Tiffany Macarons

September 18: Tiffany & Co. founded in 1837

Islander was gifted with a gorgeous Tiffany & Co. sterling silver heart keychain when she volunteered to design a take-out menu for some friends who were opening a Thai café in California. Although she appreciated their generous gesture, she seemed more fascinated with the bag and the box than with the costly content! So she made macarons matching the famous color of Tiffany blue and Highlander photographed the luxurious cookies as if they were part of the pricey package. The decadent white chocolate-cream cheese filling is just as fancy. These Tiffany & Co.-inspired macarons are perfect indulgences on the day the company was founded in 1837.

Recipe

(Adapted from Mélanger)

For the macarons (Italian meringue method)

• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 egg whites (fresh, unpasteurized and aged overnight at room temperature)
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup water
• blue and green food coloring (we used a combination of Wilton brand’s Sky Blue and Leaf Green concentrated gel icing colors)

Directions

Sift the almond flour/meal with the powdered sugar. Grind in a food processor in batches to remove any lumps. Whip the egg whites until peaks form. Make a simple syrup to stabilize the egg whites by boiling the sugar and water together until it reaches a temperature of 245 degrees F on a candy thermometer (or until it reaches a soft ball stage). Pour into the egg whites and whip again until stiff and glossy. Stir in the almond flour/meal-sugar mix until the consistency “flows like magma.”

Tint with Sky Blue and Leaf Green food coloring until the macaronage closely matches the Tiffany blue hue. Make the shade slightly darker as the macarons will bake a lighter color. Fill a pastry bag with a large round tip. Pipe one-inch discs on a parchment paper on top of an insulated baking sheet. Let the discs air dry to develop a thin skin for at least 30 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Watch the “feet” develop, but be careful not to brown or burn the macarons. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the macarons from the parchment paper. Sort by size and match pairs.  Make the filling.

For the filling

• 2 1-ounce squares of white chocolate (we used Baker’s brand)
• ½ block (4 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 – 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• pinch of salt

Directions

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the melted chocolate with the cream cheese until smooth.  Gradually add the powdered sugar and a pinch of salt until thickened into a frosting consistency. Refrigerate for a few minutes to harden, if necessary. Fill a piping bag with a large round tip. Pipe in the filling and sandwich the macarons together. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the filling set. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes

• Thanks to JW for the Tiffany & Co. gift and for inspiring this macaron project.
• Thanks to Lisa L. for sending us the ground almonds from Europe for this recipe.
• After several experiments, we concluded that the above recipe adaptation gave us more “maca-rights” than “maca-wrongs!” See our blog recipe post for details on how we finally found our own method of making traditional macarons for Macaron Day on March 20.