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Cooking
Salted Caramel Macarons
· 30 servings
Getting the flour right
In a large bowl, mix together the icing sugar and almond flour. The almond flour should be very finely ground. Blanched almonds are recommended, but I've also tried it with unpeeled ones and it worked just fine – the only difference is that the macaron shells turn out a bit darker.
Flavouring and colour
Mix the walnut essence and gel food colouring into the egg whites. Pour this mixture over the sugar and almond flour, but don't stir it in just yet.
Sugar syrup
Put the granulated sugar and water into a saucepan – this is where you'll make the sugar syrup. After many attempts, I'm convinced the best macarons come from using a proper syrup. It needs to reach 118°C, so get yourself a candy thermometer, ideally a digital one, to check it.
When to start whisking the egg whites
Turn on the hob to a fairly high heat (not the very highest) and keep an eye on the rising temperature. At around 110°C, start whisking the egg whites in a stand mixer on medium speed. Recipe books usually say to start at 115°C, but I started a little earlier and it worked out well. The whites should whip up nice and firm.
Syrup at 118°C
Perfect – now you can start pouring it into the still-whisking mixer. Just turn the speed down to the minimum so you don't get splashed by the hot syrup or spray it all over the bowl.
Whip the whole mixture on high speed
Once all the syrup is in the bowl, turn the speed back up (medium-high) and keep whisking until the meringue cools down to 50°C.
Fold until smooth
Now fold the meringue into the almond mixture. Mix thoroughly – the batter needs to be smooth and perfectly combined.
Transfer to a piping bag
Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain, fairly wide round tip.
Templates on baking paper
Get your baking trays ready. Either use regular baking paper, on which you'll need to draw circles about 3.5 cm in diameter – ideally with a black marker, then flip the paper over so you don't pipe onto the ink.
Silicone mats
Silicone macaron mats are by far the best option, though. The great thing about mine is that one side has slots for larger macarons and the other for smaller ones. This time I went with the smaller size. This amount of batter is enough for 5 silicone mats.
A smooth surface
Pipe the batter carefully onto the mat. If the batter is made correctly, it will settle into a neat round shape and the surface of the macaron will stay smooth.
Tap the tray
Once your tray is full of piped macarons, give it a few good firm taps against the worktop. You'll see a few small bubbles appear on the surface and then disappear straight away. If they stay, the macarons will crack while baking.
Watch for the skin to form
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Leave the macarons on the tray for about half an hour, then check whether the surface is still sticky. Once it's dry and no longer tacky to the touch, they're ready to bake. Sometimes this takes half an hour, sometimes a full hour, so keep checking on them.
Bake
Bake for 12–13 minutes in the middle of the oven. I haven't had much luck baking macarons on fan setting with several trays at once. Once baked, let the shells cool completely before peeling them off the mat. Now prepare the caramel filling.
Bring the cream to a boil
Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Melt the sugar
Put 50 g of sugar into a second saucepan. Turn the hob on to almost full heat and wait for the sugar to melt. Add another 50 g of sugar and again wait for it to melt. Keep repeating this in 50 g batches until you've used up all the sugar.
Tip:
I'd recommend using a stainless steel saucepan for this – a non-stick one can easily get ruined by this method. The sugar will gradually caramelize nicely.
Watch out for burns and for the caramel getting too dark
Keep an eye on two things: don't burn yourself (hot caramel really hurts!), and don't let the caramel get too dark, or it may scorch and turn bitter.
Add the butter and salt
Take the finished caramel off the heat and stir in 65 g of salted butter. Or, like I do, use plain butter plus a teaspoon or two of salt, depending on how salty you like your caramel. Stir until everything is fully combined.
Pour in the cream
Put the pan back on the hob and stir over low heat. Slowly pour in the hot cream, stirring constantly, until you have a smooth caramel mixture. Let it cool completely.
Whip and fill the macarons
Whip the softened butter together with the cooled caramel. Whisk for a good while, about 8 minutes. Use this filling to fill the macaron shells. Chill in the fridge until the next day before serving.