Earl Grey Macaron....new creation for The Macaron Series!

~Earl Grey Macaron~
with dark chocolate hazelnut praline ganache filling....


This article is part of "The Macaron Series"
http://lafleuraucacao.blogspot.com/2009/10/in-mood-for-loveand-macaronthe-macaron.html

Makes 20 macarons

Ingredients

Macaron:
65g Almond meal
80g Icing sugar
40g Castor sugar
50g Egg white
8g Earl Grey tea powder

Preheat your oven to 325oF
1. Stack two or three heavy baking trays. Line the top tray with Silpat.
2. Process the almond meal and icing sugar at high speed to achieve a fine powder. Incorporate the Earl Grey tea powder into this mixture and sift to break up any lumps of powder.
3. In a clean bowl, beat the room-temperature egg whites until foamy and just at soft peaks. Gradually beat in the castor sugar, adding a little at a time. Beat on medium speed for a number of minutes until you have a firm, glossy and compact meringue.
4. Sprinkle half of the dry mixture over the meringue and fold in with a spatula using a circular motion around the bowl and under the batter. Repeat with the remaining powder. You don't need to be gentle, but the goal is to incorporate the dry ingredients quickly to avoid overmixing. *It's better to undermix than overmix.
5. The final batter should be the colour of pale brown, smooth and thick but flowing. A ribbon of batter dropped from a spoon onto the top of the remaining batter should take about 30 seconds to disappear.
6. Spoon the batter into a piping bag with a 8-10 mm nozzle and pipe evenly onto the baking paper. Mild peaks should settle back into the batter eventually. If they don't disappear, tap the tray repeatedly on a table until the peaks have largely disappeared.
7. Leave the piped batter to dry for anywhere between 20 mins and two hours.
8. Place the tray in the oven and bake at 325oF for 12 minutes.
9. At the 5 minute mark the shells should have lifted and developed 'pied' or the feet. At the 6-7 minute mark they should be starting to colour just slightly.
10. Remove from the oven and leave on the tray for a minute or two.
11. Once removed from the sheet, leave the shells to cool on a wire rack, face up.


Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Praline Ganache Filling:


227g Valrhona 71% chocolate couverture
125mL Heavy Cream
114g Hazelnut Praline Paste (store bought or homemade)

1. Chop couverture finely and place it in a bowl.
2. Heat heavy cream in a saucier till almost boiling.
3. Pour the hot cream into the couverture, allow the couverture to seep in hot cream for 1 minute. Gently stir mixture until all the couverture has melted and incorporated with the cream.
4. Place in refrigerator and allow it to harden to form the ganache.
5. Whip ganache until it reaches a creamy consistancy. Gently fold in the praline paste.


Assemble the Earl Grey Macarons:
1. Place the whipped ganache with praline into a piping bag and pipe mixture onto one macaron shell.
2. Gently press an un-piped shell onto the ganache until the ganache just reaches the rim of the macaron.
3. Dust very lightly with cocoa powder if desired.

Bon Appetit!