Speckled Egg Macarons! But with a twist y’all! I recently received a bag from Lindt Chocolates with their newest range of flavor and that is.. SALTY LICORICE! So I decided this year for the Easter edition Macarons I would make a Lindt Chocolate Salty Licorice Ganache for the filling. Now that’s a game changer!
Everyone in the world knows Lindt Chocolate are one of the best, and when they release a new flavor.. well you just can’t go wrong!
Here’s how you bake them!
For the Macaron Shell –
- 150 g sugar
- 150 g egg whites (keep in fridge until use, they are better when cold)
- 187 g almond flour
- 225 g icing sugar
- A few drops of light blue color Plus some black for the specks
For the Salty Licorice Ganache –
- 200g Lindt Salty Licorice Chocolate (broken into bits)
- 240g (1 cup) whipping cream
- 1 tsp sea salt
METHOD :
For the Macaron Shell –
- n a stand mixer – I use Kenwood Chef XL (or using a hand held electric mixer) – whisk the egg white, while slowly adding in the sugar bit by bit. Let it whip until a medium merengue. Add your light blue gel color and whip until properly incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sieve the almond flour and icing sugar together. Once the merengue is ready, then pour half of the dry ingredients into the merengue and using a spatula, fold gently until fully incorporated. Then add the remaining half, and fold until shiny and smooth. The best way to know its ready when you lift you spatula with some batter on, and it falls down creating a layered ribbon effect.
- Then pour the batter into a piping bag, and pipe onto a tray (lined with baking paper or silpat) small egg shaped ovals.
- Leave them to rest for 30 min. Once the shells have a thin ‘skin’ ontop (i.e when u touch gently with you finger nothing sticks) then take a toothbrush (clean one Ofcourse lol) and dip into the black gel color, and run your finger across the brush of the toothbrush so that specs of black fly onto the shells giving the speckled egg effect.
- Turn the oven on to 140C (300F).
- Bake in the oven, each tray separately, for 24 min. NOTE : every oven is different, so the bake time could be anything between 18-25 min, just make sure that when you push the macaron a little with your finger that it doesn’t easily move or jiggle. That’s when you know it’s ready). Once ready take them out and leave to cool COMPLETELY before trying to remove them off the paper. Keep on the side until time to fill.
For the Salty Licorice Ganache –
In a small bowl add the chocolate and salt and leave aside. In a small sauce pan, pour the cream and bring to a boil, immediately then pour the cream onto the chocolate and leave for five min WITHOUT touching. Once the cream has cooled off a little then stir until the chocolate and cream have incorporated evenly. Leave in the fridge for roughly 30-40 min until slightly stiff. Then using a hand held whisk, whip up the chocolate until it becomes a lighter shade of brown and looks more like a pipable buttercream. Pour into a piping bag and set aside ready to pipe.
Assembly –
Count how many macaron shells you have, then divide it in half. Take one half, and pipe on a small dollop of the salty licorice ganache, and then place one macaron disc on top, close with a macarons shell from the other half. Repeat until all are filled.
And there you have it! Your salty Licorice macarons are done!
Enjoy!
Baked By Ammna 