Macarons with salted caramel cream

BREAKING NEWS: dangerous criminal is missing!

Alias: s a l t e d_caramel
Scars and marks: chocolate tattoo, salt sprinkles through the body
Characteristics: extremely attractive and dangerously delicious

If you see him, please don’t tell anyone — enjoy it yourself! 🙂

For the macaron shells:
makes about 60 shells

150 g almond flour
150 g powdered sugar
55 + 55 g egg whites
150 g granulated sugar + a pinch
50 g water
gel coloring (optional)

Make batter and bake macarons shells by following instructions in Cooper’s how-to post. After baking, transfer shells to a cooling rack and let them cool completely before filling.

For the salted caramel cream:
the recipe is from Pierre Herme book

165 g heavy cream
150 g sugar
32 g salted butter (a)
pinch of salt

145 g unsalted butter (b), at room temperature

In a saucepan, bring the cream to boil. In a separate heavy bottom saucepan melt 1/3 of sugar over medium-high heat. Add another third of the sugar, let it melt and then continue with the rest of sugar in the same way. Cook until caramel become deep amber in color. Remove caramel from the heat, add pieces of salted butter (a) and stir with silicon spatula until combined. Stir in the hot cream in two parts. Place the saucepan back to the heat and cook until it reaches 108 C/226 F or until it becomes thick. Using immersion blender, blend caramel. Pour it in a heat-resistant dish, cover and let it cool in a refrigerator.

In a bowl of stand mixer beat the butter (b) until it becomes light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Add cooled salted butter caramel and beat until very smooth. Transfer the cream to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip.

To assemble macarons:

a few pieces of dark chocolate
salt crystals

Find matching macarons shells and place one of them face side up and another face side down. Pipe salted caramel cream on to one shell and top it with matching shell. Repeat with all remaining shells.

To decorate macarons, melt chocolate in a microwave. Transfer it to a piping bag and make a small cut at the end. Make chocolate patterns on the top of macarons and sprinkle them with salt crystals.

Place all macarons into an airtight container and chill them in the fridge overnight.

I don’t think there’s any better combination than caramel with a touch of salt in the world. Do you agree?

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