White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons

These White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons are filled with White Chocolate Macadamia Ganache, and the top shell was dipped in white chocolate, and topped with a macadamia nut.

So today besides talking about these White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons, I want to briefly talk about macaron feet. I’ve talked about feet before, you can read some more about it here on my Vegan Matcha Macarons post.

And even though that’s a post about vegan macarons, which are different than regular macarons, some of the same techniques and troubleshooting still apply.

So, if you notice, the feet of my White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons are a bit taller than usual. I’m used to getting smaller feet.

But lately I’ve been doing my macaronage for a bit longer because I wanted to see how it would affect the feet of my macarons.

I’ve been looking for a way to get taller feet. Not as tall as I got today with these White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons, but I was feeling like sometimes they were coming out too tiny, like in these Chocolate Strawberry Macarons.

What factors affect macarons feet?

Macaron feet are affected by several things.

Oven Temperature/Baking time

Oven Temperature can affect the feet of your macarons. Too much heat can cause macarons to have feet that are too high, or splayed out to the sides. I cover this on my Vegan Matcha Macarons post.

My biggest advice is to have an oven thermometer in place always, and try to figure out your own oven.

On the Vegan Matcha Macarons post I go over this in detail. But basically, to do that, simply pipe the macaron batter between 4 different trays. Bake each tray at a different temperature, playing around and lowering and raising the temperature. At the same time, track with your oven thermometer, and make notes of the results you get with each different temperature and tray.

If the oven temperature is too low, the macarons might not even develop feet.

And if you under bake the macarons, they might form feet, but they won’t form a bottom, and will have a concave shape, or will stick to the mat, or parchment paper.

Macaronage

The macaronage can change the macaron feet drastically.

If you over mix, the feet can become too tall, or splayed out to the sides, similarly to what happens with the high heat conditions. It’s a matter of knowing your own macaron technique and identifying where the mistake is.

Meringue

Lots of issues can occur with the feet if you don’t get the meringue right. Over whipping the meringue can cause feet that are too tall.

Under whipping the meringue can cause your macarons to have no feet. And in this case, the macarons will usually crack on top also. A very classic sign of under whipped meringue is: no feet combined with cracked shells.

Lopsided Feet

Lopsided feet occur because of improper piping techniques, over resting the shells, baking at a temperature that’s too low, or not rotating the shells.

As you can see, when it comes to macarons, it’s very tricky to identify and troubleshoot from a distance. You have to be acquainted with your technique so you can be able to pin point yourself.

Which means that with time, you will be able to identify these things yourself, as you grow in your macaron baking expertise and keep on practicing.

Please make sure to use good quality white chocolate to make the ganache and to dip the shells. Using white chocolate chips or candy melts won’t work, specially for the ganache.

Here are my White Chocolate recommendations. Look for something with a higher percentage of Cocoa butter. Probably anywhere from 25% to higher. The higher the better!

E. Guittard chocolate is also a fantastic brand, with an even higher percentage of cocoa butter in it, which makes for an even better quality.

As you can see, I have dipped each top shell of the macarons in melted white chocolate. Once the white chocolate dried, I piped a bit of buttercream I had leftover on top of the shells, and then topped them with a macadamia nut for decoration.

An alternative, if you don’t have any buttercream handy, or you don’t want to make any, is to simply set aside some of the chocolate ganache (about 4 tablespoons) before adding the macadamias in, and let it get to the piping consistency.

Then, use that to pipe on top of the shells. You have enough ganache to be able to do this.

I hope you liked my White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons. Here are some more ideas you might enjoy:

• Raspberry White Chocolate Macarons
• Champagne White Chocolate Macarons
• Caramelized White Chocolate Macarons
• Nutella Macarons
• Butterbeer Macarons
• Brigadeiro Macarons
• Dulce de Leche Macarons
• Pecan Turtle Macarons

I have way over 50 macaron recipes and ideas on my blog, check it out here.

Thank you so much for reading my blog!

White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons

Camila Hurst

These White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons are filled with a Macadamia White Chocolate Ganache, and the top shell was dipped in chocolate and decorated with a macadamia nut on top.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 22 macarons

Calories 150 kcal

Ingredients

  

Macaron Shells

• 100 grams egg whites 3.5 oz 
• 100 grams granulated sugar 3.5 oz
• 105 grams almond flour 3.7 oz
• 105 grams powdered sugar 3.7 oz

White Chocolate Macadamia Ganache

• 198 grams good quality white chocolate 7 oz
• 1/3 cup heavy cream 78 ml
• 1/2 cup ground macadamia nuts

To assemble

• 113  grams good quality white chocolate 4 ounces
• Macadamia nuts to decorate the top

Instructions

 

Macaron Shells

• Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
• I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicone mat.
• Measure out all of your ingredients.
• Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.
• Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
• Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
• Transfer mixture 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 mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise speed to high 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 form a bird’s beak shape, but shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.
• Pour sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
• Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
• Add the food coloring at this point, if using.
• 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, I pick up some batter with my 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 a bit, I start folding 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, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
• 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.
• The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
• Place piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply equal 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 your 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 300°F.
• Bake one tray at a time.
• Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
• I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 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.

White Chocolate Macadamia Ganache

• Chop chocolate very finely. Place it in a bowl. Make sure to use very good quality white chocolate. White Chocolate chips or melts won’t work.
• Heat heavy cream in a small pan over medium heat, or in the microwave. No matter what method you choose, be very careful not to boil the heavy cream.
• Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate. Let it stand for a minute.
• Start stirring with a spatula until completely melted.
• Once the chocolate has melted entirely with the hot cream, add the ground macadamias and stir the mixture.
• Let it come to room temperature. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before using, until it has piping consistency.
• To achieve the piping consistency for the ganache, it will be up to the temperature of the ganache.
• If it has been in the fridge for a while, and it’s too thick and hard to pipe, insert it in the microwave for a few quick seconds, and stir it again. Test for consistency and keep going until you achieve the desired consistency.
• To be pipeable, the ganache should be thick, but easy to spread, like a buttercream.
• If it happens that the ganache is too thin, you might want to put it in the fridge for a few minutes so it will harden up.

To assemble

• Before assembling the macarons I melted about 4 ounces of white chocolate. Then, I dipped the tops of half of the shells in the white chocolate and let them dry completely before filling the macarons. You can place the shells in the fridge to speed this up.
• I had some leftover buttercream from another recipe I was making, so I just piped a little bit of buttercream on top of each dried shell so I could decorate it with a macadamia on top.
• Place the White Chocolate Macadamia Ganache in a piping bag and snip the end of the bag with scissors.
• Pipe a bit of the ganache on top of each bottom shell. Top with a decorated shell.
• Macarons are best after they’ve matured in the fridge for a day, or at least a few hours.

Storage

• These White Chocolate Macadamia Macarons will store beautifully in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months, in an air tight container.

Notes

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.

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.

Keyword macadamias, macarons, white chocolate