLast month I tried using honey-roasted peanuts for my mactweet challenge. It was a disaster. The thought was going to be honey-roasted macs with peanutbutter, jelly and a banana slice! Couldn't get the shells right so it was not to be. :(
Congrats on a great MacTweets challenge!
That monkey is so cute! Your Macs look great. You are inspiring me...Some day soon I'm going to attempt making some.
ReplyDeleteCristina, The color is natural. I didn't add any coloring. The peanuts are darker than almond flour. I was going to sprinkle some chopped peanuts on the top, that would have been prettier and give a clue to what is inside but I forgot. Oops.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely adventurous, Bonnie. I have been wanting to make a peanut macaron for ages now, sounds like they would taste fantastic. Coconut and banana are positively inspired choices.
ReplyDeleteReally, really well done, and your macarons look perfect as well, such smooth shells and lovely feet.
I wanna live in your kinda jungle Bonnie... infinitely more adventurous and exciting than mine! Love your wild side, and yes, chocolate is good anywhere. Love the hidden surprise in your perfect macs, and love the knitting you've been up to. I use to knit ages ago... what fun!!Thank you for bringing your creativity to MacTweets!
ReplyDeleteHi Jamie, thanks for participating in the two for tuesday recipe blog hop and I hope to see you again next week! This recipe looks so decadent and the monkey is a cutie! Following your blog and also tweets! Keep it REAL! Alex
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining in the Two for Tuesday blog hop - those cookies look wonderful!
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