Tiffany macarons

In my previous blog post I mentioned a wedding in Italy that we recently attended. The theme and the color for the wedding was Tiffany blue, which was my inspiration for these macarons. I wanted to make a close replication of the signature Tiffany color for my macaron shells. I only had royal blue and bright green, so I mixed them together and the color was pretty close to the original.
I envisioned for the filling to be white and the pearls to go all around the whole macaron.
Sometimes my desserts don't look the same way I intend them to and I must say, they turned out great and fulfilled my expectations.

The filling is a vanilla white chocolate ganache infused with vanilla Twinings black tea. The flavor of the tea is quite delicate and white chocolate in not too overpowering, so you can still taste a hint of black tea. I also added some additional vanilla paste for more vanilla flavor.

For a surprise element I made a crumble with hazelnuts which I sprinkled over the ganache. The crumble gives the macaron a crunchy texture and a subtle hazelnut flavor.

After the macarons were filled, I placed sugar pearls all around, one piece at a time. It took quite some time to garnish, but the end result was stunning. I really love the look of them and the flavor is even better. When you bite into the macaron, the first thing you taste is the vanilla and the creamy white chocolate ganache. The crumble was crunchy and slightly caramelized and had a good hazelnut flavor.
They make for a really special gift and a refined dessert at a party.

Tiffany macarons

(Makes about 35)

Time:

Preparation: 30min

Resting: 30min
Baking: 25min

Cooling: 20min
Assembly: 30min

For the white chocolate-vanilla tea ganache:

• 180g white chocolate
• 90g heavy cream
• 1 tea bag vanilla black tea (I used Twinings)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste (can use vanilla seeds)
• a pinch of salt (to taste)

For the hazelnut crumble:

• 50g hazelnuts
• 20g cold butter
• 15g all-purpose flour
• a pinch of cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 1+1/2 tablespoon brown sugar (I used dark muscovado sugar)

For the macaron shells:

• 95g room temperature egg whites
• 125g granulated white sugar
• 40g water
• 135g almond flour or finely ground almonds
• 135g icing sugar
• green and blue food coloring (or azure blue)
• sugar pearls for decoration

Making the ganache:
Pour the cream in a small sauce pan and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and place a tea bag in the cream. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes to infuse.

Remove the tea bag and put the cream back on the heat until just boiling. Meanwhile chop white chocolate in small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl. Pour the hot tea infused cream over the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add vanilla paste and salt, mix and pour in a piping bag. Place the piping bag in the fridge to set.

Making the crumble:
Preheat oven to 180°C (356°F).
Prepare a baking sheet with a parchment paper or silicon mat.
Place hazelnuts in a food processor and blitz into small pieces. Add flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and pieces of cold butter. Blitz until it clumps together and the butter is crumbly.

Place on the baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden. When the crumble is baked stir it with a spoon and set aside to cool completely.

 Once cooled store the crumble in an airtight container.

Making the macaron shells:
The preparation for the shells is the same as in the Basic macarons recipe. To make the shells Tiffany blue, add a drop of green and blue food coloring (or only azure blue) in a hot sugar syrup for the Italian meringue. I always add a bit more color to the mixture because during the baking the color fades a little.

Pipe the macarons on a parchment paper/silicone mat. Tap the tray with the macarons on the table a few times to pop the air bubbles in the shells.

Bake in the preheated oven at 150°C (302°F) for 15 minutes. Let the macarons cool completely, if the macarons are still sticky at the bottom return them to the oven and bake a few minutes more.

Assembly:

Pipe a generous dollop of the white chocolate ganache on a bottom half of the macaron and along the edges. Sprinkle over the hazelnut crumble and place the other macaron shell on top. Make sure the ganache is covering the edges of the macaron for the sugar pearls to stick.

Place the sugar pearls on the ganache around the macaron.

Store them in the fridge in an air-tight container. Wait 24 hour before eating them (if you can).Waiting or "maturing" allows the flavors to come together, the macarons will become soft and extremely flavorful.