THESE Coffee Macarons with Caramel Coffee Ganache (different technique)

As you maybe aware now, the flavour of the month is macarons. Lol! And to remain true to that promise, I needed to find other means - the latest and greatest techniques at that - to make and bake this much celebrated, or if I may say so,  overrated meringue sandwiches of sugar rush. I chanced upon the blog of dailydelicious a long time ago but didnt have the time to go over her creations but when she posted  some photos of her macarons in her blog, it piqued my interest and awaken my senses. :))

Let's put the spotlight on the Italian Meringue this time.  The recipe below uses this technique. I must say, its more tedious and process intensive but the macarons are less sweet, smoother and glosser. I like using the swiss meringue technique (click here) since its way simpler.

And to draw analogy in the world of macarons; Swiss meringue is Laduree as Italian meringue is to Pierre Hermé. Just my analogy. :))

That said, I like baking macarons than eating them. They're too sweet for my liking. But the recipe below just might be the saving grace, to finally fall in love with macarons for real. :)

Make about 20-25

*Snagged from http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com, Macaron by Pierre Hermé

For the macaron base

75 g ............................ almond powder

75 g ........................... icing sugar

28 g ........................... egg whites

4g ............................... Coffee extract

2g ................................ instant coffee

..................................... yellow food coloring (optional)

For Italian Meringue

75 g ............................. caster sugar

18 g ............................. water

28 g ............................ egg whites

Caramel coffee ganache

70g ............................. Sugar

30g ............................. Whipping cream

¾ tsp ......................... Instant coffee

⅛ tsp ......................... Salt

30g ............................. Unsalted butter

30g ............................. White chocolate

For decoration:

.................................... Edible copper effect paint

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

 Put almond powder, icing sugar and instant coffee into a bowl of food processor, process until very powdery. Sift into a bowl, put egg white, coffee extract and color into the bowl. Use a pastry scrap to bring everything together. Set aside.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.

When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 118°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

 Mix together the base and Italian meringue.

The mixture should be softer and very glossy, a little stiffer then cake batter.

 Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm nozzle. Pipe or spoon mixture into 3.5 cm rounds onto baking paper-lined (or Silpat) oven trays. When you’ve pipe out all the macarons lift each baking sheet with both hands and then bang it down on the counter (you need to get the air out of the batter).

Leave the macarons to set for at least 30 minutes before baking

Bake for 9 minutes to 15 minutes depend on your oven. Remove from oven and cool on trays. Slide a knife under each macaron to release.

Caramel Coffee Ganache: Put whipping cream, instant coffee and salt in microwavable container, microwave it for 30 seconds or until hot and instant coffee and salt melt. 

Put the sugar in a heavy saucepan, place the pan on medium heat and cook undisturbed until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize-you’ll see a few wisps of smoke coming out of the sugar. Reduce the heat to low and stir occasionally so that the sugar melts and caramelizes evenly. While the caramel is still very pale add cream to the caramel at arm’s length, averting your face the caramel will boil up and may splatter out of the pan.

Add the butter and white chocolate, and stir slowly until smooth.

Spoon the filling into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm nozzle. Pipe the filling into the macorons

Sandwich macarons together.