macarons... earl grey macarons & green tea macarons..- by Fanny Huang

 Macaron Shells (Makes about 24 Macarons)

135g ground almonds (I used extra fine)
125g icing sugar
100g aged egg whites (I keep it at least 2 days so must prepare beforehand)
100g castor sugar (I used extra fine)
1 tablespoon egg white (I used the aged egg white)
Color Gel (Optional) (I never use the color gel for my earl grey and green tea macaron)

For green tea macarons
Reduce 10g of ground almonds to 125g
10g green tea powder

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 150 degree (I used top and bottom heat. I only preheat the oven when I place the macarons to dry in aircon room)

2) Line the tray with baking paper / parchment paper (I put my macarons template under the baking paper)

3) Put the ground almonds and icing sugar into the food processor or chopper to chop it into very fine mixture. (Thanks for the chopper, save my time to sieve it). Leave it aside once

4) In the dry and clean bowl, put the egg white in it and use a hand beater to whisk it until it reach stiff peaks. Add in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking it. Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk it for about a minute to allow the sugar completely dissolve. The mixture should be stiff and glossy by then.

5) Use a spatula, gently fold in half of the dry mixture (almond and icing sugar). Fold until just combined – the mixture should still be quite stiff,

6) Add in the 1 tablespoon of unwhisked egg white and color gel (if you using) to the mixture, which will help to loosen the consistency of the macaron. Fold through the mixture until you have the color and the mixture is shiny. When you lift it up with your spatula, the mixture will flow down slowly like lava. Then is done.

7) Pour in the mixture into the piping bag with Wilton 2A tip and pipe it on the baking paper. And bang it on the table to let the air out. By banging, it also helps to set the ‘feet’.

8) To avoid cracking, you must ensure the skin of the macarons did not stick to your hand and the layer of the skin is totally dry.
• For this part, I put the earl grey tea which I use my hand to make it to powder form and put it on top of the macarons before it dry up.

9) Bake in the oven for 15mins. The feet will totally form around 8mins.

10) When cool, you should be able to lift up each shell cleanly off the tray.

Earl Grey Buttercream
80g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
1 tablespoon earl grey tea (I used loose tea leaf)
25ml whole milk

1) Soak the earl grey tea leaf into the whole milk for few hours beforehand. (drain it out after that)
2) Beat the butter and icing sugar in the mixer.
3) Once mixed well, add in the earl grey milk mixture.
4) Let it beat for at least 5 minutes
5) Done!

Green Tea Buttercream
80g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
20g green tea powder
25ml whole milk

1) Beat the butter, icing sugar and green tea powder in the mixer.
2) Once mixed well, add in the milk
3) Let it beat for at least 5 minutes
4) Done!

okie.. this is super duper long.. hahaha... it has both my earl grey and green tea macarons recipe. together with the buttercream that i used,