Honey earl grey macarons
Feeling extra fancy? Make these earl grey macarons with a hint of honey. Delicate flavours for the fanciest and daintiest of cookies.
Filled with earl grey and honey German buttercream, which has the perfect amount of moisture to mature the macaron shells. Plus, it uses up some of your egg yolks from making the macaron shells!
Jump to macaron tips and tricks
Jump to photography thought process
Why is the earl grey colour purple? I don’t know! Perhaps I’ve seen something else that was earl grey flavoured and purple? Perhaps because purple is the colour of royalty, and ‘earl’ is a title of nobility, which is close enough to royalty in my commoner eyes.
So yeah, in case you still didn’t get the memo, these are EARL GREY, not lavender as I’ve realised they may be mistaken for.
I’ve always thought ganache was the best macaron filling because it has just the right amount of moisture for the maturation process (i.e., when you leave the freshly filled macarons in the fridge to absorb moisture from the filling) to soak into the shell without making them soggy.
HOWEVER, I may have been proven wrong by these macs! I still think ganache is one of the best fillings, but I’m adding German buttercream to the ranks too. I’ve always wanted to try using it in macs since I knew it had more moisture than other buttercreams, and I thought what better time to try it than with earl grey? The custard part of the process is perfect for infusing the tea flavour into it!
The buttercream has the perfect amount of moisture and it actually freezes in these macs really well.
But back to the colour purple. The topic no one asked for. Head straight to the recipe here or tips and tricks here
So anyway, LET ME TELL YOU the STRESS this colour caused me. I’ve done purple macarons before, but they were a different hue. This time I wanted something more lilac or lavender (yeah, no wonder people may mistake them for being lavender flavour - good one, me). Ok, I’ll do blue and red, but a bit more blue. Oops, too much colour. This resulted in the darker purple you see in the images.
But what you DON’T see (well, you might if you look closely) is that somehow the cooking (and slight browning) process turned the undersides of the shells… green??? My guess was that it was caused by the blue colouring. Apart from that though, they were fine. Just too dark for what I had envisioned. So yes, I made another batch.
This time, I did the same thing but just was much lighter handed on the colouring. If you’ve baked macs before, you’ll know that the colour generally fades a little after baking. This resulted in earl grey mac shells that were… grey. Perhaps more fitting, but again not what I had envisioned.
My final batch. Gave up and bought purple food colouring. Finally achieved the lavender colour of my vision… then used the first batch in the photos anyway because the colour and contrast with the final batch grew on me.
And that is my story of how macarons made me buy purple food colouring.
Photography thought process
I actually had a colour vision for these macarons before I even made them. I knew I wanted purple macs on a brown wooden surface with my yellow/straw coloured background. I even typed this in my notes app, specifying which surface and backdrop to use. Yellow and purple are complementary colours, so they provide a nice balance. As the yellow in the back is not so bold and is more muted, it doesn’t compete with the softer purples in the macs.
I decided to go for a ‘slightly rustic yet put together’ feel with all the browns. The boxes add to this too, with their structured nature. I decided to add the lavender in the background (again, not helping with the lavender flavour allegations…) for a delicate touch since macarons are a delicate, dainty cookie. The brown bottle/vase it’s in helps add to the ‘slightly rustic yet put together’ feel due to both the colour and its association with upcycling. The saucer adds some framing and again adds to the ‘put togetherness’.
The cup of tea visually links to the flavour profile, as do the tea leaves sprinkled on top of the macs.
Straight-on angles were mostly chosen to emphasise the layers of the macarons and so that the filling was visible. Stacking them gave them height, and having both the darker and lighter shells added contrast and interest.
I’m adding my myths/facts and tips/tricks here. They are mostly the same as the ones from my Christmas cookie box post, so feel free to skip straight to the recipe!
Macaron myths and facts
You can bake them without letting a skin form
You can, BUT there is a higher chance of cracking. I've found that this is because when it starts to bake, a skin does actually form. However, this skin is likely to be less even than a skin formed at room temperature. So if the skin is only partially formed, the parts with and without a skin will react differently and cracks are likely to form where the skin meets the batter. If you find that your batter tends to form a skin rather slow, and your oven is quite even, it might work for you. I still would not recommend it though. Think of the skin as a kind of safeguard.
This also means that if you let your macs form a skin only half-way, your likelihood of cracking increases drastically.
If you've mastered the technique though, baking without forming a skin first might be something you may want to experiment with!
You must grind your almond meal otherwise larger pieces will cause cracks
I never grind my almond meal (because I'm lazy lmao sometimes I even just push slightly larger pieces through my sieve because I don't want to waste any 🙈) and I have never experienced this. Your shells just won't be as smooth. As long as you allow your macarons to FULLY form a skin (see above) and don't have any unreasonably large pieces, you should be good.
You must be super gentle when folding the batter
This is only partially correct. You want to be fairly gentle when initially combining the dry ingredients and the meringue, but once they are incorporated, you actually want to get kind of rough with it. This process is the macaronage. You actually want to press some of the air out of it. I personally press the batter up against the side of the bowl with a spatula, scrape it all down, and repeat. I'd highly recommend searching up a video. I also have a quick video on my Instagram highlights.
You must only use aged, room temperature egg whites
I never use aged whites anymore because I never found them to make a significant difference. It might make them easier to whip up, but I personally never felt a difference.
Likewise with room temperature whites (though the following recipe uses the Swiss method, so this matters even less).
However, if you're having trouble with too much moisture in your macarons, you could try aging the whites, since aging them allows some of their water to evaporate.
If your macarons are hollow, it's because they have too much air
Not necessarily. Hollow macarons can be a result of overwhipping (or even underwhipping) the meringue or not pressing enough air out when macaronage-ing (or undermixing), but it can also be a result of underbaking. If the insides are still soft, they will collapse when you take them out of the oven.
You cannot use liquid food colouring
Using some liquid food colouring is fine. Once I tried to make red macarons and I only had liquid colouring. I used at least a good third of the bottle and my macs still came out fine (I was using an Italian method recipe at the time, and the ratio of whites was lower than what I use now). However, I would not recommend using that much, of course! If you're trying to get a deep colour, use gel or powder because they are much more efficient. Too much moisture may result in patchy, wet tops of your macs.
You can't make macarons in humid weather
You absolutely can. However, I preface my explanation by saying that I do not live in an exceptionally humid place. I have made them on humid days, but that is humid to my standards (I didn't check the humidity percentage). The problem most people have with humidity and macs is with forming the skin. I have a tip regarding skins not forming - scroll down to see 'Macaron tips and tricks'.
If making macs in humid weather, you'd also want to ensure you do not add any more additional liquid. My little liquid food colouring anecdote above? Don't do that. Although it was fine when I did it, it wasn't humid that day (and even then, I'm surprised it turned out fine). You macs may end up soggy or with wet patches on top. You'll want to ensure your ingredients don't have any additional moisture (I've heard you can bake your almond meal to dry it out, but I have not tried this) and that your meringue is properly whipped to stiff peaks. You may even choose to age your egg whites to allow some moisture from them to evaporate.
Everything needs to be weighed perfectly to the gram
I used to follow a recipe requiring 4 egg whites. I never weighed them out and my macs turned out fine. Always weighing your ingredients perfectly will certainly lead to more consistent results, however I've tried different ratios (this round I tried a ratio of 1:1:1.3 for whites to icing sugar to almond meal, as well as 1:1:1, and I've previously tried 1:1.3:1.3:0.9 for whites to icing sugar to almond meal to castor sugar) and they've been fine. Being 5-10g off also shouldn't make too much of a difference. You often discard 5-10g of almond meal after sifting anyway.
Does this mean you can use cup measurements? Absolutely not (please don’t). There still needs to be some degree of accuracy, and cup measurements are definitely not accurate nor are they consistent. Cup measurements can change drastically depending on how you scoop and level, how packed the ingredients are in the bag/ container, etc. etc..
Macaron tips and tricks
If your macarons are taking forever to dry/ form a skin and you have a fan-forced oven, place the tray of macs onto the opened door of your oven (or anywhere near the oven where you can feel the hot air coming out). The hot air will dry them.
If you put it on the door or very close to the source of hot air, you will have to periodically rotate the trays so that the skin forms evenly and you don't get lopsided macs.
I first noticed this when the tray of macs that I put towards the back of my stove to dry (hot air from the oven comes out from there) dried faster.If you're worried about hollows, cool the macarons upside down with their bottoms still attached to the baking paper.
Make sure the tops are fully set and cooked though, otherwise cooling them upside down will make the tops soggy.
Also make sure you leave a few upright so you can see whether they were fully cooked inside or not (i.e., if the upright ones are hollow but the upside down ones are not, it's likely that the insides were not fully set).When making the meringue, make sure you start beating on a LOW speed. This forms smaller bubbles and thus yields a more stable meringue. I usually start on 2 or 3 on my mixer.
KNOW YOUR OVEN. You may have to alter baking time or temperature depending on your oven. You also should know where the heat in your oven comes from. You may have to experiment a few times.
Err on the side of undermixing rather than overmixing if you're unsure. Undermixing can cause lumpiness and hollow macs, but overmixing can result in a sticky mess. The batter will also continue to 'mix' as you handle it when piping it and transferring it to your piping utensil, so this can be a good opportunity to see whether you have macaronaged well. If your macs still have streaks or peaks from piping, they are undermixed.
Again, I suggest watching a video.Err on the side of overbaking. Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I actually think overbaking is better than underbaking macarons. If you underbake, they can get soggy, still be sticky, the insides can sink and become hollow, and the tops may become wet. If you overbake, the colour will be duller and the shells may be too crisp. The colour is just a minor visual thing, and the shells will soften after the maturation process (the shells will soak up moisture from the filling).
Make sure you bang the trays and pop the air bubbles each time you finish piping a tray and NOT once you finish piping all the batter. If your batter dries quickly, you'll have unsightly marks where you popped the bubbles (I am so guilty of this…).
Macarons are mostly about the technique. Once you nail the technique, then you can start experimenting with different ingredient ratios and whatnot.
Experiment with using the French, Italian, and Swiss methods to see which one works best for you. This recipe uses the Swiss method, though I used to use the Italian method then switched to the French and now I'm switching to the Swiss. If anything, this should tell you just how much about technique it is, rather than specific recipes.
On the note of experimentation, experiment with oven temperatures. A factor that affects the way the feet form (excluding the meringue and macaronage) is the temperature. Honestly, I've seen different people prefer different types of mac feet, so you do you. For my oven, I find that the feet tend to spread out in a way I do not like with a lower temperature.
I suggest making macarons using ratios so that you don't have to struggle with getting the right amount of whites. Weigh out your egg whites and weigh everything else out according to the ratio. For instance, I used 4 egg whites which totalled 152g. Thus, I weighed out 152g castor sugar, 152g icing sugar, and 197g almond meal (I used a ratio of 1:1.3 for whites to almond meal, though I tried a ratio of 1:1 the next day and it was all fine and dandy. The lower ratio of almond meal to icing sugar caused them to be smoother in fact, though keep in mind I do not process my almond meal. A higher sugar ratio also tends to yield shinier shells).
Tips for making honey earl grey Swiss meringue macarons
Feel free to increase the almond meal in the recipe to 195g. This will result in slightly less sweet, though slightly rougher, shells. I have a photo comparison of some old macs in my story highlights on Instagram if you’re interested.
Don’t add too much honey to the buttercream. I found that the more honey added, the quicker it became soft at room temperature when piping. If you want more honey flavour, I’d suggest making a tiny well in the buttercream when you pipe it and adding a tiny bit of honey. The flavour of honey can be quite overwhelming, so don’t add too much.
If you’ve stored the custard in the fridge, it will be quite firm. Before whipping, ensure it is smooth. Feel free to lightly warm it in the microwave first and whip by hand to smooth it out. Then, leave to cool to room temperature.
Feel free to increase the amount of earl grey in the recipe if you like a real strong earl grey flavour. The earl grey flavour will mellow out when you beat in the butter, so don’t be alarmed by the strength when it’s only in custard form.
The recipe for the buttercream yields enough for roughly 2-3 batches of macarons, so feel free to halve. It is mostly written like this to help you use up any egg yolks you’ve used for the shells. The leftover buttercream can be used for other treats, such as cupcakes (this is what I did!).
Recipe
For making and assembling the macaron shells
Makes roughly 35 4cm macarons (70 shells)
INGREDIENTS:
150g egg whites
150g castor sugar
150g almond meal (can increase to 195g if desired. See tips above)
150g pure icing sugar*
Purple gel food colouring (optional)
1 batch of honey earl grey German buttercream (see recipe below)
*I have had some success with icing sugar mixture, but I have not tested its use extensively, so I'd suggest sticking to pure icing sugar
METHOD:
1. Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Make sure the baking paper lays down flat and doesn't go up the sides of the tray. This prevents lopsided macarons. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, sift in the almond meal and icing sugar. Discard any overly large almond pieces. You may choose to process the almond meal with the icing sugar for a finer texture. Do NOT process the almond meal by itself or for too long - it will become almond butter. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized heatproof bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, place the egg whites and castor sugar and briefly whisk to combine. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, ensuring the bowl does not directly touch the water. Whisk continuously until the sugar has melted. You can test this by rubbing some between your fingers. The whites should also feel hot.
4. Remove from the heat and start beating on low with a hand or stand mixer. Once all of the whites are frothy, you can increase the speed to medium low. Once soft peaks are just beginning to form, you may increase the speed to medium and gradually to medium high. You can also add in any colouring here. Beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Add the meringue to the dry ingredients and fold gently to combine. Once just combined, you can begin the macaronage process. Using a spatula, bring up some batter and press/ smear it against the side of the bowl. Repeat until you have batter all around the side of the bowl then scrape it all down (you can see how I macaronage in my Instagram highlights). Repeat this process until you can draw a figure 8 using the batter flowing off the spatula without the batter ribbon breaking, or until when you drop batter into the bowl it sinks back into itself in roughly 30 seconds.
6. Pour the batter into a piping bag or piping tool (I actually use a cookie gun) and start piping them out onto the lined baking trays, ensuring you leave roughly 3-5cm of space between them (depends on how much batter you pipe in one spot). Hold the tray roughly 5-8cm above the surface (your floor or tabletop) and drop it. Rotate the tray and repeat. This is to bring any air bubbles to the surface. using a toothpick or a similar utensil, pop the bubbles and swirl the batter to fill in the hole.
7. Allow the macarons to sit until a skin forms. You'll know they are ready when they look matte and the batter no longer sticks to your finger when you touch them. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 150°C.
Once the oven has preheated and the skins have formed, bake them for roughly 15 minutes or until the tops and feet are firm and they do not stick completely to the baking paper (mild sticking is ok).
Cool on the tray until fully cooled.
8. Pipe some buttercream (recipe below) onto one shell and place another shell on top. Gently press to sandwich. Repeat until you've used up all your shells.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator and allow 24-48 hours to mature before consuming.
For the honey earl grey German buttercream
Makes enough for about 2-3 batches of macarons, so feel free to halve
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2c milk
6g loose leaf earl grey, approx. 1 1/2tbsp (minimum - increase if you want a real punchy earl grey flavour)
30g corn flour
170g castor sugar, divided into two (85g + 85g)
4 egg yolks
350g unsalted butter, softened
1tbsp honey, or to taste
METHOD:
1. In a small pot, bring the milk to a boil and add in the tea. Gently simmer for 3-5 minutes or until well steeped. Alternatively, turn off the heat and leave to steep for up to 8 hours.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together the corn flour and 85g of the sugar until evenly combined. Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth.
3. Gently heat up the milk again with the remaining 85g of sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Spoon some milk into the egg yolk mixture a little at a time, whisking constantly to avoid the eggs cooking. Keep adding a little at a time until you feel the yolk mixture has a little warmth.
4. Pour it back into the pot and, over a medium heat, whisk continuously until it has thickened and bubbled. It should be quite thick. Set aside to cool. If storing in the fridge, cover with cling wrap, ensuring the wrap touches the surface of the mixture. This is the custard.
5. In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Loosen the custard by stirring by hand and gently warming if required. It should be at room temperature. Spoon the custard into the butter a little at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Keep beating until it comes together and is thick and fluffy. If it doesn’t look like it’s coming together, keep beating on high speed. If it’s still not coming together, it may be too warm and need a few minutes in the fridge and another round of beating on high speed.
6. Beat in honey to taste and pipe onto your macaron shells.
That’s it!
These macarons can be enjoyed straight from the fridge, or after being left at room temperature for several minutes. They freeze well too! Place them in an airtight container.
