Salted Caramel Macaroons

After 3 weeks, numerous visits from tradies, a great deal of stress and about $10,000 - I finally have my kitchen back!

To celebrate, I decided to attempt macaroons again. Not wanting to repeat the absolute rock-hard debacle of the lime macaroons, I decided to have another go at the recipe. But this time, I actually weighed my ingredients! (Turns out, this was a good idea - it's very hard to accurately measure almond meal by volume!) This time they really worked well - they had that lovely thin crispy shell with a very soft, chewy centre. (Look at the side - you can see they have the nice 'pop'!)

Salted Caramel Macaroons (Makes 15)

You will need:

For the macaroons:

3 'aged' egg whites from 59 g eggs (90 g eggwhites - to age - leave them loosely covered overnight)
2 Tbsp caster sugar
200 g icing sugar
110 g almond meal

For the filling:

125 g salted butter
2 egg whites
1/2 C brown sugar

1. Whisk egg whites until frothy and fluffy - allow it to form soft peaks.
   
2. Gradually add 2 tablespoons granulated sugar until you have a glossy meringue, whisking all the while. Don’t overbeat.
3. Sift almond meal and icing sugar in a large bowl.
4. Add your whipped egg whites and fold. You don’t have to fold too gently, but you don’t want to over fold either. Add in the food colouring when about half the egg whites have been added.
5. Pipe the mixture onto greased baking paper. Make sure you space them well, or they will expand and stick together when they bake (like mine did - see photo below!). Wet your finger and pat them into shape - they'll start to look like they should!
   
6. Allow to sit for 1 hour. This will stop them from cracking when they bake.
7. Bake for 20 minutes at 150 C.
8. Once cooked, allow to cool on a wire rack.
9. For the filling, heat the egg whites and brown sugar to 76 C by putting them in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, whisking continuously.
10. Beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
11. Cut the room temperature butter into 1 Tbsp cubes. One cube at a time, add the butter to the meringue, beating continuously. If the mixture goes runny, keep beating until the mixture thickens up again.
12. Sandwich the filling between the macaroons.