Salted caramel buttercream macarons are a classic French cookie you'll find in bakeries all over the world! With this recipe, you can create your own decorated salted caramel macarons at home.
Adding Paint to Macaron Shells
Adding a swipe of color to the tops of your macaron shells is a fun and simple way to decorate these little French cookies. To do this, you only need a few tools and ingredients…
Ingredients and Tools you need to Paint French Macarons
- French Macaron Shells
- Gel food coloring
- Vodka or Vanilla Extract
- Fine tip paint brushes (reserved for decorating food!)
How to paint French Macarons
- First off, you'll want to create the color you'd like to use for painting! Mix together your gel food coloring until you have the color of your choice.
- Then, in a small cup or container, add a drop or two of vodka along with your desired paint color. You'll want to use alcohol because it evaporates really fast, whereas water or another lquid can make the shells soggy.
- Add the paint to your cooled macaron shells then allow them to dry for the next ten minutes or so before filling the macarons!
How to make Salted Caramel Buttercream
When it comes to buttercream, I am a die-hard fan of using swiss meringue. I find that the texture is incredibly smooth and velvety while the flavor is not overly sweet allowing the flavoring of your choosing to shine. In this case, we’ll be making Salted Caramel Buttercream – let’s jump into how it’s made!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Process
To make salted caramel buttercream, we start with making a basic swiss meringue buttercream. This tends to be composed of a 3-2-1 ratio of butter-sugar-egg whites.
First, add your sugar and egg whites to the bowl of your stand mixer and place it over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that your bowl is not touching the hot water! Your goal is to simply whisk the egg whites and sugar together until the sugar has completely dissolved, then attach your bowl back to the standing mixer. The temperature should reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Start whisking the mixture at a low speed and gradually increase speed until medium peaks form. Continue mixing until the meringue has cooled, then switch to using the paddle attachment and start adding your softened butter bit by bit. When you’ve reached the point where the buttercream is glossy and smooth, turn the mixer speed back to low. Add the cooled salted, caramel continuing to mix until completely combined.
Adding Flavoring to Swiss Meringue Buttercream
The flavoring for buttercream can be modified and adapted easily! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
How to make Salted Caramel
In this recipe, we're mixing salted and buttercream together before piping onto macaron shells as pictured above! The process of making homemade caramel is incredibly simple with only a few steps... here's how it's made!
- Pour the sugar into a saucepan, and over medium-high heat allow the sugar to slowly melt and eventually shift in color to a deep amber-brown color. Make sure you continue to stir the sugar every minute or so in order to prevent it from burning!
- Add the cream and butter to the sugar - expect the ingredients to bubble and foam for about 30 seconds or so. Then, over low heat, continue to melt down any large bits of caramel. Do this until the mixture is completely fluid and smooth before removing it from heat.
- Pour caramel into a glass container and allow to cool completely before adding to buttercream. You can also use this caramel to make my Rosemary Salted Caramel Macarons as well!
Piping Buttercream with a Large French Star Tip
My favorite piping tip has to be the large French star tip - that's the piping tip I've used to add the filling into the macarons you see pictured! It provides such a lovely pattern and texture to the profile of your macarons, and all you have to do is fit your piping bag with the French Star piping tip and add the salted caramel buttercream! Then pipe your buttercream onto the macaron shells - it's that easy!
Helpful Tips for Making Macarons
Want to make sure that you have perfectly circular macarons? Use a template! Before I pipe my macaron batter, I like to draw identical circles onto a piece of parchment paper that I will then flip over before piping. You can use a cookie cutter, small lid, salt shaker – anything that is about 1 inch in diameter that you can then trace onto your parchment.
After renting various apartments throughout the west coast, I have experienced my fair share of…let’s say quirky ovens. Without an oven thermometer, I would not have known that a couple of my ovens were running 50 degrees hotter than what I had actually set my oven temperature to. If you don’t have an over thermometer already, I would highly recommend grabbing one to make these delicate macarons. Here’s the one I use!
Since macarons require such precise measurements, I would encourage those that do not own a kitchen scale to invest in one! Here’s a link to the scale I used throughout pastry school, and to this day. When working with pastry and confection recipes such as macarons, even a slight over-measurement of say, egg whites, will alter and potentially ruin your recipe. Macarons only require four ingredients – if one of those ingredients is not measured correctly, your odds for macaron success are considerably decreased.3
The French term “Mise En Place” means to set up your working space in preparation for an activity. With macarons, it’s extremely important to make sure that set yourself up for success before starting. The meringue and batter you will be making are quite sensitive – if you take too much time in-between each step, you won’t see quality results. Take that extra bit of prep to measure your ingredients and prepare the tools you need before starting these macarons.
How to store French Macarons
Technically, allowing your completed macarons to sit overnight in the fridge allows for the best texture for consuming! If you have the patience, place your macarons in the fridge overnight and enjoy the following day. In the fridge, filled macarons should be stored in an airtight container for no more than 3 days.
Can I Freeze Macarons?
You sure can! Macaron shells or filled macarons can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for a month and still taste as good as new! Take the frozen macarons out of the freezer and let them sit for 10-15 minutes before enjoying.
Here are some other Macaron Recipes to try!
- Black Sesame Apricot Macarons
- Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Macarons
- White Chocolate Hibiscus Macarons
Salted Caramel Buttercream Macarons
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Fine Mesh Strainer
- Mixer with Whisk & Paddle Attachment
- Spatula
- Bowls
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Tray
- Piping Bags & Piping Tips
- Saucepan
- Small Painting Brushes (For food only)
Ingredients
Macarons
- 76 g (⅓ cup + 1 teaspoon ) Granulated Sugar
- 90 ml (About 3 egg whites ) Room Temperature Egg Whites
- 80 g (¾ Cup + 1 Tbsp) Almond Flour, Blanched
- 150 g (1 ¼ Cup ) Powdered Sugar
Salted Caramel
- 250 g (1 ½ cups) Granulated Sugar
- 200 g (¾ cups) Heavy Cream
- 42 g (3 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 3 g (½ teaspoon) Sea Salt
Salted Caramel Buttercream
- 75 g (⅓ Cup) Egg Whites
- 150 g (¾ Cup ) Granulated Sugar
- 225 g (1 Cup) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 100 g (½ Cup) Salted Caramel, cooled
Painting Macaron Shells
- 1 teaspoon Vodka
- Gel Food Coloring
Instructions
Macarons
- Line each baking sheet with your prepared parchment templates and prepare your piping bags along with your piping tips. I like to use a small, round piping tips for piping.
- Pour your egg whites into the bowl of a a kitchen aid and start whisking on medium speed. Once they start to foam, slowly add your sugar and bring up your speed to medium for about three to four minutes.
- While your meringue is whisking away, grind together your measured powdered sugar and almond flour using a food processor for one minute. Sift these dry ingredients into a large bowl with a fine sieve and set aside.
- Your meringue is complete when it holds stiff peaks - add desired food coloring and gently whisk for a few additional seconds to incorporate,
- Now it’s time for the ever so important Macaronage! This is the act of mixing your dry ingredients into your french meringue and folding these ingredients enough to allow for the perfect desired consistency. To start, pour your dry mixture onto the meringue and slowly start to fold with a spatula. While rotating the bowl, continue to fold ingredients together. Press mixture on the side of your bowl until the mixture the batter flows off your spatula rather slowly and smoothly. You should see that the batter will drip off the spatula back into the bowl, and rest on top for a moment. Then, the batter from your spatula will slowly sink back into the mixture. One too many folds and your batter could be over mixed leading to it being impossible to work with, so be careful not to overmix!
- Pour your macaron batter into your prepared piping bag and pipe in circles onto your templated parchment paper. In order to get rid of any air bubbles within your piped shells and to even out your tops, tap your baking sheet firmly on a flat surface. You can always use a toothpick to gently pop any extra air bubbles that you see hovering on top of your shells.
- Allow the shells to rest for approximately 30 minutes. Once the top of your shells are dry to the touch they are ready to bake!
- Place your macarons in your oven that has been preheated to 310 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 9 minutes, then rotate the baking tray and bake for an additional 2 minutes.
- You will know that your macarons are ready to remove from the oven when you gently touch the upper shell, and it barely moves, while the developed foot of the macaron stays set to the parchment paper. Remove from the oven to cool completely before removing shells from the parchment paper.
Salted Caramel
- Pour the sugar into a saucepan, and over medium-high heat allow the sugar to slowly melt and eventually shift in color to a deep amber-brown color. Make sure you continue to stir the sugar every minute or so in order to prevent it from burning!
- Add the cream and butter to the sugar – expect the ingredients to bubble and foam for about 30 seconds or so. Then, over low heat, continue to melt down any large bits of caramel. Do this until the mixture is completely fluid and smooth before removing it from heat.
- Pour caramel into a glass container and allow to cool before adding to buttercream.
Salted Caramel Buttercream
- Add your sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that your bowl is not touching the hot water! Your goal is to simply whisk the egg whites and sugar together over a gentle heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then attach your bowl back to the standing mixer. The temperature or your egg whites and sugar should reach 170°F
- Whisk mixture starting at a low speed and gradually increase until soft peaks form and the mixture has cooled. Switch to using your paddle attachment, then start adding your butter bit by bit.
- When you’ve reached the point where the buttercream is glossy and smooth, turn the mixer speed back to low.
- Add cooled salted caramel, and mix on low until combined to complete.
Painting Macaron Shells
- First off, you'll want to create the color you'd like to use for painting! Mix together your gel food coloring until you have the color of your choice.
- Then, in a small cup or container, add a a drop or two of vodka along with your desired paint color. You'll want to use alcohol because it evaporates really fast, whereas water or another liquid can make the shells soggy.
- Add the paint to your cooled macaron shells then allow them to dry for the next ten minutes or so before filling the macarons!
Assembly
- Once cooled, the shells will peel easily off of your parchment paper. Find each shell’s matching half and pipe approximately two teaspoons of buttercream to the bottom shell, topping with the matching half.
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