Totoro Macarons (Black sesame salty egg flavour)

While we're at it, here's more quarantine baking to share. Macarons are one of my favourite things to bake. Although the recipes can be technical and finicky, you can adapt them to almost any design and occasion. When they turn out well, it's very satisfying. 

Macarons are known for their sweetness. With sugar representing half of the ingredients by weight, macarons are arguably more candy than cookie. Here, I share a flavour combo of black sesame and the currently popular salty egg. The salty egg buttercream filling contrasts really well with the sweetness of the macarons. Here's the recipe: 

Totoro Macarons (Makes 20 large or 30 small macarons) 

Macaron base: 

• 60 g egg whites 
• 45 g granulated sugar 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste/extract (optional)
  --- plain almond batter --- 
• 32 g icing sugar + 26 g almond pwd (AKA almond flour)
  --- black sesame batter --- 
• 64 g icing sugar + 32 g almond pwd + 20 g black sesame pwd 
• pinch of charcoal powder (or scant black food colouring) 

Filling: 

• 112 g (1 stick/half cup) salted butter 
• 2 salted duck eggs 
• 1 large chicken egg 
• 60 g granulated sugar 

Decoration: 

• 1-2 white chocolate chips 
• pinch of charcoal powder (or black food colouring) 

Baking temp 300 F / 148 C, no convection Baking time: approx 10 min Special equipment: piping bags x 2, piping tips (8 mm/5/16"/Wilton #12, and 5 mm/3/16"/Wilton #8). 

A few notes on the recipe: 

- The tutorial specifically shows you how to make Totoro-shaped macarons, which adds an extra step of splitting the macaron recipe into 2/3 black sesame and 1/3 plain batter to make the body and stomach. If you're just going for the regular look, you don't have to split the batter. In this case, you would just measure out and sift together 96 g icing sugar + 50 g almond powder + 28 g black sesame powder for your dry ingredients. 
- Macarons have a reputation of being difficult to make. They really aren't. You just have to be precise with the measurements. +/- 5 grams of any ingredient, and you risk the cookies not rising properly. Unfortunately, you can't skimp on the sugar. I've tried...many times, unsuccessfully to do that. On a really crisp and dry day though (climate-wise), you can decrease the icing sugar by about 5 g or so and still get by. But that's the slim margin macaron recipes go by. 
- You can substitute different ground nuts and seeds in the recipe. Be mindful of the oil content. Oilier nuts will give you a runnier batter that's easier to overstir. No fixing if you do overstir – you'll just end up with flatter macarons. Walnuts, pecans, sesame seeds, pistachios, macadamia nuts, and cashews tend to produce a wetter batter. You can counter this by substituting out up to half of the almond flour, or by adding some sort of powder such as charcoal, instant coffee, or matcha powder to dry the batter a little. You can also sub out 2-4 g of freeze-dried fruit powder to add colour. 
- to add fruit flavour, the most reliable way is to cook down the juice of the fruit into a concentrated paste, about 1-2 tsp, and add to your egg whites. You will likely also have to increase your icing sugar by about 5 g in this case. 

Macaron Cookies

1. Sift together the dry ingredients for the black sesame batter and almond batter two separate bowls. 
2. In a third bowl, whisk the egg whites until it becomes foamy and you can't see the bottom of the bowl or any clear liquid egg whites.
3. Add 1/3 of the granulated sugar and continue whisking until you get soft peaks (about 30 sec)
4. Add the second 1/3 of granulated sugar and continue whisking until you get medium peaks (another 30 sec)
5. Add the final 1/3 of the granulated sugar and continue whisking until you get stiff peaks and the egg whites are shiny (2-4 min)
6. Add 105 g (2/3s, but important to measure out the exact amount) to the sifted black sesame batter bowl and set aside. 
7. Add the sifted almond powder and icing sugar to the rest of the egg whites and stir until you get the thick, gloppy paste. Add to a piping bag fitted with a 8 mm/5/16"/Wilton#12 plain tip and set aside. 
8. Add a pinch of charcoal powder to the black sesame bowl and stir to form the thick, gloppy paste. You can use a tiny bit of black food colouring if you don't have edible charcoal powder. If you omit this, that's fine too – there will be less contrast between your grey and white batters. 
9. Add black sesame batter to a piping bag fitted with a 5 mm/3/16"/Wilton#8 plain tip and set aside. 
10. On a lined baking sheet (I used a teflon sheet in the video. You can use a silicone baking sheet, or new baking or parchment paper. I wouldn't use old parchment paper because the wrinkles will make the bottom irregular. Also wouldn't use a buttered baking sheet as that will fry the bottom of the macarons), pipe out the shapes as shown in the video. 
11. Give the tray a few taps to encourage large air bubbles to rise to the top. Allow to sit at room temperature to let the skin form. This takes about 15-25 minutes depending on the weather. You can preheat the oven in the mean time. 
12. When the tops are not sticky anymore, bake at 300 F/148 C, middle or bottom rack for about 10 minutes. Check them at 8 minutes to be sure. You're not aiming for any colour, but if you see the very bottom get slightly brown, then it's time to take it out. 
13. Allow to cool on the tray completely before removing. 

Salted egg filling

1. Cook (bake or steam) the yolks of 2 salted eggs and 1 regular large egg. Make sure to save the raw whites. They baked at 275 F / 135 C for about 10 minutes. 
2. Mash with a fork. Small lumps are ok. 
3. Add mashed yolks and 3 tbsp butter into small pan and cook on medium heat until frothy and you can smell the salted yolk. 
4. Transfer to a bowl to allow to cool to room temperature. 
5. To cook the syrup, add 60 g granulated sugar with a splash of water into a small saucepan, preferably with a pouring spout. 
6. In a bowl, place 1 salted egg yolk and 1 regular egg yolk that you saved from the first step. Use an electric mixer to beat until foamy or soft peaks. Make sure place a towel or something grippy on the bottom of the bowl. Set aside. 
7. Boil on medium until the softball stage (112-118 C / 235-245 F). If you don't have a candy thermometer, watch for the bubbles to become larger and more sluggish (see video). When this happens, drop a drop of the boiling sugar into a cup of cold water. If you can squeeze the sugar into a pliable ball, then it is at the softball stage and ready for use. If not at temperature yet, it'll disintegrate into strands and dissolve. 
8. Pour the hot sugar slowly down the sides of the bowl with the egg whites as you beat on high. Do not pour the sugar right onto the beaters because you'll have hot sugar flying everywhere and this could burn yourself or someone else. 
9. Continue beating on high until the egg whites reach firm peaks, and the bowl has cooled to room temperature. 
10. Mix with the rest of the butter (should be at room temp) and cooled egg yolk mixture. 
11. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe generously to fill the macarons (see video). 

Check out my Insta for more baking adventures :-) @kelly.elly 

Thank you for watching! Warm wishes for a happy and cozy holiday season :)