Trio of Macarons

• Makes roughly 12 of each flavour

Vanilla Macaron base recipe
250g Almond meal (blanched)
450g Icing mixture
260g Egg whites (from roughly 7 XL eggs)
220g Caster sugar
2 tsp Heilala Vanilla Essence
Brown, Purple and Caramel (or yellow + pink) gel food colouring

Salted Caramel filling
100g Caster Sugar
1/4 Thickened cream
35g Westgold unsalted butter
2 tsp Flaked seat salt

Salted Caramel buttercream
2 XL Egg whites
100g Caster sugar
140g Westgold unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 Salted caramel filling (above)
1/2 tsp Heilala Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp Flaked sea salt

Blackcurrant ganache
180g White chocolate (block only), finely chopped
200ml Thickened cream
1 Sachet ViBERi Blackcurrant powder

Whittakers Milk Chocolate ganache
250g Whittakers Milk Chocolate block, finely chopped
250ml Thickened cream

*Plus Pics peanut butter for assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius fan forced. Line 3 large baking trays with baking paper
2. For the macarons, place the almond meal and icing sugar into a food processor. Pulse until it is well mixed and very fine (you may need to scrape down the sides).
3. Beat the egg whites in a cake mixer until they start to foam. Start to sprinkle the sugar over them in a steady stream and then turn up the speed and beat the whites until soft peaks. Add the vanilla essence and then continue beating until it reaches stiff peaks.
4. Gently fold in the almond meal mixture in three batches. Use a rubber spatula to fold it in. Once you have repeated this two more times with the remaining almond mixture, your batter will be quite thick. Measure the weight of the batter and then split into 3 seperate bowls.
5. Add some brown gel colour in one, purple in another and then the caramel colour into the final bowl. Mix each of them separately until they have reached your desired colour (note * the colour will reduce after baking).
6. Mix each of the batches of batter with a spatula to knock some out some of the air. You want the batter to fall from the spatula like a ribbon and move similar to lava. 
7. Once your batter is ready, start placing each mixture into a piping bag. Pipe even amounts ofn batter in a circular motion onto your lined baking tray.
8. Once you have piped out a full tray, bang the tray on the counter to work out some of the bubbles and flatten the macarons. Repeat with another tray until all of the batter is used up.
9. Let the macarons sit at room temperature until the tops are dry to the touch, about 30 minutes.
10. Bake the trays one at a time for 11-13 minutes depending on the size. You can tell if they are cooked if you try and lift a macaron up from the tray – if it doesn’t budge, leave in the open for another minute until it does. If they are not set, then rotate the tray and bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. This may be slightly different depending on your oven. Let them cool before filling.
11. Once they are cooled. Flip over every other shell. Try to match up same sized shells.
12. For the salted caramel filling, place the caster sugar into a small pot and place over a medium heat. Cook the sugar until it has melted and turned a nice golden brown. Quickly add the cream and stir to combine. Then add the rest of the ingredients and turn heat down to low. Continue to stir until all ingredients are combined. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Place into a piping bag and set aside.
13. For the salted caramel buttercream, place the egg whites and sugar into a bowl and place over a double boiler. Mix constantly and heat the mixture to 70 degrees or close to. Remove from the heat and place into a cake mixer. Whisk on high until stiff peaks are formed. Add the vanilla and then the butter, very slowly, until the mixture is all combined. Slowly add the room temperature caramel and mix until thoroughly combined. Removed from the bowl and place into a piping bag. Set aside. 
14. For the blackcurrant ganache, place the chopped chocolate into a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat until almost boiling. Remove from the heat and pour cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then using a whisk, add in the blackcurrant powder and thoroughly combine. Seal the bowl with glad wrap and place in the fridge until it has set (3+ hours). Remove from the fridge, whip with a whisk until light and fluffy and then place into a piping bag and set aside.
15. For the milk chocolate ganache, place the chopped chocolate into a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat until almost boiling. Remove from the heat and pour cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Seal the bowl with glad wrap and place in the fridge until it has set (3+ hours). Remove from the fridge, whip with a whisk until light and fluffy and then place into a piping bag and set aside.
16. Pipe each of the macarons in this order:
    1. Vanilla macaron w/ Salted caramel buttercream + salted caramel filling centre
    2. Purple macaron w/ Blackcurrant ganache
    3. Brown macaroni w/ Chocolate ganache and peanut butter centre