Black Sesame (Koala & Panda) Macarons

Last week, I was reeled into the deep, dark realms of Batman - The Dark Knight Rises on opening night. It was the conclusive installment of the trilogy, and the stellar performances from the cast easily made this movie MY favourite of the year (and probably a long time to come).  Christian Bale is irreplaceable as Bruce Wayne, to me, he IS Batman. 

So along with the dark theme of last week, it was kinda fitting to try black sesame macarons.  Black sesame brings me back to my childhood days, where I was often denied of the thick paste 芝麻糊 as it was considered 'heaty' and ''bad for kids to have too much of them'.  Growing up, I found new joys in black sesame glutinous rice balls and ice-cream. 

The shells were burnt during baking, and looked brown instead of the intended grey... bummer... 

Weekend came, went bake shopping at ToTT, resisted the urge to buy down the whole store but got myself some pretty glass jars. Envisioned filling them up with cheery colourful macarons as giveaways :)

There were two kinds of fillings that I read would work - black sesame buttercream and adzuki beans.  Felt lazy and went with the latter - got a can from the supermarket, heated and mashed it.  The combination is superb; the not-so-subtle, distinctive toasted, nutty black sesame finds great companion in the sweet adzuki bean paste, tipping over the sensory glands of smell and taste with an infusion of chinese and japansese flavours.

Theme of the week - bears!  Kinda tire myself out icing the eyes and noses on the macarons, so I'll leave you with the pics ... and hope they bring a smile to your face.  Happy week ahead!

Koala!

I look like this Panda after all the late-night blogging!

Dim Sum Galore? Nope, they are Koala & Panda Macarons!!

Dedicating this post to my dear friend E, who has been extremely forward with ideas and generous with his support and encouragement!!