Macarons au caramel au beurre salé (Salted butter caramel macaroons)

Salted butter caramel macaroons

I love macaroons and it is so expensive to buy them and on top of that, sometimes not so good.  This recipe is from Cyril Lignac, a French Chef.

Ingredients :
For the macaroons
2 egg white (80 gm)
60 gm caster sugar
yellow coloring
salt
120 gm icing sugar
80 gm almond powder
8 gm unsweetened cocoa powder

For the salted butter caramel
50 gm caster sugar
20 gm salted  butter
100 ml double cream

Mix together the icing sugar, almond powder and cocoa powder.  Sieve the mix into a bowl, the large pieces of almond powder that cannot pass through the sieve, keep for other use.
Beat the egg white till firm, this may take up to 10 minutes on high speed. Add the yellow color and sugar and continue to beat till firm.  Add the egg white into the bowl with the icing sugar mix, and with the aid of a spatula, incorporate delicately into the pastry from bottom to up. This may take up to 50 fold, until a smooth pastry.  Do not overwork the pastry otherwise the egg white would be flat.
With the aid of a piping bag, pipe small balls of pastry on parchment paper, well spaced.  Leave to rest for 1 hour.  This is to aid the forming of a layer of crust around the macaroons.

Macaroons resting before baking

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C.  Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

After baking

During baking time prepare the caramel.  Heat the sugar in a pot on low heat without stirring, until caramelise. Add the butter, then the double cream, mix on high speed with a whisk to get rid of the lumps. When the preparation is homogeneous, continue to cook for a further 5 minutes and remove from heat.  Place the caramel in a bowl to cool.

Salted butter caramel

Garnish a macaroon shell with the salted butter caramel and place another macaroon shell on top. Assemble the rest of the macaroon shell.  Makes about 20 macaroons.