When Cocoa Marries Lady Grey....Chocolate Lady Grey Macarons!

Ah...the moment that I have been waiting for had arrived! Voila! I have always wanted to make David Lebovitz's French Chocolate Macaron....and what better time than making for my Mactweet challenge, woot, woot! And, I thought I'd better gave it a bit of a twist...err tweak rather, by adding my favourite tea, Lady Grey into the macaron shell! Of course, for the filling it had to be dark chocolate ganache which I paired with salted caramel....since Mr Cocoa was marrying Lady Grey, dark choc had to marry salted caramel, yes!?...so, here goes....

Baked on Silpat!

Them macarons were served on my grandma's vintage plate!

Ingredients

Chocolate Macarons

2 large egg whites, I used egg whites from grade A eggs, aged for 3 days in the fridge

65g granulated sugar

50g powdereed almond

25g dutch cocoa powder, I used Valrhona cocoa powder...err tqs Rima for bringing them from Singapore, muahs!

100g icing sugar

1/2 teabag Twinnings Classic Lady Grey tea, sift together with the almond, cocoa and icing sugar mix

Dark Chocolate Ganache

100g dark chocolate buttons

100g Valrhona's Manjiri (64% cocoa) chocolate buttons

200ml whipping cream (30% fat content)

Salted Caramel

200g sugar

200ml whipping cream

1 tsp sea salt...I used Le Pincee...or any ordinary salt....hehe, but I loved La Pincee

100g butter

Method

Macarons

1. Prepare baking trays, this time I used Silpat! Prepare a piping bag.

2. Measure and sift almond flour, icing sugar, cocoa and tea.

3. Measure egg white and sugar.

4. Start whisking slowly egg whites, when foamy, increase the speed (4 on my Kmix) and start to gradually add the sugar while the whisk is on.

5. When the meringue starts to be foamy and stiff, turn the mixer to high, and beat for about 4 minutes until you get a dense, glossy and stiff meringue.

6. Mix the almond mix in 3 additions, into the meringue or if you are want to do it in a haste, just pour them out altogether and start mixing.

7. Just be careful when all the meringue and almond mix were mixed, at the macaronner stage. Do it slowly until you get a glossy mix, which falls a ribbon consistency....boy...you need practice with this!

8. Pipe the batter, let it dry, well, where I live in the greens, on a hot dry day it takes about fourty minutes to dry, otherwise it could be between one an a half hour or two hours.....or else, I'd do the oven drying method!

9. Bake for about 20  minutes in an oven set at 150C.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

Heat whipping cream until almost boiling form, turn off heat, add dark chocolate, stir well and leave for about an hour to set.

Salted Caramel

Heat sugar and water in a pan until you achieve a boiling point and let the mixture turn into amber colour, but be careful not to burn the mix! Turn off the heat, add salt and whipping cream, butter and whip a wee bit, let cool before use.....I love love salted caramel!

.....hmmm, what did I do with the beautiful macarons...I shared them with my husband...shhh....we hid them from my kids(!!??), and gave some to Dena who had once let me taste macarons from Laduree!