Matcha Green Tea Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

- Betty

I’ve heard so much about how difficult it is to make macarons, as a baking enthusiast, I’ve set out to tackle this baking mission. 🙂 It started out, of course, unsuccessful, I wanted to strangle the person who invented this evil dessert (just kidding). At my fifth attempt, they finally look like good macarons. If they turned out right, they should have a slightly crispy shell, a tender and slightly chewy center. I can’t say I am an expert at making these of course, I am sure I will encounter more problems.

I’ve always liked the flavour combination of Matcha (Japanese high quality green tea) and chocolate, it is the perfect match of east and west flavours in my opinion.

So this recipe was adapted from My Food Geek’s “Almost Foolproof Macarons” recipe. It uses the Italian meringue method, it requires cooking a sugar syrup and combining it with whipped egg whites, creating a meringue. One of the advantages of the Italian meringue is that it is more stable than the French method (whipping together sugar and egg whites) because the egg whites are cooked by the hot syrup.

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Matcha Green Tea Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

    Macaron Shells:
  • 120 grams Egg Whites (room temperature)
  • 35 grams Granulated White Sugar
  • 150 grams Ground Almonds
  • 150 grams Icing Sugar
  • 2 tbsp. Matcha Green Tea Powder
    • Syrup:
  • 150 grams Sugar
  • 50 grams Water
    • Chocolate Ganache:
  • 115 grams Semi Sweet Chocolate - chopped (I used melting wafers)
  • ½ cup Whipping Cream
  • 2 tbsp. Unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (room temperature)

Method

    For the macaron shells:
  1. In a small sauce pan, cook syrup: combine sugar and water and cook until the temperature reaches 230 F/110 C.
  2. In a stand mixer, beat 60 grams of egg whites and 35 grams of sugar until it forms soft peaks.
  3. When the syrup is ready, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in hot syrup. *Be careful as the syrup is VERY hot.
  4. Slowly increase mixer speed to the highest setting, beat meringue until it cools down and becomes shiny. (10-15 minutes).
  5. Blend ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor, sift mixture into a large bowl, mix in matcha green tea powder.
  6. Add in the other 60 grams of egg whites into the almonds and icing sugar mixture - no need to mix together. At this point, you can also add in gel food colouring into the egg whites to boost the colour (optional).
  7. When the Italian meringue as cooled down, gently fold it into the ground almonds mixture. Mix with a spatula until it has reached a "lava" stage. *This is where it might be tricky because it is easy to over-mix or under-mix.
  8. Scoop meringue into a piping bag with a plain tip (10 mm), pipe out 4 cm rounds.
  9. Tap baking sheet to get rid of large bubbles, let them sit on the counter for 30-40 minutes so the tops get dry.
  10. Bake at 325 F/160C for 10-15 minutes. After about 5 minutes, the macarons will start to develop their "feet".
  11. Let cool and carefully remove from baking sheet.
    12. For the Chocolate Ganache:
  12. Place chocolate in a small mixing bowl.
  13. In a small pan, heat whipping cream just until in boils, pour hot cream into chocolate. Let it sit for about 30 seconds, untouched.
  14. After about 30 seconds, you can start mixing it with a spatula.
  15. When it becomes smooth, you can start mixing in the cubed butter little by little.
  16. Refrigerate mixture until it is the right consistency so it can be piped.
    17. Assembling:
  17. Match the size for each pair of macaron shells.
  18. Pipe in the appropriate amount of filling, carefully press them together until the filling reaches the sides of the macaron shells.
  19. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours (maturation).
  20. Macarons are best consumed at room temperature so before serving them, take them out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for about 1 hour.
http://yummyworkshop.com/2012/03/03/matcha-green-tea-macarons/

Troubleshooting from my experience:

These are some of the problems I encountered when
baking macarons.

  • Cracked Tops: oven temperature was too high from the bottom, so I had to used 2 stacked baking sheets for these.
  • Protruding Feet/Tops Sliding Off: I think I under-mixed this batch, they are a bit high in height. The sliding tops might be a result of my baking sheets having an uneven surface.

  • Sticky Bottoms: I have way over-mixed this batch, it was too liquid-y when I piped it. They also turned out VERY thin and impossible to get off of the baking sheets without destroying them.
  • Uneven Feet: I have no idea what caused this, I think I have over-mixed a little because they are quite thin as well. I also think I did a bad job of making the sugar syrup because there were little chunks of sugar in the meringue.

Notes that I have for successful macaron baking:

  • Invest in an oven thermometer. My oven is probably more than 20 years old so the temperature is always off so having a thermometer is helpful in determing the right temperature.
  • Know your oven VERY well. Okay, every oven is a bit different so you will need to adjust temperatures, racks, baking times etc. according to your oven at home.
  • Don’t over-mix or under-mix. As you can see from my photos above, getting the meringue in the right consistency is one of the important factors. Too much will make the batter runny and too little might cause weird feet. I can’t really tell you in words what is “right” so you will need to experiment a bit.
  • Get good baking sheets. Non-stick surface baking sheets are actually very bad in conducting heat and may warp easily so I got myself aluminum baking sheets which are much better in conducting heat and the surface is nice and flat. I also bought silpats, it is not necessary but it saved me a lot of parchment paper.
  • Give your meringue a lot of LOVE. Macarons are quite delicate so if you treat it with care, they will turn out nicer (It’s TRUE!).

Myths:

    • Powdered Sugar vs. Icing Sugar – you don’t HAVE to use powdered sugar (100% sugar), icing sugar (contains up to 5% corn starch) will work fine.
    • Aged Egg Whites vs. Fresh Egg Whites – I have tried baking with aged and fresh – they both work, just make sure they are at room temperature and isn’t contaminated with any yolk, oil or water.

[UPDATE: Mar 6/2012 Food Geek has given some extra helpful tips located in the comment section below!]

Finally, happy baking! 😀

Macarons

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18 thoughts on “Matcha Green Tea Macarons with Chocolate Ganache”

  1. Holy cow, this looks amazing! I’ve always wanted to make these, and I am SO impressed that you managed it! I think the future of food is going to involve a lot more people making delicious stuff on their own. Kudos. 🙂

  2. I’m so happy that these came out! Over the years so many people have tried these and have had good success with them. Perseverance and a little luck help 🙂

    You did such a nice job piping them. Here’s a few extra tips:

    The uneven feet were due to uneven piping. You somehow had the tip angled instead of completely vertical. Your protruding feet macarons needed a little more mixing. You can tell because they still have the little swirl on the top from when you piped them. If you saw this while you were piping them, you could have rescued them by massaging the pastry bag a little bit to mix the batter a little bit more.

    If you have a batch that won’t come off the silpat, stick them in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. You’ll be able to rescue a few of the good ones and easily get the bad ones off the silpat so you’re ready for the next round.

    Good luck! They do get easier to make over time.

    1. Thanks for the extra tips! I will definitely keep those in mind when making it next time! 🙂

  4. great post…in our classes, we swear by our black steel pans. we sell them for $50

    definitely worth the investment for beautiful macarons.

    1. Hi Mika,
      I don’t have a convection oven at home, I just baked my macarons in a regular conventional oven. So my baking times and tips are not based on a fan forced oven. Hope this helps! 🙂

        1. You are welcome! I sure hope the recipe works well for you, but I can’t guarantee that your ingredients and oven are the same as mine…there are so many variables in baking macarons good luck =)

  9. Pingback: Chocolate Cake with Whipped Matcha Ganache - Yummy Workshop

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