Coffee macarons with salted caramel

The first time I tried to make macarons, I had a bit of a disappointing effort, but they sure did taste lovely though, they just didnt resemble proper macarons. But one of my favourite blogs Baking=Love had this recipe, so I just had to try it!

So now, when I made these and the little feet formed - I did a little ceremonial dance around the kitchen, jumping for joy. On my second attempt I have proper macarons, go me!

I've heard so much about salted caramel recently and I wanted to try it myself at home and I'm glad I did, because it is extremely moreish. I was quite upset that there was none left over after sandwiching the macarons together :-(



Ingredients for the macarons:-

200g icing sugar
110g ground almonds
50g castor sugar
3 egg whites
3 tsp coffee granules

Method:-

Line 3 or 4 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Put to one side.

Age the egg whites in a microwave for about 10 seconds or so. Beat with a handbeater for a few minutes until it starts to get frothy. Add the castor sugar to the egg whites beating slowly and building up to a high speed. You want to aim for a glossy and shiny mixture that forms soft peaks and sort of meringue like.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the icing sugar, ground almonds and coffee granules.

With a metal spoon, add half the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and fold in slowly. Add remaining half and immediately transfer to a piping bag.

Pipe rounds of about 2 cm wide onto the prepared baking trays. Bang on the counter a few times to ensure all air bubbles rise to the surface and pop them.

Leave to sit for about 60-90 minutes to air and enable the macarons to form a skin. This is imperative for the 'feet' that are so highly sought after.

Drying out to form skins

Bake at 150 C or gas mark 2 for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for a few minutes on the baking trays before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Look, there are feet!

Ingredients for the salted caramel filling:-

100g brown sugar
25g butter
75ml cream
1/4 tsp salt

Method:-

Place the brown sugar and butter in a pan and melt on a low heat. When sugar has dissolved, slowly add the cream and salt ensuring you beat continuously to avoid the caramel sticking and forming 'toffee' pieces. Although yummy, this isn't what you want.

Taste to see if reached desired 'salty' flavour. It shouldn't be too strong, just a hint coming through the sugar.

Once the macarons have cooled, pipe or spoon the caramel filling onto the macarons and sandwich together. Allow to leave for a bit for the flavours to fully develop, thats if you can wait that long!!

Delish!