After watching Finding Dory (2016) twice in a row, it's only fair to dedicate a post to this movie that made me smile, touched my heart, and brought a magical glimmer of awe that I used to only feel as a child. 

I'm super excited about these Finding Dory Macarons featuring my favourite characters from the movie - Dory, Marlin, Nemo, Hank, Destiny and Bailey. These macarons are filled with dark chocolate ganache and they were a delight to make. 

The Trio who started it all 

"I know you're scared, but we can't give up." - Dory to Hank

“What is so great about plans? The best things happen by chance, because that’s life.” - Dory

FINDING DORY MACARONS
by Sumopocky

Yield: ~20 macarons, ~3 of each character

Ingredients
[For Dark Chocolate Ganache] 
80g of Dark chocolate chips
80ml of Heavy cream

[For Basic Macaron Shells] 
Meringue: 70g of Egg whites + 90g of Castor sugar
80g of Almond flour
80g of Powdered/icing sugar
Black food colouring
Blue food colouring
Yellow food colouring
Red food colouring
Royal icing sugar

Directions
[For Dark Chocolate Ganache]
1. Bring heavy cream to a simmer.
2. Pour heavy cream over chocolate. Let it sit for 1 minute and stir with a whisk till all the chocolate has melted. Let it cool.
3. Transfer the filling to a piping bag.

[For Basic Macaron Shells] 
1. Make the meringue. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed using an electric mixer until it is white and frothy (approximately 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar 1/4 at a time. When the first addition of sugar has completely dissolved (approximately 1 minute later), increase the mixer speed to medium and add until all the sugar has been incorporated. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
2. Sift the almond flour and icing sugar to the meringue.
3. Begin macaronage. Using a spatula, start the macaronage process by folding and lightly scraping the top of the batter. Continue until the wet and dry ingredients just start to combine.
4. Divide the batter. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of batter and add black food colouring. Mix well and transfer to a piping bag with a small tip. This is for drawing the details.
Split the remaining batter in portions of 1/5, 1/5, 1/5 and 2/5.
5. Make different coloured batter: 
- From the 2/5 bowl, scoop out 1 teaspoon and add yellow food colouring. Transfer to a piping bag with a small tip. Scoop out another teaspoon and add blue food colouring to get dark blue. Then, add blue food colouring to the remaining batter to get light blue. (Dory and Destiny)
- To a 1/5 bowls, add yellow and red food colouring to get light orange (Marlin and Nemo)
- To another 1/5 bowl, add 3 drops of red food colouring and 1 drop of yellow food colouring to get  bright orangey-red. (Hank)
- Leave the final 1/5 bowl as it is for white batter. (Bailey)
6. Continue macaronage. To each batter, continue the macaronage process until you get a molten-like mixture and drips down like a ribbon when lifted.
7. Transfer batter into piping bags: Transfer the batter to piping bags fitted with round tips, leaving some to be transferred to individual piping bags with small tips for the fins. You can use plastic/ziplock bags and snip off the ends to make disposable piping bags.
8. Pipe out batter onto baking trays lined parchment paper. Please refer to video above for demonstration.
9. Let the shells dry in an air-conditioned room. You should be able to touch it gently with the tip of your finger without it sticking.
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for approximately 10 - 13 minutes.
11. Let shells cool before filling with dark chocolate ganache. 
12. Finishing touches: Draw on final details with royal icing sugar.