Matcha Macarons

Can never go wrong with some matcha macarons. I’ve made them lots of times, but here’s a post dedicated to them :p. This is my updated recipe that I use (taken from the awesome Botegga Tinnie). Hollows have always plagued me and this recipe and a low and slow bake mostly fix this for me.

Update Jan 2020, lately I’ve been doing 305F for 20min. once again you just nead to learn your oven (going to leave this recipe at 285 though). See my notes in my General Macarons Recipe for the most up to date.

Note: For some reason I always screw up when I try doing 2x the size of the recipe and then splitting in half to add flavorings, so for the white and green shells, I just made the recipe twice.

1. Macaron Shells: For about 12-14 1.5 inch macarons [NEED TO DO THIS 2x]

• 55 g almond flour (sift, no big almond pieces)
• 50 g powdered sugar
• 45 g egg whites (room temp)
• 45 g granulated sugar
• for white,
  • 1 g titatanium dioxide
• for green,
  • 2 g matcha

1. Heads up, oven will need to be at 285F in a bit.
2. Measure out and pulse your almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor and sift. This will really help with smooth shells. Add in either titanium dioxide (note, this really doesn’t matter, I just like the shells to look a bit whiter) or matcha. Whisk together and set aside.
3. Make your meringue. I speed warm up my egg whites by putting them in a small container and then putting that container in a bowl with hot water. Takes about 5 min to bring up the temp and doesn’t cook them.
   Beat/ whisk your egg whites until frothy and then add in the grandulated sugar. Some places say to add it a little at a time, but this has never been an issue for me. Beat until super stiff peaks.
4. Macaronage. Look up on Youtube if you’re unfamiliar on how to do so.
   • Fold about half your dry ingredients into the meringue until just incorporated and then add the rest and continue folding until just incorporated.
   • If you’re adding food coloring, do this now. Now fold until you get a lava like consistency. I fold by pressing and coating the batter along the side of bowl to deflate the meringue a bit and then scraping and collecting it all together. Repeat. You should be able to pick up the spatula and have the batter fall down in a ribbon. I do the figure 8 test, meaning I can scoop up some batter, and it falls off and allows me to make a figure 8 a few times. If it doesn’t fall correctly, I do a few more folds.
   • Put the batter into a piping bag with a round tip.
5. Pipe out your macarons. I use a silpat (would highly recommend). Rap the baking sheet against the table a few times. Pop any air bubbles with a toothpick and swirl the toothpick around a bit to have that hole close up.
6. If you want to speed dry your shells, you can use a fan or hold and rotate your baking tray in the oven to use that heat. The oven heat will produce small feet.
7. Lately, I’ve just let them rest on their own (~30 minutes). You want to be able to touch the shell and have it not be sticky. Make sure it doesn’t shine and you’re probably good to go.
8. For my oven, I bake for about 25 minutes. At around 3/4 of the way, I take a look and assess rise and browning. After 25 minutes, take out. BUT, super important that you learn how your oven works. You may have to adjust temps and time :o.

2. Matcha Ganache

• 70 g heavy whipping cream
• 6 g matcha
• 120 g white chocolate

1. First heat up the cream in a container in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This brings it to about sculding.
2. Sift matcha into a bowl and the add a bit of cream and whisk to incorporate. Add the rest of the cream and mix fully. I use a matcha whisk, but you could really do whatever as long as there aren’t any clumps.
3. Put the white chocolate over a double boiler and melt fully. I then take off and make sure there aren’t any more pieces remaining and then add in the matcha cream.
4. Mix until it is fully emulsified.The ganache will be not fully set right now, but that’s fine. I usually throw the bowl into the fridge for a few minutes (10ish).
5. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and if still not set, I let it cool longer in the fridge.
6. I matched up white and green shells and then brushed the white shell with some matcha. I add a little bit of vodka to some matcha (will dry much more quikcly than just water) and then brush on from edge to center. You can do whatever design or no design though. :p.
7. Assemble macarons and let the macarons rest in an airtight container in the fridge overnight for optimal chewiness!

3. General Tips/ usefulness:

1. My ganaches for 1 dozen macarons involve a 70 g white chocolate: ~35 g other ratio [[as a starting point]]. For fruit flavors, this means starting with 30 g reduced fruit puree. For things that need to incorporate into a liquid, I use 37 g of that. I steep or mix or bloom that ingredient in either heavy whipping cream or coconut cream.
2. Since I was making 2 dozen, I did a little less than 2x that.
3. Macarons suck, but don’t overmix, and learn your oven!

Gluck!
-Mario