Recipe: Macarons au Caramel Beurre Salé (Macarons with Salted Caramel)
Level: Intermediate
Techniques: Italian Meringue, Caramel
Macarons, or mini hamburgers, as one of my taste testers dubbed them, have become a colourful icon of the patisserie world. They were around before the hype of the cupcake, the cronut or even the duffin. French Patissiers Ladurée and later Pierre Hermé, have become famous for the Macarons they create.
The history surrounding the Macaron is vast, but it seems that like the Florentine, this treat was bought to France by Catherine de’ Medici. The early macaron was just the small Italian meringue shell, it was either Ladurée’s grandson (Pierre Desfontaines) or Claude Gerbet who came up with the idea of sandwiching together two macarons with ganache as a filling.
The full name for the filled meringue is actually Paris Macaron or Macaron Gerbet, this is either a huge clue to the true heritage, or a giant red herring. The name macaron has became synonymous with the filled variety and this is how they are now better known.
The little confections are so well recognised that they have even been added to the menu at the McDonald’s owned McCafes. Based on these adverts, perhaps mini hamburgers isn’t such a bad description.
One of the most revolutionary macaron producers is Pierre Hermé. From foie gras and fig to wasabi, or even olive oil and vanilla, he sees no limit to the possible flavours of a macaron.
I haven’t been as daring and I settled for a salted caramel filling for my macarons. The book has an entire chapter dedicated to the macaron, comprising 18 recipes. There is a raft of instructions and general guidelines based on the sizing of the meringue and the preferred colour for different flavours of macaron.
I began by making the caramel for my filling. I boiled sugar in batches and cooked it until it was a caramel colour, I then slowly added the double cream. You have to work really quickly when adding the cream as the mixture really bubbles up. Once all of the cream has been mixed in, the caramel needs to come off the heat and the chilled, diced butter is added.
The addition of the butter stops the caramel from cooking further. I always assumed that salted caramel actually had salt added to it, however this recipe simply uses salted butter to give it a slightly salty taste.
The final step before the caramel can chill is to mix it up with an immersion or stick blender. This is necessary because it incorporates the butter into the hot mix and ensures the caramel is completely smooth. The caramel is then covered in cling-film and placed in the fridge. The recipe for the caramel can be found here.
The next part is the macaron. These have a bit of a reputation as being difficult to make, but there are a few simple steps that you need to follow which will make your macarons a success everytime.
Before I go into the details of the recipe, here is a checklist of things to do that will help you.
- Always weigh the egg whites and try to use older eggs
- Grind the ground almonds and the icing sugar in a food processor
- Have a sheet with circles drawn on it, underneath your greaseproof paper, so you know how big to pipe your macarons
- Use a piping bag and nozzle for the best finish
- Tap the bottom of the tray lightly before baking the macarons (this stops cracking)
- Leave the macarons on the tray until they’re completely cool
If you do all of those steps above, you should get perfect macarons.
So, to make macarons, I used the Italian meringue method. I’ve mentioned this a lot and it’s a fundamental component of patisserie. Now that I have a Thermapen, my sugar work has been made so much easier. I heated a sugar syrup, added it to half of the egg whites and whipped the ingredients together until they formed a stiff peak.
To make the macarons a light coffee/caramel colour, two ingredients are added to the meringue, yellow food colouring and an ingredient I’ve never used before, coffee extract.
The meringue is added to an almond paste, which is made up of equal parts ground almonds and icing sugar. In French this is known as tant pour tant, literally meaning so much, for so much.
The first step of the almond paste involves grinding the icing sugar and ground almonds together in a food processor. The ingredients are then sifted into a bowl. It’s not strictly necessary to blitz your ground almonds and icing sugar, you could just sift them. However if you want a smooth macaron with a flawless finish you will need to do this step.
The remaining egg whites are added to the almond sugar mix and beaten until a paste is formed. This should be a fairly thick paste. Into this paste the meringue is added. Firstly a small amount is added to loosen the paste and this is beaten in quite vigorously.
The remaining meringue should be folded in gently, ensuring all of the paste is mixed in evenly.
The macaron mix is spooned into a piping bag and piped out onto my prepared baking trays. I gave the bottom of the tray a light tap, this ensures your macarons don’t crack on top. They are then baked for 12 minutes. The trays need to be rotated part-way through the cooking time.
Leave the macarons to cool completely, you won’t be able to remove them from the greaseproof paper without damaging them when they’re warm.
On the flat side of the macaron make a light indentation with your thumb, this keeps the filling in place. The macarons are laid out in alternate rows, some facing up and some facing downwards. The filling is then piped on one half and the macarons are sandwiched together.
The macarons need to be put in the fridge for at least an hour to set, however they are best eaten the following day when the flavours become more intense. These are delicious and well worth making.
Also this week, I made some cranberry and pistachio florentines for a fundraising bake sale, raising money for the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary. They are trying to raise money for a new equine hospital on site, the sale raised over £200 towards their cause. I hope they make their goal soon and wish them the best of luck.
Next week, I’ll be baking something from my most recent acquisition, a recipe book for La Patisserie des Reves.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
Dana DiPasquale
Looking for the correct link to the details of Thai recipe. Current link goes to a list of list of macarons and not this specific recipe
patisseriemakesperfect
Sorry Dana – I don’t understand what Thai recipe you’re referring to. The recipe for these macarons doesn’t exist on the blog as it is from Christoph Felder’s book Patisserie.
Thanks
Angela
Dana DiPasquale
“ Before I go into the details of the recipe, here is a checklist of things to do that will help you.”. RECIPE is linked to the wrong thing.
patisseriemakesperfect
The recipe for these is not shared as it is from the Christophe Felder book. Recipe links to all my macaron recipes for you to try one of those. Thanks
Angela Kwashie
I am going to try this tonight. Wish me luck
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Good luck, you’ll be fine, they’re so delicious, let me know how you get on!
Angela Kwashie
I will indeed. It will be my first time making macarons as well..eek!
Jodie
these macarons look delicious and my first thought too was they look like cute little hamburgers. 🙂 can you believe i have never eaten a macaron? i always thought there were nuts in them, which obviously there are but they’re ground up. will have to give them a try now. it’ll probably end up being at mcdonald’s! i do hope i can find caramel ones like these.
i was curious as to why you suggested older egg whites but i see your conversation with martin covered that. i’m going make sure my niece sees this post, she’s dying to make macarons and all of your tips will definitely come in handy.
patisseriemakesperfect
I can believe you’ve never eaten a macaron Jodie, because I had never eaten one until I made them myself 🙂 I think salted caramel is a pretty common flavour.
I’ve been making macarons again this week with varying success. I know what I’ve done wrong though (which is the main thing), they can be very temperamental and I have been experimenting with different colours and ganche.
Jodie
What makes them so difficult? Are they just that delicate? LOL, I can’t believe you’ve never eaten one until you made them! I need to broaden my horizons and explore the individually owned bakeries in different neighborhoods for more variety. Unfortunately the bakery I see the most is in my grocery store and they tend to specialize in breads, birthday cakes, cupcakes and cookies. I always imagine England to have quaint little bakeries all over town where you can sample plenty of goods. 🙂
patisseriemakesperfect
They’re really volatile, so while the recipe is basic there are so many little things you can do that can affect the finished product. Overmixing, undermixing, not beating the egg whites enough, not tapping the tray before baking etc. Sometimes they’re perfect and sometimes something goes wrong and you have to try to learn from it for next time!
There are lots of bakeries nearby of varying qualities, but there are some good ones that I have bought beautiful gateaux and pastries from.
It’s easy to get stuck in the supermarket trap, I’m just as guilty of it too!
patisseriemakesperfect
Oh and I meant to say, almonds are technically a seed, so they don’t actually contain nuts 🙂
Martin Cumming
Glad you got on well with these, they didn’t last very long when I made them. Your mix looks wetter than mine was maybe a variance between the Italian and French methods but yours look more like what I was expecting. I shall experiment sometime as I also have a thermapen now so sugar syrups are less daunting – thanks for the link on your previous blog.
Out of interest, why do you suggest using older eggs? I guess the runnier white is easier to weigh but I’ve always thought that fresh whites whip better.
Like the new site, hope you continue to have fun with these recipes.
Martin
patisseriemakesperfect
Hi Martin,
Did you use a French meringue method to make your macarons? I used Italian as that was specified, but I do find that gives the smoothest meringue.
They went down very well in our house too. The caramel filling is delicious, you were right! I have to admit I gave these a try partly because your email sang their praises so much!
There is a lot of speculation about which ‘age’ of egg whites are better to use. I read that older eggs are better for baking and fresher eggs are better if you’re purely making a meringue. There is some useful information here: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/perfectmeringue.htm
Personally I always store my eggs at room temperature and I do freeze egg whites for use at a later date.
However last night, I made Religieuse and I needed some Italian meringue, which is then cooked with a blowtorch. I had run out of eggs and I had to use some of my frozen ‘stash’. This really didn’t work out, the meringue was really unstable and in future I will use fresh eggs if I am using meringue in this way.
Enjoy the Thermapen! They’re great for roasting meat and checking the temperature of pies etc.
Thanks for the kind comments.
Martin Cumming
Glad my feedback was helpful to you. 🙂
Yeah I used the French method as I had 4 whites spare from the Gateau Basque and that’s what the French method asked for; also, dealing with boiling syrup without a stand mixer looked a bit like I was gonna make a mess and cover the kitchen in molten sugar… Book give both methods at the start of the chapter and I’m fairly sure says that either can be used and that it defaults to Italian.
I did some googling, seems that older whites are easier to whip as the proteins are more relaxed but don’t hold for as long so must be baked immediately, fresh whites are needed if the mix is to be kept uncooked or just partially cooked. Makes sense given your experiences.
I’ve already been getting use from the thermapen checking reheated meatballs and estimating how hot the oven is when used to gently warm bread dough to help it rise – my house is granite so is cold and yeast doesn’t like waking up. 🙂
Always fun discussing our baking, I’m gonna be making the chocolate pie when I’m home from the rigs and I want to test out the croissants and danishes too. Will let you know how I get on.
patisseriemakesperfect
Yes I think the meringue methods are interchangeable, however I find Italian meringue so much glossier. I agree with regards to the egg whites. I was a victim of only have old egg whites for this week’s recipe.
I am planning to work on the croissants and brioche too.
We also have a very cold kitchen, which is great for pastry, but I’ve taken to placing my dough in the airing cupboard to help it rise.
Good luck with the baking.