Adapted from: Lauren Caris
Serves: 50 macaron sandwiches (100 shells)
Prep time: 60 minutes
Rest time: 30 minutes - 2 hours, and overnight
Cook time: 30 minutes
Supplies:
Sifter/sieve
Food scale
Spatula
Parchment paper
Baking trays
Large mixing bowls
Electric beaters
Piping bags and tips
Ingredients:
200 g (7 oz) almond meal/flour
220 g (7.8 oz) icing / powdered sugar
content of 2 earl grey tea bags
4 egg whites, room temperature
80 g (2.8 oz) sugar (I used 'raw', but original recipe calls for caster)
gel food dye, as desired
Ganache filling:
200 g (7 oz) white chocolate, chips or chopped bar
150 ml (5 fl. oz) double cream (heavy cream)
zest from 1 orange
contents from 1 earl grey tea bag
These flavours blend so well together! I highly recommend using a quality earl grey tea. My first few batches were made with a mass-produced boxed brand--they were nice, but not strong enough to make a bold statement.
Macarons are not scary to make if the directions are followed well. I promise! My very first batch turned out beautifully and delicious. If you are new to macarons or have had a less-than-ideal experience making them in the past, I encourage you to pre-read and use Lauren's macaron-how-to post before using her earl grey macaron recipe. It was a great support through the whole process.
Some quick tips:
- Use a food scale, not a conversion to cups, as this is important for batter consistency
- Use quality gel food dye (I used cheap liquid dye and it did not hold colour--see above photo)
- The consistency of the batter matters, so follow each step carefully
- If using Lauren's shell template, pipe them slightly bigger, otherwise you will have a massive army of mini macarons.
- Definitely leave them out to make the skin before baking
If the shells do not turn out perfectly round, it is OKAY. I promise. It was a bit cathartic to sit and match up the mismatched shells to form perfect pairs.
Also, they are 1000x better the following days after the ganache softens the shells. This is a part of the macaron process, so have no fear. You're doing it right.
Ingredients:
200 g (7 oz) almond meal/flour
220 g (7.8 oz) icing / powdered sugar
content of 2 earl grey tea bags
4 egg whites, room temperature
80 g (2.8 oz) sugar (I used 'raw', but original recipe calls for caster)
gel food dye, as desired
Ganache filling:
200 g (7 oz) white chocolate, chips or chopped bar
150 ml (5 fl. oz) double cream (heavy cream)
zest from 1 orange
contents from 1 earl grey tea bag
Directions:
1. Prep baking trays by laying down macaron templates and placing baking paper over. Prep a piping bag with a round nozzle.
2. Sift almond meal and icing / powdered sugar in a fine mesh sieve or sifter. Add the loose leaf tea. Set aside.
3. Crack the eggs, careful to separate the whites from the yolk and not get any yolk in the whites. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add caster sugar slowly. When egg whites are soft peaks, add dye and then beat to stiff peaks.
4. Gently fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, careful to scoop and swirl all of the batter around and cut it down the middle each turn until it resembles lava (5-10 minutes). It should drip off a spatula in ribbons and take about 10 seconds to absorb in the batter below. See gifs on Lauren's website for specifics.
5. Gently add the batter to the piping bag and pipe into the circular cut-outs on the baking trays.
6. Carefully remove the circle templates from under the baking paper and rap the baking trays several times on the bench top to release air bubbles. Then let the trays sit out until the macaron shells form a 'skin' that, when touched, is no longer wet or sticky (30 min - 2 hours, depending on air temperature and humidity).
7. Bake macaron shells at 150 C (300 F) for 12-16 minutes, until shells sound hollow when gently tapped.
8. Once removed from the oven, allow the shells to cool for several minutes and gently peel them up off the baking paper and pair up the shells.
9. To make the filling, add the white chocolate to a heat-proof bowl and set aside.
10. In a small saucepan, add the cream, orange zest, and earl grey tea and heat until it simmers and thickens slightly.
11. Pour the hot liquid through a sieve over the bowl of white chocolate and heavily whisk the ganache to thicken and white chocolate to melt.
12. Once ganache is cooled and thickened, add it to a piping bag with a star tip and pipe the filling onto half the cooled macaron rounds.
13. Sandwich the paired macaron rounds and store them in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. The texture of these macarons are at their prime between 2 days and 7 days after filling and storing.
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