Chinese New Year Macarons (Thai Tea Macarons)

January 08, 2017

Happy Chinese New Year, wishing everyone a great year ahead! It's the year of the Rooster in the Chinese zodiac, thus I baked these rooster themed macarons 🐔 Featuring chubby roosters, mandarin oranges, and golden ingot macarons.

They are filled with Thai Tea Ganache, which is made with authentic Thai Tea leaves and white couverture chocolate. The Thai Tea taste is distinct but not overwhelming. I am glad my fiancé likes it, and that he can discern the Thai Tea flavour.

This is my second time making Thai Tea macarons, but it's my first time preparing it with real thai tea leaves. I made them using instant Thai Tea powder previously. That method is simpler, but the real thing always tastes better :) Thus, I'll be sticking to this authentic Thai Tea Ganache recipe for now.

Thai Tea Macarons

For an added lucky touch, you can dust the golden ingot macarons with edible gold dust that's been mixed with a bit of rose water or vodka. The liquid helps the gold dust to stick to the macaron shell, and it's fast evaporation rate will prevent the shells from dissolving.

Happy CNY! Gong xi fa cai!

The recipe below is for the 3 designs, but you can stick to one design and prepare only the coloured batters needed. Hope you enjoyed this recipe! 大鸡大利迎新年！

CHINESE NEW YEAR MACARONS

WITH THAI TEA GANACHE

by Sumopocky

Yield: ~21 macarons - 7 per design

Ingredients

[For Macaron Shells]

Meringue: 70g of Egg whites + 90g of Castor sugar

80g of Almond flour

80g of Powdered/icing sugar

Food colouring: Black, Green, Yellow, Red, Brown

Edible gold dust *Optional

[For Thai Tea Ganache]

100g of White chocolate chips

100ml of Heavy cream

1 tbsp of Thai Tea Leaves

Directions

[For Macaron Shells]

1. Make the meringue. In a bowl, beat the egg whites on low speed using an electric mixer until it is white and frothy (approximately 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar 1/4 at a time. When the first addition of sugar has completely dissolved (approximately 1 minute later), increase the mixer speed to medium and add until all the sugar has been incorporated. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

2. Sift the almond flour and icing sugar to the meringue.

3. Begin macaronage. Using a spatula, start the macaronage process by folding and lightly scraping the top of the batter. Continue until the wet and dry ingredients just start to combine.

4. Scoop some batter for decoration. Transfer to a piping bag with a small tip.

Colour of batter
White
Black
Red
Pink
Yellow
Green
Light Brown

Amount of Batter
1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon
1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon

Food Colouring

N.A.

Black

Red

A bit of red

Yellow

Green

Brown

5. Split the remaining batter into 3 equal portions and continue the macaronage process, until you get a molten-like mixture and drips down like a ribbon when lifted. Transfer to piping bags with a medium round tip.

Design	Colour of Batter	Food Colouring
Rooster	White	N.A.
Golden Ingot	Yellow	Yellow
Mandarin Oranges	Orange	Red and Yellow

6. Pipe out batter onto parchment paper. Please refer to video above for demonstration. Note: let the shells dry slightly before piping on wings for rooster.

7. Let the shells dry in a non humid place or an air conditioned room. You should be able to touch it gently with the tip of your finger without it sticking.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for approximately 10 - 13 minutes.

9. Let shells cool.

[For Thai Tea Ganache]

1. Bring heavy cream to a simmer. Add the tea leaves and let it steep for 3 minutes. Heat the cream up slightly so that it is warm enough to melt the chocolate.

2. Pour heavy cream over chocolate using a sieve. Give it a shake, let it sit for 1 minute, and stir with a whisk till all the chocolate has melted. Let it cool.

3. Transfer the filling to a piping bag.