Macaron Mission: Stage 4 (Matcha Macarons)

Finally, the last installment of my macaron mission. Why? Because the mission is complete! I got the macaron down. I even fixed the coloration problem by placing a cookie sheet on the rack right over the baking macarons. What follows is my own recipe, tried and true through many failures and small victories. I hope you enjoy and muster up the gumption to try them for yourself.

Matcha (Green Tea) Macarons

Macaron Ingrediants

• 3 oz Almond Meal
• 5.25 oz Powdered Sugar
• Pinch of Cream of Tartar
• 99 grams of Egg Whites, aged 1-2 days
• 65 grams Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Matcha (Green Tea Powder, you can find this at most asian markets)
• Powdered Green Food Coloring

Buttercream Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Sticks of Butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups Powdered Sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons of Matcha

Matcha Macaron Directions

1. Place one oven rack directly in the center of your oven, place the other rack on the notch right above the first rack and place a large cookie sheet on the top rack. (This is to prevent the macaron color from browning.) Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two cookie sheets with silicon mats or parchment. Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and stand it up in a large glass.

2. Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar together into a medium bowl, set aside.

3. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on med-hi until soft peaks form. Then slowly add the granulated sugar and the food coloring (until the desired shade of green is achieved) and beat until stiff peaks form, then remove the bowl from the mixer.

4. Fold in the vanilla and 1/3 of the almond meal mixture until almost incorporated. Then add the next 1/3 and fold until almost incorporated. Then add the last 1/3 and fold against the side of the bowl until just fully incorporated. It should be the consistency of thick magma like paste.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pastry bag and pipe large circles about an inch and a half in diameter onto your prepared pans. Rap the pans a couple of times to release air bubbles. Let the macarons set for 20 minutes on the counter.

6. On the center rack, bake the macarons for 11 and a half minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the second sheet.

Matcha Buttercream Directions

1. Cream the butter, powdered sugar and matcha together using the paddle attachment of a stand mixture until a thick buttercream forms. Place the buttercream in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to spread without a mess.

2. Spread a moderate amount of the buttercream between two macarons. Store the completed macarons in a sealed container in the fridge for a day before eating them to set the texture. (If thats not possible, it's not a big deal.) Remove them from the fridge 20 minutes before serving them to bring them back to room temp.