Hazelnut salted caramel macaron Recipe

Finally a chance to write down my recipe for the salted caramel macarons and with my twist the hazelnuts! If you're thinking of filling & making the macarons in the same 3 hours; start with the making of the caramel first. That way, by the time you're finished baking the macarons, the caramel will be set and ready to be used. 

Salted Caramel Filling for Macarons

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 1/2 cup super fine sugar (castor sugar)
• 75g of salted butter
• 5 tbsp water

Notes:

• I doubled this recipe from another one I was experimenting with. This will be enough for several batches of macarons. Half the recipe if you are making less 
• June 30, 2013: Fixed up the measurements so they will work better at home 
• Using a candy thermometer helps. To reach the correct candy stage, allow it to reach 350F before removing from heat and slowly adding the cream 
• Careful, as the cream stops the caramelizing process, but will bubble up very quickly.

1. Pour the whipping cream into a saucepan and heat over low heat.
2. In another heavy bottom pan put water and then the super fine (castor sugar). Try not to mix this too much. In fact, not touching it is best. If sugar ends up on the sides of the bowl, use a brush dipped in water to clean it off.
3. Watch the sugar until it turns a light brown in colour. (350F on a candy/meat thermometer)
3. Once the sugar has turned light brown (or the right caramel colour)remove from heat. Add the cream little by little to stop the caramel from cooking.
4. Mix in butter. Whisk/mix until caramel is smooth.
5. Place in bowl and leave in fridge.

Salted Caramel Macarons

Hazelnut Macarons Recipe

Ingredients

• 5g of Dehydrated Egg White Powder (also known as albumen) 
• 28g of Granulated Sugar 
• 20g hazelnuts, toasted and ground up 
• 205g of Powdered Sugar (also known as icing sugar) 
• 125g of Almond Meal 
• 100g of Aged Egg Whites (2-3 days in airtight container at room temperature) 
• 3 drops of brown gel food colouring (I use Wilton's chocolate brown)

Directions for Making Macarons

1. Measure all ingredients with a scale. 
2. Combine dehydrated egg white powder and granulated sugar and set aside. 
3. Start beating egg whites at low speed (2 on my Kitchen Aid). 
4. Toast hazelnuts to a medium brown (not too dark or they will taste burnt). Cool and then grind up in processor. 
5. Process almond meal, ground hazelnuts, & powdered sugar. 
6. When egg whites are foamy (mousse-like) add in dehydrated egg white powder/granulated sugar combo. 
7. Start adding food colouring at this step in order to avoid over beating egg whites. For a caramel colour 3 drops is suffice. If you want a darker colour add more now as the colour will lighten in the oven. 
8. Increase speed on Kitchen Aid to 4. Beat egg whites until "soft peaks" form (stop, and tilt head back, look to see if egg whites form a small bird's beak). 
9. Sift Almond Meal/Powdered sugar/Hazelnut meal through a fine mesh. 
10. Slowly add to egg whites using Chef Nini's method (described in my lemon macaron post). Mixing in a clockwise circles seems best. 
11. Once mixture feels and looks like magma (flows slowly) put into piping bag 
12. Pipe out small circles. 
13. Firmly rap tray on floor or counter to get rid of any air bubbles inside the shells. 
14. Use a toothpick to pop air bubbles on shells. 
15. Let macarons sit for 30-40 minutes until a skin forms and is dry to touch. 
16. Preheat oven to 295 degrees Fahrenheit. 
17. Put one tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. 
18. Rotate the tray at 7 minutes to get even baking on all shells (By now the feet should have formed!). 
19. Take out of oven, allow macarons to cool. 
20. Peel from mat, and get ready to fill with caramel

Oven Notes

• Oven temperature may range from anywhere 290 to 300 depending on your oven. Best practice is to pipe a few macarons and test at various temperatures and times in the oven. 
• I discovered that it's optimal to not have more than 20 large macaron shells (or 30 medium shells) on a single tray. 
• Use a thick and heavy-weight baking tray for optimal results. 
• For this batch of hazelnut macarons I found the optimal temperature was 295F for a total of 20 minutes rotating at 7 minutes. This way the macarons cooked all the way through and were not wet in the end or at sinking tops when they came out of the oven. 
• Update: June 2013- now that I have moved into a new place and a different oven, I find that the oven runs a bit hotter. Based on my recent Earl Grey Macaron recipe, I am now baking my macarons at 250F.

Enjoy!