Salted Caramel Macarons

Salted Caramel Macarons

Confectioners’ sugar: 2 ¼ cups
Almond flour: 2 cups
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Preheat the oven to 200°F. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter. Pipe one-inch-sized mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
Cool on a rack before filling.

Caramel Fleur de sel

¾ cup sugar
¼ cup water
1 vanilla pod
200g cream
Big pinch fleur de sel
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed

Place the sugar in a saucepan with the water. Without stirring, cook the sugar to 320F until it takes on a light, golden color. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Add in the cream being careful as you poor into the hot sugar. Add in the Fleur de sel. Allow the mixture to cool to around 105F then add the butter. Blend until you have a glossy paste. Chill until required.