Category Archives: Confections & Candy

Salted Caramel Hazelnut Macchiato Macarons

SPICED HAZELNUT ESPRESSO MACARON SHELLS WITH BUTTERY SALTED CARAMEL FILLING.

As if they haven’t gotten tired of making macarons already, about 100 more shells came out of the BooPeaKitchen oven since our vanilla bean macarons a few recipes ago. An unrepentant coffee and hazelnut fanatic, Boo loves his tiramisu and macchiatos and has chowed through literal boxes of raw hazelnuts in his years as a fatty. With Pea’s love of caramel, and macarons being a primary product in their kitchen, batches marrying these these flavors were obligatory.

Hazelnut flour is just like almond flour, and works just as well for macarons, but tastes even nuttier. A few dashes of cayenne pepper and cinnamon in the macaron shells give them a flavor that plays with your mouth unlike many other recipes, with just a bit of a tingle! The salted caramel filling recipe will make leftovers, but is a lot easier to work with in a batch this size. So make more macarons to use it all up, or heat it up and ladle it over a scoop of vanilla ice cream – it won’t need to go to waste!

P.S. If you haven’t made macarons before, read our quickie guide in our French Macaron blurb – it’s a lot less intimidating than some people make it seem, and we break it down into 3 main things to look out for!

Yield: 44-56 shells
Difficulty:

Oven: 310 F, 18 minutes

Preparation:

Line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.
If using parchment paper, optionally draw guide circles (diameter 2.5-3 cm) about 3 cm apart on parchment paper, and flip written-side down.

Hazelnut espresso shells:

Dry ingredients, sifted
120 g hazelnut meal
150 g powdered sugar
1 tb instant espresso powder, ground
0.25 ts cinnamon
pinch cayenne pepper
Meringue
110 g (~3) egg whites, room temperature
0.25 ts cream of tartar (or lemon juice)
95 g granulated sugar

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add granulated sugar to egg whites, and beat to a stiff meringue (tips of peaks should gently curl when whisk is lifted), ~4-6 minutes.
Add dry ingredients to the meringue. Fold until smooth and falling in thick ribbons (which disappear after 6-8 seconds).
Using a large round tip, pipe circles onto the prepared baking tray spaced 1.5-2 cm between the edges of adjacent shells.
Small pea tip: Keep the tip perpendicular to, and 1 cm above, the baking tray. Keep the tip centered while piping each shell to desired size; avoid moving it around while piping.
Rest at room temperature until dry to the touch, 60-90 minutes.
Bake on middle rack, 18 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside until cooled to room temperature. Meanwhile, making filling.
Small pea tip: Lower the oven temperature by 5-10 F, and bake for 1 minute shorter if using a dark pan.
Carefully remove/peel shells from parchment or silicone mat.
Small pea tip: If macarons stick to silicone mat, may run a thin knife across the bottom to help release shells from the mat.

Salted caramel cream:

Caramel
1 c sugar
2 tb water
0.33 c heavy cream
8 tb (1 stick) butter, diced
Flavorings
0.25 ts vanilla extract
0.5 ts instant espresso powder
1 ts salt
cold water bath

In a light-colored pot, heat sugar with water over medium heat to desired caramel color.
Remove from heat, and carefully whisk in heavy cream until smooth.
Whisk in butter until smooth.
Whisk in flavorings, and transfer to a mixing bowl in a shallow cold water bath.
Beat caramel just until peaks start to form, and remove from cold water bath.
Small pea tip: Avoid over-chilling the cream, since this will cause the butter to solidify and separate from the cream. If it separates, microwave and whisk until recombined.
Assemble macarons.

Assembly:

Pair shells by size.
Using a round tip, pipe ~0.5 tb filling onto one shell of each pair. Gently sandwich with the second shell.
In an airtight or covered container, refrigerate macarons in a single layer, at least 8 hours.
Serve, and optionally refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

OOPS!

Vanilla Bean Macarons

VANILLA BEAN MACARONS WITH CREAMY VANILLA ERMINE BUTTERCREAM.

How vanilla became synonymous with boring and unexciting is a mystery to me. Used correctly, vanilla is an amazing, unique flavor that is the furthest thing from “default” you could get. After all, vanilla beans contain over 200 distinct chemical compounds. Vanillin is the most important by far, and the others help make the aroma nearly indescribable. So if you’re one of those people who judges vanilla from its use in commercial ice cream and limited edition cola, it’s time to give it a real try.

We always keep a healthy stock of vanilla extract from our favorite wholesale warehouse at our disposal, but we’re breaking out the vanilla beans for these vanilla macarons today. Other than decorating your shells with tons of tiny vanilla seed specks to let your friends know you used the real deal, you also don’t lose as much of the vanilla flavor with baking as you do with regular vanilla extract. With a smooth ermine buttercream with plenty of vanilla to fit the theme, these vanilla macarons are anything but boring! – Boo and Pea

Yield: 44-56 macaron shells
Difficulty:

Oven: 310 F, 18 minutes

Preparation:

Line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.
If using parchment paper, optionally draw guide circles (diameter 2.5-3 cm) about 3 cm apart on parchment paper, and flip written-side down.

Macaron shells:

Dry ingredients, sifted
120 g almond meal
150 g powdered sugar
Meringue
110 g (~3) egg whites, room temperature
0.25 ts cream of tartar (or lemon juice)
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
100 g granulated sugar
(optional) 4-10 drops food coloring

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar and vanilla bean seeds to soft peaks. Gradually add granulated sugar to egg whites while beating to a firm meringue (tips of peaks should gently curl when whisk is lifted), ~4-6 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients into the meringue. Fold until smooth and falling in thick ribbons.
Using a large round tip, pipe batter into buttons (diameter 2.5-3 cm) onto the prepared baking trays spaced ~3 cm between the edges of adjacent shells.
Small pea tip: Keep the tip ~0.5 cm above and perpendicular to the baking tray. Keep the tip centered and still while piping each shell to desired size.
Rest at room temperature until surface dries to the touch, 45-60 minutes.
Bake on middle rack, 18 minutes. Remove from oven, and set side until cooled to room temperature. Meanwhile, make filling.
Small pea tip: Lower the oven temperature by 5-10 F, and bake for 1 minute shorter if using a dark pan.
Carefully remove/peel shells from parchment or silicone mat.
Small pea tip: If macarons stick to parchment or silicone mat, run a thin knife across the bottom to help release shells.

Vanilla ermine buttercream:

Roux
0.25 c milk
1 tb flour
pinch of salt
4 tb butter, room temperature
3 tb sugar
0.5 tb vanilla extract

In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir and bring roux to a simmer, and cook, 2 minutes. Transfer to a small container, and cover and refrigerate until chilled.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar and vanilla.
Beat roux into butter mixture by spoonfuls, and beat until fluffy.

Assembly:

Pair shells by size.
Using a round tip, pipe ~0.5 tb filling onto one shell of each pair. Gently sandwich with second shell.
In an airtight or covered container, refrigerate macarons in a single layer, at least 8 hours.
Serve, and optionally refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.

Eggnog Cream Puffs

CHOUX PASTRY BALLS FILLED WITH MERINGUE AND NUTMEG PASTRY CREAM. TOPPED WITH CHOCOLATE AND CRUSHED HAZELNUTS.

With the first official day of winter less than 24 hours away, we wanted to share a cream puff recipe, but with an obligatory holiday twist or two. When served chilled, these little puffs are as addictive as they are dangerous when you lose track of how many you’ve already eaten – but that’s perfectly okay when you remember that holiday calories don’t count. In any case, all the holiday deliciousness will just motivate those health-conscious New Years’ resolutions even more.

If you haven’t worked with choux pastry before, it’s really quite a simple and mesmerizing dough that happens to be used for churros, éclairs, beignets, funnel cakes, and so much more. High in moisture compared with other pastry doughs, choux pastry puffs up as the moisture steams up during the cooking process, whether baked (like with éclairs and cream puffs) or deep-fried (like with churros, beignets, or funnel cakes). Baking also leaves a hollow interior for all sorts of tasty fillings! We used a nutmeg chiboust cream, or a nutmeg-infused pastry cream with some meringue folded in to lighten it and simulate the frothiness of a classic holiday eggnog. We wish everyone a happy and tasty holiday season! – Boo and Pea

Yield: 30-35 cream puffs
Difficulty:

Oven: 400 F, 10 minutes; then 350 F, 20 minutes

Preparation:

Line 1-2 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Eggnog chiboust cream:

1.25 c milk
Yolk mixture
3 egg yolks
0.25 c sugar
2 tb flour
2 tb corn starch
3 tb butter, chunked
0.75 ts nutmeg
0.5 tb vanilla extract
Meringue
3 egg whites
0.33 c sugar

In a saucepan, heat milk to a bare simmer.
In a mixing bowl, whisk yolk mixture ingredients until combined. Whisk and slowly add hot milk into yolk mixture.
Return mixture to saucepan, and whisk quickly over medium heat until thickened and boiled for 2 minutes.
Sieve custard into a mixing bowl.
Whisk butter, nutmeg, and vanilla into custard until homogenized.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add sugar while beating to stiff peaks.
Fold meringue into custard.
Cover with plastic wrap pressed to custard surface, and refrigerate until set, ~2 hours. Meanwhile, prepare choux puffs.

Choux pastry balls:

Wet ingredients
0.5 stick butter
0.25 c water
0.25 c milk
1 ts sugar
0.25 ts salt
0.5 c flour
2 eggs
Egg wash
1 egg, beaten
1 tb water

In a saucepan, bring wet ingredients to a bare simmer.
Stir flour into saucepan until dough forms. Stir and cook over medium heat, 2-3 minutes.
Remove dough to a mixing bowl, and cool to lukewarm.
Beat 2 eggs into dough until homogenized.
Using a large round tip, pipe buttons (diameter 2.5 cm, height 2 cm) onto the prepared baking trays spaced ~3 cm between the edges of adjacent buttons.
Brush and smooth buttons with egg wash.
Bake at 400 F on middle rack, 10 minutes. Reduce to 350 F, and bake until golden-brown, 20 minutes.
Turn off oven, and leave door ajar to cool puffs until safe to handle. Refrigerate until assembly.

Assembly:

melted chocolate
hazelnuts, crushed
nutmeg

With a skewer or toothpick, make a small hole near the top of each puff.
Using a small round tip, fill puffs with eggnog pastry cream.
Refrigerate until chilled, 45-60 minutes.
Optionally, dip cream puffs into melted chocolate, and top with crushed hazelnuts and nutmeg.
Serve chilled.

The French Macaron

french macarons FOUR CLASSIC MACARONS. ALMOND MACARON WITH FRENCH ALMOND BUTTERCREAM. MINT MACARON WITH MINTY WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE. CHOCOLATE MACARON WITH NUTELLA DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE. ROSE MACARON WITH RASPBERRY ROSE MASCARPONE CREAM.

If there’s a dessert with a reputation for its difficulty, it’s the macaron. Bakers will tell you how finicky they are from the temperature and age of your egg whites to the moisture content of your flour and the air. They’ll tell you the recipe for the perfect batch one day might crack, collapse, and end in utter disappointment the next evening. That every measurement needs to be absolutely precise. Yes, there’s some truth to these worries. But no, making consistent batches of macarons isn’t just playing a lottery. Just like perfecting any dish or dessert, macaron making comes down to a few key principles – the meringue, the macaronage, and the drying (notice that the weather, age of your egg whites, and miniscule changes in your flour moisture content are not included!). Whether it’s a hot, sunny day or a cold, rainy day, these principles stay the same. It might take a few batches to know exactly what you’re looking for, but once you get it, you won’t forget it!

The Meringue. It’s whipped just enough so that you can fold the almond flour and sugar into it completely without knocking out too much air. You’re looking for peaks that gently curl over when the whisk is lifted straight out of it. This gives you the perfect amount of air so that during the macaronage, you don’t deflate the meringue before all the dry ingredients are properly mixed in (underwhipped), and you don’t have a lumpy, broken mixture (overwhipped)! And there’s no need to age your egg whites. It might make whipping them take a minute or two less but makes no difference in the final product. It’s less effort, too.
The Macaronage (or the folding of the solids into the meringue). The macaron batter is a suspension of almond meal in a meringue that has been deflated just enough to pipe out smooth round buttons that spread ever so slightly. This is the part where practice makes perfect. Just keep in mind that it’s better to under-mix than to over-mix, or you’ll have your macarons running into each other on the baking sheet! Some describe this stage as the “molten lava” stage, and others call it the “thick ribbon” stage. Call it what you want, but it should look something like this:
The Drying. After piping out your cute buttons, you need to set them aside until the tops are dry to the touch and don’t stick to your finger when you “pet” them. Just like with royal icing (the shiny, smooth icing you might find on decorated cookies), a crust forms on the macaron surface as the air pulls moisture from the meringue. This forces the air in the meringue to find another way out during baking – through the bottom, where it bubbles out and forms the frilly feet of the macaron. No need to postpone your macaron-making plans on a rainy or humid day! The drying will still happen – it might just take a little longer.

Once you get the hang of it, there are all sorts of small changes you can make to the shell recipe, such as using hazelnut or pistachio flour, or adding extracts for flavor and food coloring for fun. And there is a whole world of fillings to try. Below you’ll find the recipe for the basic almond macaron to get you started, with a French almond buttercream. Enjoy! – Boo and Pea

Yield: 44-56 macaron shells
Difficulty:

Oven: 310 F, 18 minutes

Preparation:

Line 2-3 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.
If using parchment paper, optionally draw guide circles (diameter 2.5-3 cm) about 3 cm apart on parchment paper, and flip written-side down.

Macaron shells:

Dry ingredients, sifted
120 g almond meal
150 g powdered sugar
Meringue
110 g (~3) egg whites, room temperature
0.25 ts cream of tartar (or lemon juice)
100 g granulated sugar
(optional) 4-10 drops food coloring

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add granulated sugar to egg whites while beating to a firm meringue (tips of peaks should gently curl when whisk is lifted), ~4-6 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients into the meringue. Fold until smooth and falling in thick ribbons.
Using a large round tip, pipe buttons (diameter 2.5-3 cm) onto the prepared baking trays spaced ~3 cm between the edges of adjacent shells.
Small pea tip: Keep the tip ~0.5 cm above and perpendicular to the baking tray. Keep the tip centered and still while piping each shell to desired size.
Rest at room temperature until surface dries to the touch, 45-60 minutes.
Bake on middle rack, 18 minutes. Remove from oven, and set side until cooled to room temperature. Meanwhile, make filling.
Small pea tip: Lower the oven temperature by 5-10 F, and bake for 1 minute shorter if using a dark pan.
Carefully remove/peel shells from parchment or silicone mat.
Small pea tip: If macarons stick to parchment or silicone mat, run a thin knife across the bottom to help release shells.

French almond buttercream:

3 egg yolks
Simple syrup
75 g sugar
2.5 tb water
Flavorings
1 ts almond extract
0.25 ts vanilla extract
0.25 ts salt
6 tb butter, room temperature

In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until light yellow and thickened.
In a small saucepan, heat sugar with water to 240 F (or just beginning to turn golden).
Continue beating egg yolks while pouring syrup into yolks a thin stream along the side of the bowl. Beat until cooled to room temperature, 6-8 minutes.
Beat in flavorings.
Add butter in 1 tb increments, and beat until smooth and holds peaks.
Refrigerate for 5 minutes until use.

Assembly:

Pair shells by size.
Using a round tip, pipe ~0.5 tb filling onto one shell of each pair. Gently sandwich with second shell.
In an airtight or covered container, refrigerate macarons in a single layer, at least 8 hours.
Serve, and optionally refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.