Pierre Herme's Salted Caramel Macarons

This is the second part of Pierre Herme's famous macarons that I have been blabbing about; And while in my previous macaron blogs, I succinctly announced that I prefer baking over eating them as they are extremely sweet for my taste, and that they will never see the light of day in my kitchen, I am actually eating my own words right now, with pun intended; These particularly macarons taste like Paris! And when I say Paris, it is synonymous to all things beautiful and nice. Who would have thought that the day will finally come that I can actually say, I dont know which one I prefer more, baking or eating them. They really changed my worldview overnight. I love them now and they are definitely a keeper. Don't get me wrong, I can bake macarons on end, but what's probably stopping me at the moment is the love handle that is slowly showing its ugly head. Hehehe...

I opted for the salted caramel flavour hoping to pull back to earth the romantic notion over salted caramel flavoured macarons - they frequent in novels and magazines I have had the chance to read in the past.  Truth be told, salted caramel deserves that special place often associated with romance. And if these novels and magazines were to describe the taste as seemingly being in heaven, then I say, "I couldn't agree more".  

Also,  since my brother in-law, Andrew invited us for an intimate family gathering for his birthday over the weekend, I might as well bring in special treats for him and our family. And as Andrew loves anything French, nothing can be more fitting than these macarons for his birthday celebration. 'Bon appétit'

*Adapted by http://theboywhobakes.co.uk/2009/08/pierre-hermes-salted-caramel-macarons/

Macaron Recipe

300g Icing Sugar

300g Ground Almonds

110g Liquified Egg Whites (separated and left on the counter for at least 48hrs)

15g Coffee Extract

15g “Egg Yolk” Food Colouring

300g Sugar

75g Water

110g Liquified Egg Whites

Salted Caramel Cream

200g Sugar

330g Whipping Cream

30g  Salted Butter + 140g Softened Salted Butter

Make the Macarons:

1. Sift the Ground Almonds and Icing sugar together (supermarket bought ground almonds are not fine enough so I always grind the mixture, called tant pour tant, further in a food processor and then sift this)

2. Mix the first portion of egg whites with the food colouring and coffe extract, add this to the almond/sugar mixture but dont mix.

3. Put the water and sugar in a saucepan and heat until it reaches 118C. Take off the heat and let cool till 115C. At the same time add the second batch of egg whites to the mixer and beat to soft peaks. Keep the mixer running and when the syrup cools to 115C slowly pour it down the side of the mixer and keep mixing until the meringue cools to 50C.

4. Fold in the egg whites in 3 additions and mix gently until it flows like magma (this wording is not from the book but is commonly listed as advice but has always been confusing to me as I dont really know what magma flows like) This time I used the description that the mixture should fall from your spatula in smooth ribbon and should disappear into the batter in about 10 seconds).

5. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe into rounds about 3.5cm in diameter on a parchment/silpat lined baking sheet. Let the pipped shells sit out for 30 minutes to enable them to develop a skin before baking.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C before baking for 12 minutes opening the oven door quickly twice.  (not too sure why this is but I did it anyway). Once taken out of the oven slide the parchment/silpat onto a wire rack to cool.

Make the Caramel:

1. Add about 50g of sugar to a saucepan, let this melt then add another 50g sugar and let this melt. Continue three times until all 200g of sugar has been incorporated and melted (can anyone tell me why its done in this way I have never heard of making caramel this way).

2. Let the syrup caramelise until it has turned a very dark amber. Remove from the heat and add the 30g butter. Add the cream which will spatter and bubble and may seize up and harden but will melt in the next stage.

3. Put the pan back on the heat and cook until it reaches 108C on a candy thermometer. Pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap to avoid it developing a skin. Let this cool, I left it about 10 minutes which was not enough as it melted the butter in the next stage so let it cool until it wouldn’t melt butter.

4. Beat the remaining butter for 8 to 10 minutes and then incorporate the caramel in 2 additions. Add this to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe into half of the shells and then sandwich another shell on top. Store the Macarons in the refrigerator for 24hrs and then remove 2hrs before serving.