Valentine's Day Munchies: Green Tea Macaron

And here is the first of many reposts from my old Tumblr that I felt was worthy of sharing. 

With Valentine's Day coming up right around the corner (less than a week away - yikes!), I figured that I'd repost some of my old recipes. Besides, what better way to tell someone "I love you", "I'm in like with you", "You're kinda cool, I guess", or "I haven't found a reason to hate you yet" than desserts!

First of all, let me tell you, that you are so lucky to find quality cooking grade matcha powder for under $10 (I found some for $8 in Japan Town, SF a while back). The current can I'm using contains about 4 tbsp of this potent stuff, and cost almost $16! But I guess when you remember how much store-bought macarons are, it isn't that bad. And I've got to tell you, these tasted absolutely amazing, especially the ganache filling (which was probably my favorite part). 

Green Tea Macaron

with Green Tea, White Chocolate Ganache

• 1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 1/2 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 tbsp matcha powder
• 3 room temp eggs
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Sift the confectioner’s sugar, almond flour, and matcha powder into a large bowl and mix the sifted dry ingredients until combined.

Make sure the eggs are at room temperature before whipping them. Whip your egg whites at high speed and add the sugar approx. a fourth(1/4) at a time when the egg whites become white and foamy. Continue adding that amount of sugar as the eggs continue to thicken to ensure that all of the sugar is dissolved into the eggs. Whip the eggs until stiff peaks form. They shouldn’t really budge when your mixer is lifted and should maintain it’s shape and volume.

To combine the dry ingredients with the meringue  first pour half of the dry mixture into the meringue and begin gently folding with a rubber spatula. When combined, add the other half and continue. This portion of the process is the most crucial to getting a nice looking macaron. You do not want to over mix, nor do you want to under mix. You have the proper consistency when the batter ribbons off your spatula (almost like flowing lava).

Scoop your batter into a piping bag with about a 1/2 in tip or a Ziploc bag with the corner cut to that diameter. Pipe about 1-1 1/2 in circles onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. (To achieve nicer looking circles, I traced circles on the back of my parchment paper as stencils.)

When you are finished piping onto your baking sheet, bang it on your counter top…HARD. You want to do this a few times while rotating your pan. This is what gets the air bubbles out of the batter. 

Another very important step is to now let your piped macarons sit out for at least 15 minutes - 2 hours so they can begin to form their outer shell. (I let these sit out for 15-20 minutes.) At this time, preheat your oven to 300 degrees. When you put your macarons into the oven, only bake one pan at a time to ensure that the heat is evenly distributed. Bake for 20-25 minutes. When they are ready, allow them to completely cool before removing them from the pan.

While your piped macarons are sitting out, take this time to make the Green Tea, White Chocolate Ganache! The ingredients are:

• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 4-6 oz white chocolate
• 1 tbsp matcha powder

Coarsely chop the white chocolate and place it in a heat resistant bowl over a little bit of simmering water in a small pot. Stir occasionally until completely melted. 

While you are melting the chocolate, in another saucepan, heat the heavy whipping cream and stir in the matcha powder. It’s a good idea to sift the matcha powder as you add it into the pan, for matcha powder can be somewhat difficult to dissolve completely. The heavy cream/matcha mixture does not need to boil, but it does need to be fairly hot. 

Pour the heavy cream/matcha mixture into the bowl of melted white chocolate and stir until completely combined. Let sit to room temperature, then put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow it to continue to thicken. When done so, you can pipe as is if you’d like, or opt to mix with an electric mixer until somewhat fluffy. This will lighten the color. 

Pipe onto your cooled green tea macaron shells and you’re good to go! (:

You could really tell how potent that matcha powder really is just from the color! I, for one, really love the taste of green tea, but of course you can't have too much. Feel free to adjust the amount of matcha powder depending on your taste.