Peanut Butter and Honey Macarons

I'm pretty sure peanut butter and honey were made for each other. I regularly find myself eating toast with peanut butter and honey on those nights when I can't be bothered cooking dinner. I could definitely eat it for every meal in a day, so it made perfect sense for me to try my hand at Peanut Butter and Honey Macarons.

This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing. It's my last day of holidays before school goes back, so I thought I may as well make use of my last opportunity to bake before the craziness starts. As such, I didn't have any aged egg whites available, so I had to try out the microwave method of ageing my egg whites.

I left them on the bench top for about two hours, and then I microwaved them for 20 seconds, stopping to stir at 10 seconds. I was so nervous I would cook them, so didn't dare zap for longer than 20 seconds. Right before I used them I zapped them for another 10 seconds. The egg whites turned out okay. The meringue didn't beat up to be as voluminous and stiff as I would have liked, but I added a few pinches of cream of tartar to the meringue as it was being whisked and this seemed to lift the mixture a little. I would still recommend the traditional method of ageing egg whites (leave them in a bowl on the bench top for 2-3 days, covered with a paper towel if you don't like the idea of leaving an open bowl out to collect dust) but if you're pressed for time, the microwave technique is a suitable alternative.

I baked these to serve for supper at the Bible Study Group Brendan is starting up this week. As I only needed a handful of macarons, I decided to halve the recipe. It was a little quicker to prepare, as I didn’t need to sift as much almond meal and icing sugar (this is probably the longest and most labour-intensive step in making macarons) but I think in the future I will just whip up a whole batch and freeze the rest. They freeze so well that it’s totally worth the extra time to bake a whole batch instead of a half.

The honey peanut butter ganache worked out beautifully. I had made a choc-peanut butter ganache in the past with milk chocolate, peanut butter and butter, so my honey filling was a slightly modified version of that recipe. I used white instead of milk chocolate and added 1½ teaspoons of honey. I probably could have added more, but I wanted a really subtle honey taste that complemented the peanut butter, rather than competed with it. It’s really just a matter of taste.

I’m so happy with these macarons. Hopefully people eating them won’t expect them to be lemon. It confuses your head a little when you expect a macaron to be one flavour and turns out to be something totally different.

Here is the recipe for a complete batch. I halved it, but like I said earlier, I think you’re better off cooking the whole lot and freezing half (if you can resist eating them!)

For the macaron shells:

Makes about 50 macarons

300g sifted almond meal*
300g sifted pure icing sugar
110g aged egg whites (egg whites left on the bench for a few days)
110g extra egg whites, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
75g water
Yellow food colouring (optional)

*Almond meal must be sifted through very fine sieve. I use a splatter guard placed over a bowl, and rub the almond meal with my hands until I have sifted enough. Weigh the almond meal after you have sifted it, not before, as you will end up throwing out the grains that are too coarse to fit through the sieve.

Line 4 baking trays with baking paper. Combine sifted almond meal and icing sugar large bowl. Place aged eggwhites in the bowl of your mixer (making sure the bowl is very clean and has the whisk attachment in place). Combine caster sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat. Gently stir until the sugar dissolves (to check if the sugar is ready, rub some between your fingers. If you can feel the granules, it’s not dissolved yet.) Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and bring to the boil and increase the mixer speed to medium. This is the point where you need to add your food colouring (unless you are using powdered colouring – add this to your dry mixture instead). By adding your liquid/gel colouring now, the extra water can evaporate out instead of ruining your batter! When the mixture reaches 90oC, turn the mixer onto low speed so the egg whites become frothy. Allow the sugar-water to boil until mixture reaches 118oC. Carefully pour the sugar into the mixer bowl as the eggwhites are being whisked. Pour down the side of the bowl rather than over the whisk to prevent spun sugar. Increase the speed to high and whisk for about 8 minutes. In the meantime, use a spatula to combine the other eggwhites and the dry mixture. Keep mixing until a paste forms. When the eggwhites are thick and glossy, add them to the almond paste a bit at a time.

Once all the egg white has been combined with the almond paste, fold the mixture with a spatula until it is a wobbly, hommus-like texture (try lifting the spatula out of the batter – if the batter slowly falls off the spatula, it’s the right texture). Attach a 12mm nozzle to a piping bag and pipe circles of the batter. I like to use a template under my baking paper. The best way to pipe is to hold the piping bag perpendicular to the tray, about 2cm above the surface. Pipe until the batter fills the template, then quickly move the nozzle to the top of the circle, then do a little swirly motion to bring the nozzle down to the bottom of the circle. This prevents your macarons from have pointy tops and keeps them nice and smooth. Once all your batter has been piped, turn the oven on to 130oC and leave your trays somewhere to rest. After about 20 minutes, check to see whether a skin has formed on the macarons (gently touch one of the macarons – if you can caress it without the batter going onto your fingers, then they’re ready for the oven). Bake for 16 minutes. I like to bake one tray at a time, because my oven is a bit dodgy, but all ovens are different so you just have to experiment and see what works with your oven. After 16 minutes, remove the trays from the oven. Let them sit for two minutes, then try removing a macaron from the tray using a spatula. If it comes off easily, your macarons are done! If not, put them back in the oven for 2 minutes then try again. Allow macarons to cool completely before piping.

For the honey peanut butter ganache:

240g white chocolate buttons
215g crunchy peanut butter
50g butter, chopped and softened
3-4 teaspoons honey

Put white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (ensuring the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Stir until the chocolate has melted, then pour over peanut butter. Stir until soft and mixed well. Add butter and mix well with a stick mixer. Add honey, one teaspoon at a time, to taste. Refrigerate until thickened. When you are ready to pipe the filling into the macarons, put the ganache into a piping bag. If it has become too hard, put it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so. Fill the macaron shells and sandwich them together.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, taking them out half an hour before they’re needed. Alternatively, store them in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 months.