Macaron is a French dessert that has a sweet meringue based confection made with almond flour, caster sugar, granulated sugar, egg whites and food coloring. The macaron cookies traditionally have ganache, buttercream or jam sandwiched between the two cookies. This cookie is characterized by its smooth top and a ruffled circumference which is known as the feet of the macaron. The best macrons I have had were in the luxury tea boutique in Singapore called TWG Tea. All of their macarons are infused with their high class tea. I don’t drink tea! However, I really loved how the tea balances out the sweetness of the macaron. The flavor of their’s I loved the most was the Napoleon Tea & Caramel, which gets its name from their Napoleon Black Tea. This recipe takes inspiration from that.
Tips
- If you are able to purchase TWG Napoleon tea, I suggest you to get that so that you are able to more closely mimic the original. If you can’t find TWG tea near you, you can use your favorite black tea. You will be surprised at how strong the tea flavor is, so make sure you like the tea flavor.
- Blend your almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor. Even if you buy superfine almond flour, it is still best if you blend it in your food processor. This will ensure you to have a nice smooth top for your macaron.
- Make sure to use gel food coloring or powder food coloring. Liquid food coloring will change the consistency of the batter.
- Making macarons can be difficult! Don’t get discouraged if your macarons take many tries to get right.
Macaron with Caramel Infused Black Tea Filling / Inspired by TWG Napoleon Macaron
Course: DessertCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Hard20
Macaron20
minutes45
minutesIngredients
- Macaron Shell
100 gram egg whites
130 gram superfine almond flour
130 gram confectioner sugar
90 gram caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Macaron Filling
1/2 cup (4oz) heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp black tea
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp butter
1 sheet gelatine
150 gram mascarpone
1 tbsp water
Directions
- Macaron
- In a food processor, blend your almond flour and confectioner sugar until it is very fine. Then, sift the flour/sugar mixture and set aside.
- In a stand mixer, beat your egg whites at a low speed until foamy, then add cream of tartar and vanilla extract.
- Gradually add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing the sugar to completely dissolve before adding more. Then, you can increase the speed to medium.
- Once all the sugar is incorporated and the mixture reaches a medium peak, you can add your food coloring. Then, whip the meringue at a high speed until it reaches stiff peak.
- Pour 1/3 of the almond flour mixture into the meringue. Gently fold the mixture until its incorporated before adding the rest of the flour and fold again.
- Once the egg whites and almond flour is incorporated, you can start the macaronage process. Macaronage is a technique where you deflate the air in the batter until it becomes smooth, shiny, and flowing. To macaronage, the batter, gently press down the batter to the sides of the bowl, then fold in the batter. Repeat until you get a honey like consistency and you are able to draw a figure eight using the batter as it falls off of your mixing spoon.
- Transfer the batter to a piping bag. On parchment paper or silpat, pipe about 1 – 2 inch circles of batter each spaced 3/4 inch apart.
- Tap your sheet tray several time to get rid of excess air bubbles in the batter. If you see some air bubbles that are not popped, you can use a toothpick to pop them. Let your batter rest for at least 30 minutes to ensure that it develops skin. This will prevent your macaron from cracking during baking.
- Preheat your oven to 300° F and place the tray in the middle rack. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Halfway through baking, turn the tray around in the oven to make sure that all the macarons bake evenly.
- Let the macarons cool off for about 15 minutes before removing them from parchment paper/silpat.
- Macaron Filling
- In a small sauce pan, add heavy cream and black tea. Apply heat. Once it reaches a boil, remove from the stove and let the tea steep in the cream for 20 – 30 minutes.
- Remove the tea leaves with a sieve and squeeze out all the heavy cream from the tea leaves. Set aside.
- Separately, soak the gelatin sheet in cold water for 10 minutes.
- Reheat the heavy cream until warm.
- In a saucepan, pour sugar and water over medium heat until it becomes golden and a liquid with syrup texture forms. Stir when the sugar syrup color starts to change. Once it has reached a caramel color, gradually pour in the warm heavy cream.
- Lower the heat and add butter. Stir until combined.
- Once the butter is incorporated with the caramel mixture, squeeze the gelatin sheet and add it to the mixture. Stir until you see no trace of the gelatin sheet. Let the mixture cool down for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Add the mascarpone and caramel into stand mixer and beat everything together on high using a wire whip attachment until it reaches a smooth texture.
- Chill the final mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before transferring to a piping bag.
- Assembly
- Take 2 cookies and sandwich them together with the filling
