Adapted from Sweet Lady Sass
Tea and cookies? How about cookies with tea! Makes that whole tea-consumption thing easier and even tastier. These macaroons look the part too, with a green-tea infusion that pairs with either hot or cold teas to make a special treat you’ll want to share.
Serves 16-18.
Pairings
- Organic 2nd Harvest Matcha, by DoMatcha
- Imperial Grade Matcha Green Tea, by Teavana
- Loose Matcha Tea, by Mighty Leaf Tea Company
Ingredients
Macaroons
- 3 oz almond meal
- 5.25 oz powdered sugar
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- 99 grams of egg whites, aged 1-2 days
- 65 grams sugar
- 1 Tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Tsp matcha, green tea powder
- Powdered green food coloring
Buttercream
- 1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons of matcha
Method
- Place one oven rack directly in the center of your oven, place the other rack on the notch right above the first rack and place a large cookie sheet on the top rack. (This is to prevent the macaroon color from browning.)
- Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two cookie sheets with silicon mats or parchment. Prepare a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and stand it up in a large glass.
- Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar together into a medium bowl, set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on med-hi until soft peaks form. Then slowly add the granulated sugar and the food coloring (until the desired shade of green is achieved) and beat until stiff peaks form, then remove the bowl from the mixer.
- Fold in the vanilla and 1/3 of the almond meal mixture until almost incorporated. Then add the next 1/3 and fold until almost incorporated. Then add the last 1/3 and fold against the side of the bowl until just fully incorporated. It should be the consistency of thick magma like paste.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pastry bag and pipe large circles about an inch and a half in diameter onto your prepared pans. Rap the pans a couple of times to release air bubbles. Let the macaroons set for 20 minutes on the counter.
- On the center rack, bake the macaroons for 11 and a half minutes. Then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the second sheet.
Matcha Butter Cream Method
- Cream the butter, powdered sugar and matcha together using the paddle attachment of a stand mixture until a thick butter cream forms. Place the butter cream in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to spread without a mess.
- Spread a moderate amount of the butter cream between two macaroons. Store the completed macaroons in a sealed container in the fridge for a day before eating them to set the texture. (If that’s not possible, it’s not a big deal.) Remove them from the fridge 20 minutes before serving them to bring them back to room temp.
