Matcha Macarons with White Chocolate Filling

    A macaron is the pride of France made by two round  meringue-based thin cookies held together with a sweet filling, such as jam, ganache, buttercream.   They are not too hard to make but very hard to make them perfectly.  After three attempts, I am still not sure how to make them right but I learn  a little bit more each times.  
     You will get a good training from Bravetart  and EatLiveTravelWrite  as me. 
      My very first matcha macarons are perfect color for St. Patrick day but they cracked horrible because undermixed macaron batter as you can see those dimples.  My sister found a typo at granulate sugar it is 72 gr instead of 7.2 gr.  


French Macarons,  adapted from Bravetart,
4 ounces (115 g) blanched almond or almond flour 
8 ounces (230) powder sugar
5 ounces (144 g) egg white, about 4 large egg whites (or 5 small) at room temperature
2½ ounces (72 g) granulate sugar
1/2 tsp (2 g) kosher salt
1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract 
1 Tbs matcha powder
Green color gel or liquid (optional)

White chocolate ganache filling
5 ounces white chocolate
3 ounces (6 Tbs ) heavy whipped cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon pad.  A paper template (drawing) of 1.5 in circles with 1 inch interval is helpful but not necessary.
2. Pulse powder sugar, matcha and almond flour together in a processor a few minutes until really fine or use a flour sieve/sifter and sift them together. Reserving chunky bits and add them back to the dry ingredients if no more than 2 Tbs. If use almond nuts, grind them separately first or mix nuts with powder sugar and grind them at the same time.  Sift and regrind the chunky bits until no more than 2 Tbs remain.
3. Place egg white, granulate sugar, salt and vanilla scrapping (use a knife and split the bean along the length, then scrap the seeds, save the peel) but not vanilla extract in a large, clean, dry bowl.  Beat until a very firm/stiff peak.  If you use a Kitchen Aid mixer, timing per Bravetart: whip in 3 minutes at medium speed #4, and 3 minutes at medium high #7 ( I do not have #7 so I use #6 ), and 3 minutes at #8. Turn off the machine add vanilla extract and color if you want a vivid color but I got a beautiful green shade from matcha.  Turn the machine on highest speed for 1 minute.  The meringue should stiff enough to stay inside the whisk if not beat 1 or 2 more minutes.  
4. Add mixed dry ingredients into whipped egg white at once and start to fold them together with a flexible rubber spatula.  Use the spatula to press  the meringue against the sides of the bowl to deflate it and fold the dry ingredients in.  Hold the spatula in one hand, cut down in the center of the batter to the bottom.  Sweep the spatula under the batter toward you and run it along the  bottom, then up to the side to the top.  Loosen your fingers and flip the spatula over completely  across the top of the batter and  cut into the center again.  It is called one turn.  When you start the next turn, turn the bowl slowly with other hand. 
5. The batter will start thinning out and smooth after 40-50 turns. Slowing down and pay attention to the batter consistency carefully. After a few turns, stop and check:  the batter should be thick like lava, able to form a thick ribbon and melt down after 20 seconds. Undermixed macaron batter will be stiff and made macarons cracks when baking.  Overmixed batter will be running like pancake batter, hard to pipe nicely and make macarons flat.
6. Put a round large 1/2 inch tip down inside a large pastry bag (16-18 inches), make a twist near the end and push it down to the tip (to stop the batter running). Put the pastry bag over a tall large glass, and scrap 1/2 the batter into the bag.  Fold the end of pastry bag.  Put the template underneath the silicon pad or parchment paper and start to pipe into the circles.  Hold the tip at an angle, touch down near one side of a circle, put the pressure down from the top.  Stop when the batter nearly fill the whole circle, lift the tip up and make a quick circle movement of the tip.  You can hold the tip above the center of a circle and start to pipe down.  Repeat until finish piping.  Carefully remove the template. Grasp the pan firmly with both hands and hit it down hard on the counter,  Rotate and bang it down all four sides. It is called "rap",  Let them rest  at least 30 minutes or over hours until the macarons' surface dry and tacky. 
7. Preheat oven to 300 oF with a rack in middle toward the end of resting time.  Bake  18-20 minutes, until a macaron can be separated from the parchment or silicon by gently peel the parchment paper or silicon pad. Remove from oven and let macarons cool completely on  the pan.  Remove macarons from parchment paper or silicon pad, use spatula if needed.  
8. Make the filling while unbaked macarons resting.  Bring heavy cream, salt and vanilla to a boil, remove from heat.  Add white  chocolate, stir to coat well, cover and let stand for 2 minutes.  Then stir/whisk mixture until smooth.  Let it set in the fridge or freeze to a spreading consistency stirring often.  Checking every 5 minutes if using freezer. Whisk to lighten up a little bit then fill a pastry bag and pipe a small amount of chocolate ganache into half of the shells and sandwich them with others.  These can be eaten immediately but best after 24 hours.
9. Put them in air tight containers in the fridge at least overnight or 24 hours.  Bring them out to room temperature about 30 minutes to 1 hours before serving.  

*Note:

If you use a thin baking pan, need to double pans to prevent browning too much underneath the shells. 

If you do not have plain tip and pastry bag just use a plastic bag and cut a corner to pipe the batter/filling out.
Resting after piping help making those beautiful legs but macarons shells can be baked right after rapping just remember to preheat oven earlier if you want to bake them right away.
I just found a video of making macarons by a French Chef.