Give your mom Southern Caramel for Mother's Day and Macaroons

I haven’t been making macarons for a super long time, but I have made a lot of them, and one of my favorite flavors is chocolate. The fun thing with these cookies is the options are endless. Flavoring the shells can be tricky so if you are brand new to the game you can leave the cocoa out of the shell and just focus on the filling. That’s where the fun is anyway. For these macarons I decided to make a ganache filling and put Southern Caramel in the middle. Check out the recipe below.

 

Southern Caramel of course can be eaten on its own like the little candies they have, or the Caramel sauce with something like apples. They make for such a great Mother’s Day gift that the mom in your life will love. They have a gift box packed full of options to try out, or you can buy the full bag with flavors like Lavender.

 

So the first thing you want to do is prep all your ingredients. I usually prep the day before as you need to age the egg whites anyway, it saves so much time and counter space. Also if you don’t have a kitchen scale, get one as it’s best to weigh the ingredients. I also recommend getting a couple slipmats. You can use parchment paper but if it’s not totally flat, it can ruin your cookies.

 

I know some bakes don’t age their egg whites, but most do. You can try it both ways and see what works best for you. You do need to have them at room temp. After they are aged, just put them on the counter for an hour or two and they will be perfect.

 

Please remember that if you don’t succeed on the first batch, just keep trying. Macarons can be tricky.

 

 

Chocolate Macaron

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup (100 grams) almond flour

 3/4 cup (100 grams) powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

 2 tablespoons (10 grams) cocoa powder

 3 large egg whites (100 grams), room temperature

 1/2 cup granulated sugar

 

Directions:

 

Like I said, I recommend you prep everything the day before.

1.     Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.


2.     Measure out all of the ingredients, and put the egg white in the fridge for 24 hours.

3.     Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together and aside ( I use deli containers to store it in)

4.     The next day, take the egg white out and let get to room temp.

5.     Place eggs whites and cream of tartar in mixing bowl and gradually increase the speed until on high. When the eggs whites have bubbles add in 1/3 of the sugar. 20 seconds later, add in another 1/3 then in another 20 seconds add the last of the sugar. Keep mixing until if forms stiff peaks (when putting the bowl upside down it doesn’t move)

6.     Take the bowl out and add in 1/3 of the flour and powdered sugar mixture. Gently fold until almost incorporated, add in the other 1/3 and repeat. Then put in the last of the mixture. You can add in a little brown food coloring if you want it a little more brown.

7.     Keep folding until it’s like lava stage and you can ribbon off of your spatula.

8.     Once the batter  is ready, pour into a piping bag. I use a 16 inch bag and a number 12 piping tip. spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper or baking mat, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.


9.     You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.


10.  This is a very important part about making macarons. The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.


11.  Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.


12.  To pipe, place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Squeeze enough batter to fill the circle of your choice and twist up (if there is a little bump it’s ok, you can take care of it after all is piped.

13.  After you’ve piped as many circles as you can, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.


14.  If there are any air bubbles use a toothpick to gently poke them away.

15.  If there are still bumps, then dip your fingers in a little bit of water and tap on the bump.

16.  Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit (about 30-60 mins).  While you wait you can start making the ganache. Once you can touch gently and they have a film on top they are ready.

17.  Pre-heat the oven to 300F.


18.  Bake one tray at a time for 16-18 minutes.


19.  When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet.

20.  If you try to move a macaron and it feels jiggly, it needs to keep baking.


21.  Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.


22.  Let the macarons cool for 15-20 mins before trying to take off the mat. Let them cool completely before filling.

 

Dark Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

·   6 ounces dark chocolate 170 grams (chopped), you can use chocolate chips too if youw ant.

·   1/2 cup heavy cream 120 ml

 

1. Heat heavy cream in a small pan over medium heat, or in the microwave. No matter what method you choose, be very careful not to boil the heavy cream.

2. Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate. Let it stand for a minute.

3. Stir with a spatula until completely melted.

4. Let it come to room temperature. Refrigerate for a bit before using, until it has piping consistency. This may take an hour or so. It should be thick but still easy to pipe.

5. Transfer the ganache to a piping bag fitted with a round tip (or your favorite tip) and pipe a circle leaving space in the middle for the caramel.

 

Carmel

Spoon in a little bit of Southern Caramel in the middle of each ganache circle.

Place the other shell on top

 

If you want to use the caramel candies you can place 2.6 oz soft caramel candies unwrapped (73 grams) and 3 teaspoons heavy cream in the microwave and melt together. Let it cool a little and then spoon onto the shells like before.

 

Place in airtight container to mature for 24 hours before enjoying.

 

I know there is A LOT of steps and seems daunting but once you get the hang of it, it gets easier. Then you can really start playing around with fun flavors or even different shapes.

 

Before you go, take a look at Southern Caramel to see what flavors you would like.

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Disclosure: Top Notch Material blog will always provide honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products reviewed. We will only recommend products or services that we feel are of benefit to our readers. If you have any questions, please contact me at katrina dot gehman {at} gmail com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.