Salted Caramel Macarons
Hi, my name is Sam and I'm kinda crazy about making macarons. Especially these Salted Caramel Macarons, which are the perfect thing to whip up as we get ready for this changing season.Yes, I think it's safe to say that the weather here has pretty much settled into fall. The fact that it rained a bit the other day tells me that it's time to put away the sandals and break out the sweaters, which I'm not mad about. I always get a little remorseful when summer ends, but fall has a nice clean feeling that I'm getting adjusted to. Maybe it's the rain. Maybe it's these Salted Caramel Macarons which I've been munching on. Maybe it's both.Probably both.
I'm one of those people who has a strong opinion on the salted caramel vs pumpkin spice debate. Between the two, salted caramel rules out all day everyday. It's the perfect salty/sweet flavor combination that you can enjoy literally any other time of year without it being weird, whereas pumpkin spice is strictly a fall affair. Just a heads up, as basic as pumpkin spice may be you can bet I'll be doing pumpkin spice macarons this year. It's just gonna happen, because fall!I'll admit, I was a little nervous making this macaron recipe at first.
That's because this is one of the few times that I've made macarons using recipes that aren't from the Indulge With Mimi blog, which is the Bible for macaron baking, in my opinion. I'm always skeptical of trying new macaron recipes because I feel that I've pretty much mastered Mimi's. You can tell I take making macarons seriously because I could honestly feel my palms starting to sweat when it was time to take the macarons out of the oven and I was expecting a cracked, flat, wrinkly mess - but alas! My macarons had feet, and didn't look too shabby at all. Such a relief.
So, I assume you're here because you want to learn how to bake macarons. Maybe you're troubleshooting because your macarons didn't get feet, or maybe the macaron shells were hollow, or perhaps they just spread into sad blobs that tasted good but looked like melted candle puddles (yup, this used to happen to me a lot). Good news, I wrote a blog post a few months ago giving my best macarons tips and tricks, I'll link to it here:
Macaron Troubleshooting Tips & Tricks
Happy baking!
INGREDIENTS
Macaron Cookies
3 egg whites, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour
pinch of salt
Salted Caramel Filling
Scant 1/4 cup cream*
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
DIRECTIONS
Macaron Cookies
Mix the powdered sugar and almond flour together into a food processor. Pulse it a few times until combined.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk your egg whites until foamy. Add the pinch of salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. Keep checking to make sure not to over-mix!
Sift the flour mixture into the bowl with the egg whites, discarding any large pieces that don't pass through. Now, fold the batter with a spatula while turning the bowl until the batter reaches a lava-like consistency. You'll know it's ready once you are able to pick up your spatula and form a figure-8 with the batter without it breaking (and the figure-8 should settle back into the batter after a few moments).
Place your batter into a piping bag and pipe 1 inch rounds onto two baking trays lined with a Silpat baking mat (I have the macaron one which makes it so much easier to pipe perfect rounds).
Tap each tray 4-5 times onto the counter, from all four angles. Remove any visible air bubbles with a toothpick.
Allow the cookies to sit for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. Shells should be stiff and no longer gummy.
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Sandwich two cookies with a dollop of salted caramel sauce. Place in refrigerator so they can settle overnight. Take the macarons out of the fridge for about 30 minutes before you're ready to enjoy them.
Salted Caramel Filling
Heat the heavy cream in a small pot until just boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Place your sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar melts into a nice caramel brown color. Stir in the cream and cook for about one minute or until thickened.
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and salt.
Let stand at room temperature until cool.
Adapted From: One Sweet Appetite