Dulce de Leche Macarons

Hello friends, today I will show you one way of making Dulce de Leche Macarons. These are chocolate shells filled with dulce de leche, with a beautiful decoration on top!

Check out the video on this page or on YouTube showing you how to make these delicious Dulce de Leche Macarons.

For the filling, I literally just piped dulce de leche on the bottom shells of the macarons. But for that to happen, the most important thing is that the dulce de leche has to be at the right consistency. It has to be super thick.

Most brands you will buy online are not as thick as they should be. Even for really delicious dulce de leche brands such as Havanna. La lechera is less tasty than Havanna in my opinion, but it holds up way better, it’s cheaper and easier to find. You can find dulce de leche from La lechera at the hispanic food aisle at large grocery stores.

I like to make my own dulce de leche.

How to make dulce de leche for macarons

I have a whole guide about making dulce de leche, and about buying dulce de leche, I am comparing brands, providing 4 different dulce de leche recipes, and a lot of information you need. Read the Dulce de Leche Guide here.

My favorite method is the pressure cooker way of making dulce de leche. It takes way less time than any other methods, and it yields the thickest dulce de leche. Like I said, you’ll want a dulce de leche that will hold up on its own and won’t ooze out of the middle of the macarons.

For the decoration on top I placed the dulce de leche in a piping bag and snipped the end off with scissors, then drizzled it on top of the shells.

I sprinkled caramel crispearls on top and also put edible gold leaf bits on top, with the help of tweezers.

And here are the crispearls:

Here are some more Dulce de Leche recipes you may enjoy:

• Dulce de Leche Apple Cake
• Dulce de Leche Fudge (Churros Brigadeiro)
• Dulce de Leche Mocha Cake
• Dulce de Leche Mocha Cupcakes
• Dulce de Leche Cookies
• Dulce de Leche Chocolate Cake

And here are a few more macaron flavors:

• Snickers Macarons
• Chocolate Caramel Macarons
• Pecan Dulce de Leche Macarons
• Caramelized White Chocolate Macarons
• Nutella Macarons
• Pecan Turtle Macarons
• Banoffee Macarons
• Toffee Macarons
• Samoa Macarons
• Caramel Popcorn Macarons

If you want to learn more about making macarons, visit Macaron School, where you can find important information that will help you become a better macaron baker. From troubleshooting guides, to tips and tricks, and the science behind macarons, at Macaron School you will find it all!

Thank you so much for reading!

Dulce de Leche Macarons

Camila Hurst

These Dulce de Leche Macarons feature chocolate shells, and a delicious dulce de leche filling.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 26 cookies

Calories 90 kcal

Ingredients

  

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• 2 grams egg white powder optional read notes
• 100 grams egg whites
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 96 grams almond flour
• 75 grams powdered sugar
• 14 grams cocoa powder

Filling

• 1 cup dulce de leche recipe
• 1/4 cup caramel crispearls
• Edible gold leaf

Instructions

 

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/2” diameter tip. Set aside.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
• Measure out all of the ingredients.Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set it aside.
• Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the egg whites to the sugar and whisk the mixture until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
• Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
• Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high, or medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
• Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
• Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder into the stiff meringue.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• Add the food coloring at this point, if using. I have added a bit of brown food coloring to deepen the color.
• How to know when to stop folding the batter: It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.
• First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
• There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
• Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
• If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
• Test again.
• Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
• You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
• When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
• Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
• Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
• Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
• Let the trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
• Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray. Then continue to bake until done. I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
• Remove from the oven and bake the other tray. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

To assemble

• Place a bit of dulce de leche in a small piping bag and snip the end off with scissors. Then pipe a dulce de leche drizzle over the macarons, then add crispearls to decorate and edible gold leaf.
• Place the remaining dulce de leche in a piping bag and pipe on the bottom shells, then place a decorated shell on top.

Storage

• Keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month. Make sure to package macarons really well in an air tight container.

Notes

Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.

Egg white powder: Egg White Powder is not the same as meringue powder. Egg White Powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 4 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites for regular shells, and I have been using only 2 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites for chocolate shells.

Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter the batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.

Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy. Macaron amount: It will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.

Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray. Read more about how to figure out your oven here.

Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.

Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.

Dulce de Leche: here is how you can make dulce de leche at home. If using store-bought dulce de leche I recommend looking for a brand that has a very thick dulce de leche, otherwise the dulce de leche will be too thin to hold up as filling. My favorite dulce de leche to use as filling for macarons is homemade out of a can of condensed milk cooked in the pressure cooker. You will find how to do it in this article.

Keyword dulce de leche, macarons