One of the most popular flavours around these days is salted caramel. I see it in tarts, biscuits, cupcakes and certainly macarons. So when B requested Salted Caramel Macarons for her part of the 30th birthday macaron tower, I was excited to give it a go.
There are numerous recipes out there for salted caramel macarons, and the one I used was from one of my 100+ cookbooks being Secrets of Macarons by José Maréchal. It is an awesome little book with lots of info on how to make these fiddly little things and I refer to it regularly.
When I made my test batch of these, I was beyond happy with how the caramel turned out. I haven’t made caramel too often before, and I managed to get a slight burnt flavour to the test batch (I love burnt caramel – so delicious). The one thing I wasn’t happy with the test batch was the colour of the shells as they ended up looking quite anaemic.
After much consultation with Mr Google, I used a lot more of the brown colouring than I used before, but I also added some of the gold colouring I bought for the Checkerboard Cake to provide the caramel tone.
I had come across some powdered caramel colouring which I thought I had ordered but turns out I didn’t. But the colour that resulted from the combination of the Wilton Brown and Americolor Gold gel pastes was close to what I envisaged, and ended up looking amazing on the finished tower with the Cherry Ripe and Popcorn and Malteser Macarons.
Generally I make 5cm macarons but because of what the tower can hold, I have started making 4cm macarons. The smaller macarons also fit into the majority of the packaging that is out there for macarons as they are more of a standard size chosen by everyone.
When I made the batch of caramel for these macarons, it wasn’t working quite as well as last time and I couldn’t manage that slightly burnt flavour. However, the result was still pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The caramel is made from sugar, water, pure cream and salted butter (although I used unsalted butter and added the salt because I generally have bucket loads of unsalted butter in the fridge).
I didn’t get any photos of the caramel making process because you shouldn’t get distracted when playing with boiling sugar because that stuff is like lava. You heat the sugar and water over a medium heat until it turns a light brown caramel colour. Then, very carefully and a small amount at a time, add the pure cream and gently stir it with a spatula. When the cream is added, the mixture bubbles so take care. Once the cream is all added, continue to heat the mixture until it reaches 108°C then remove from the heat and stir/whisk in the butter until the caramel is nice and smooth.
Pour the finished caramel into a heat proof bowl and set aside to cool completely, where it will also thicken.
Once it has thickened, you can certainly pipe this caramel straight onto the macaron shells. It didn’t seem like enough to go around in my test batch so I whipped some butter and incorporated the caramel in to make a light and fluffy filling.
Given I like to top my macaron shells with something pertaining to the flavour (rose petals, fruit tingles or popcorn), I was contemplating whether to place some salt flakes on top or whether to maybe pant some of the caramel colour on the shells similar to these ones. In the end I decided they looked quite nice plain and left them at that.
| Servings |
macarons
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- 225 g almond meal
- 225 g icing sugar
- 82.5 g egg white(s) fresh
- 225 g caster sugar
- 55.5 g water
- 3/4 tsp brown gel food colouring
- 1/4 tsp gold gel food colouring
- 82.5 g egg white(s) old
- 1.5 g powdered egg white
- 250 g caster sugar
- 75 ml water
- 120 ml pure cream
- 200 g salted butter
- 100 g unsalted butter optional
Ingredients
For the macarons
For the salted caramel filling
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- Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the fresh egg whites to form a paste.
- Place the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and place over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and then increase the heat to medium to bring the mixture to a boil. Add the food colouring and then bring to 119°C. Remove from the heat, and the temperature of the syrup will continue to rise slightly and will need to be added to the whisked egg whites at 121°C.
- Place the old egg whites and the powdered egg white into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until combined. Slowly pour the syrup (which should be at 121°C) into the bowl whilst whisking on a medium speed until the mixture is fluffy and glossy. Continue to whisk until completely cool.
- Fold one third of the whisked egg whites into the almond paste. Continue to gently fold in the remainder of the egg whites until thoroughly combined.
- Transfer the mixture to a large piping bag and onto a lined baking tray pipe 4cm circles approximately 2 cm apart.
- Set the trays aside for 30 minutes until a skin forms on the macaron.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C and place the trays into the oven and immediately turn it off. Leave for 10 minutes and then turn the oven back on at 155°C for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the tray.
- Over a medium heat, heat the sugar and water (without stirring too often) until it becomes a light brown caramel colour.
- Slowly add the pure cream, a little at a time, carefully stirring with a spatula. Take care with this stage as the caramel may spatter and will bubble/foam when the cream is added.
- Once all the cream has been added, continue to heat the mixture until it reaches 108°C and then remove it from the heat. Add the salted butter and whisk until completely smooth.
- Pour the caramel into a heat proof container and set aside to cool and thicken.
- To make a light and fluffy filling, beat the additional 100g of unsalted butter until light and fluffy and then mix in the cooled caramel until thoroughly combined.
- Pair similar sized macarons together and place one face up.
- Pipe filling onto the macaron facing up leaving about 3-5mm around the edge.
- Place the other macaron on top and gently squeeze together, pushing the filling to the edge.
- Put the completed macarons in an air tight container in the fridge at least overnight. To serve, bring to room temperature.
You can grab a template to help you pipe the shells from my template library.
These are my favourite flavour. I’ve eaten so many that I had to put some in the freezer so that I don’t demolish the lot.
I was going to check if there were any left or if you rationed them out by putting some in the freezer. I am thrilled that you love them. xo
That looks so professional!
Such a lovely compliment Radhika, thanks!
How did you get your caramel filling to set up after you beat it with the butter? Mine is still pretty runny. Did you refrigerate it to get it to look like in your picture?
Hi Mary. Make sure the caramel is completely cool before adding to the whipped butter, and you may find that you might need a little extra butter if yours isn’t setting properly. My caramel was reasonably thick so if you end up with a runny caramel, you may need more whipped butter to offset it. I did put mine in the fridge, but mainly just to store it, not necessarily to thicken it up. I hope this helps 🙂
Do we have to use old egg whites? Can we just use fresh egg whites? Will the mixture turn out really different?
I haven’t been using aged/old egg whites for a little while now Daphne and they work perfectly fine. I actually have been using the pasteurised egg whites in a carton (to save wasting egg yolks) with great success, just as long as they are at room temperature. Good luck!
Hi Cath! I don’t have powdered egg whites in my grocery store and can’t seem to find any in my area, may I know whether it can be substituted with adding more egg whites? If so, how many grams? Thanks in advance! Your macarons look soooo pretty! 🙂
The powdered egg whites are mainly used as a stabiliser and I know many people make macarons without it as it is generally found in specialty stores. Another option is cream of tartar, but I can’t confirm if it would be the same amount as I have never done it myself. From my brief search it looks as though it might be, it might just be a case of trial and error. Hope you enjoy them Ping!
Hi, Cath. I would like to make a version of this with icecream on the inside. Would this work? Im making these macarons for a group assessment and wondered if it would work with icecream. I was also thinking because me and my group would like to make sauce to pour on top. Would it go really soggy or bad. We were going to make food for our teacher. 🙂 Please reply.
Although I have never done it Tahlia, macaron ice cream sandwiches are a very popular dessert. If you search the web you will find plenty of delicious examples. As long as you pour the sauce immediately before serving, you should be find. Best of luck and let me know how it turns out!
Is there a gluten free version???
This recipe is gluten free, provided your ingredients do not have any “may contain traces of wheat” (or similar message) on the packaging.