These Pot of Gold Macarons are perfect to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! They are festive and filled with golden sprinkles coins!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword macarons, st. patrick's day
Prep Time 3 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
0 minutesminutes
Total Time 3 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 16macarons
Calories 230kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramsgranulated sugar
105gramsalmond flour
105gramspowdered sugar
Black food coloringgel or powder
Hard Candy Window
400gramssugar2 cups
120mlwater1/2 cup
60mllight corn syrup4 tbsp
Black Buttercream
85gramsunsalted butterat room temperature (6 tbsp)
30gramsblack cocoa powder1/4 cup
125gramspowdered sugar1 cup
1 to 2tbspmilk or heavy cream
1tspvanilla extract
To assemble
Gold sprinkles coins
Golden luster dust
Instructions
Macaron Shells
Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF (read notes).
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare one large piping bag, fitted with a round tip, I use a Wilton 7.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat. Place the pot of gold template underneath the baking mat.
Measure out all of the ingredients. Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour. Set it aside.
Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water. Add the egg whites and sugar to the bowl and whisk the mixture until 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 the syrup on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium or to medium-high and whisk for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
I added a bit of powder black food coloring to the meringue at the beginning of whipping.
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.
Whip until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whisk 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 and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
Add food coloring if using any. I added more black gel food coloring because my meringue didn’t have a deep enough color.
Fold the batter until the perfect consistency is achieved. The batter should be flowing slowly and effortlessly off the spatula, you should be able to pick up some batter with the spatula and draw several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing, without having the batter break up. And even after the batter breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly. 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 over-mix. It’s always best to under-mix 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 a piping bag fitted with the Wilton 7 piping tip.
Pipe the batter inside the template outlines. On the thicker parts apply a bit more pressure in order to dispense more batter, and on the thinner parts, apply less pressure.
After piping each macaron, use a toothpick to spread the batter to the outlines, and to pop any air bubbles from the surface of the macarons.
Tap the tray against the counter or against the palm of your hand to release any air bubbles and help the batter smooth out.
A few tips: always pipe one pot of gold at a time and use a toothpick immediately after piping. You don’t wanna give the batter a chance to dry, and then when you do try to use a toothpick to drag the batter to the edges, it will be too dry, and form streaks in the shell.
And also frequently tap the trays against the counter to help release air bubbles and to help the batter smooth out.
Let the macarons dry for 20 to 40 minutes, when they feel dry to the touch you can bake. These macarons actually took me over an hour to dry, even though the weather was pretty dry. But since I had to use so much food coloring the batter was pretty wet.
I bake mine at 325 Fahrenheit, baking time and temperature vary depending on your own oven.
After 6 minutes baking I rotate my tray to help the macarons bake evenly.
Not everyone has to do that, again it depends on your own oven.
Bake for another 10 minutes or so for a total of 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven and let it cool down.
Options on the candy window
I’ve made this before by placing transparent hard candy (Jolly Ranchers) in the middle of the macaron halfway through baking. See my Heart Shaker Macarons. The candy will melt in the oven and harden once the macarons cool down.
You could also use isomalt for the window. And you’d pour it in after the macarons are baked.
But this time I made a candy syrup, as recommended by Sally, one of my readers.
Hard candy window
Place the sugar, water and light corn syrup in a small saucepan with a heavy bottom.
Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat, once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium. Let the syrup cook until it reaches 290ºF to 300ºF.
Remove from the heat and immediately begin to spoon some of the candy in the middle of the pots of gold.
Dont make such a thick layer, or it will be very hard to bite later.
Let the candy set for about 20 minutes.
Black buttercream
Beat the butter with a mixer on medium high for about 2 minutes.
Add the black cocoa and the powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.
You may need to add one or two tablespoons of milk or heavy cream if the buttercream is too dry.
Beat the mixture on medium high speed for one minute once it comes together.
Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
Place the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
To assemble
Pipe the buttercream around the edges of the pot of gold.
Place some sprinkles in the middle.
Top with another pot of gold.
Grab some gold luster dust with a brush and sprinkle it over the macarons.
Storage
These macarons will last for up to 7 days in the fridge, and 1 month in the freezer.
Notes
Egg White Powder: I am not using egg white powder for this recipe because the weather is super dry lately, and as soon as I pipe the macarons they have been drying out. And specially when making shapes, you don't want the batter to dry out too fast, or you won't be able to spread it out to the outlines, or have a smooth surface.Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid, as it will affect the batter, and it will destroy the protein bonds in the meringue that form the structure of the macarons. AmeriColor is my favorite gel food coloring. I added also powder food coloring by the Sugar Art to the meringue, but it wasn’t enough to make the batter as black as I would like, so I added the Super Black gel food coloring by AmeriColor.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.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.Troubleshooting: Please visit this article for troubleshooting tips.Macaron tools: Check out the tools I use here.Candy window: Make sure to spoon a THIN layer of syrup in the center of the pots of gold or it will be too hard to bite through, or use the Jolly Rancher technique like I do here.