Recently, at a small town coffee shop, I ordered a salted honey latte. I loved it so much I decided to recreate it, packing all of the flavors of a salted honey latte into a cookie. My salted honey coffee macarons are filled with rich and silky coffee Kalua French buttercream and salted honey sandwiched inside crisp and chewy coffee macaron shells. So delicious and addictive, you will want to make these macarons on repeat.
Coffee Macarons
The macaron shells are flavored with instant coffee, or you can also use instant espresso. Use a instant coffee that you like, or one that is known to be good quality because the coffee is the star and dominant flavor of these shells.
Before you begin making the macarons, prepare the ingredients. Leave the egg whites out to sit at room temperature in the bowl of a stand mixer for 30 minutes. Place the granulated sugar, salt and cream of tartar in a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Sift and discard any large pieces.
In a separate bowl, sift together the almond flour, instant coffee, and confectioner’s sugar. Discard the large pieces.
Beat with the whisk attachment until the eggs are foamy, then whisk in the sugar/salt/cream of tartar. Whip until stiff peaks form. This means that the egg whites will stick straight up when you pull the whisk out of the whites. They will be thick and glossy.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in the almond flour mixture. The egg whites will deflate a bit and that is ok. The batter is ready when it “ribbons”, which means it falls off the batter in a stream. You should be able to make a “8” with the batter falling off the spatula. This means the batter is ready. You’re looking for about 55-75 folds. Check for the ribboning after every 15-20 seconds. You don’t want to over mix.
Firmly tap the pans 2-3 times on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles. Let the macs sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes to set. They’re ready to baked when the tops are slightly tacky and you can touch them without batter sticking to your fingers. Sitting out helps to create the macaron feet so that the macarons bake upwards and don’t spread outwards.
Bake for 20 minutes. The macs will be set, risen and have little ruffly feet around the bottom. Let the macs dry before removing them from the parchment. Fully baked, they will be easy to remove from the parchment or silicone mat.
Coffee Kalua French Buttercream
French buttercream is one of my favorite macaron fillings. See my post on French buttercream to see step by step how to make it. This is an egg yolk based buttercream so it's creamy and custardy. It holds the coffee and Kalua well so that the flavors really come through the buttercream.
Assembling salted honey coffee macarons
Fit a piping bag with a #12 round piping tip and fill with buttercream. Turn half of the macarons flat side up. Pipe a border of buttercream. Fill the centers with honey. I like to use a thicker, raw clover honey, but you can use whatever honey you keep on hand. Add a pinch of flaky sea salt on top of the honey. Place the other half of the macaron shells on top to create a sandwich. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
If you make these salted honey coffee macarons, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.
Enjoy!
Ash xx
For more macaron recipes, check out these posts:
Recipe
Salted Honey Coffee Macarons
Ingredients
Coffee Macarons
- 3 large (90g) egg whites (reserve two egg yolks for buttercream)
- 60 grams superfine, caster or granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee, or espresso
- 150 grams confectioners sugar
- 120 grams almond flour
Kalua Coffee French Buttercream
- 2 large egg yolks
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso
- 1 teaspoon Kalua, or more to taste
- pinch of fine sea salt
Salted Honey
- ⅓ cup honey
- flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
Coffee Macaron Shells
- Place the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in medium size bowl, sift together the superfine sugar, cream of tartar and salt. Discard any large pieces of sugar left. Set bowl aside.
- In a separate large bowl, sift together the powdered sugar, instant coffee and almond flour. Process the remaining large pieces in a food processor to pulverize them, then sift. Set the bowl aside.
- Line half baking sheets with parchment paper, or macaron guide silicone mats. Or place templates under the parchment, if using.
- Beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy.
- Beat in the granulated sugar, cream of tartar and salt mixture.
- Whip the egg white mixture until stiff peaks form. The meringue will stand up straight when the whisk is removed. The egg white mixture will be thick and glossy.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and folding in the almond flour mixture. The egg whites will deflate a bit and that is ok. The batter is ready when it "ribbons", which means it falls off the batter in a stream. You should be able to make a "8" with the batter falling off the spatula. This means the batter is ready. You're looking for about 50-75 folds. Check for the ribboning after every 15-20 seconds.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip (Wilton 1A or 2A) and pipe 1 ½" rounds on the parchment paper.
- Firmly tap the pans on the counter 2-3 times to remove air bubbles. Let the macarons sit until just slightly tacky, but no batter comes off on your fingers, about 30-60 minutes.
- Meanwhile preheat the oven to 300F. Bake the macarons for 20 minutes. Cool completely.
Coffee Kalua French Buttercream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks on high speed until very pale in color and slightly thickened.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of water and place over medium heat, stirring on occasion.
- While the sugar is boiling prepare the coffee mixture. Combine 2 tablespoons of hot water with the instant coffee. Let sit to cool.
- Once the mixture starts to boil, stop stirring and boil the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and reaches 238F on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat.
- With the mixture on low speed, slowly stream in the hot sugar syrup. Be sure to do this slowly and on low speed so the hot sugar doesn't splash up.
- Turn the mixer up to medium and beat until the mixture is room temperature and the bowl is completely cool.
- Add the butter, a few pieces at a time. Add in the salt, Kalua and coffee mixture.
- Beat until the buttercream is completely smooth and silky (about 3 minutes).
Assemble the macarons
- Spoon the coffee Kalua buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip ( I used a Wilton #12).
- Flip half of the macaron shells over, flat side up. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the perimeter of flipped shells.
- Spoon ½ teaspoon of honey into the center of the buttercream ring.
- Top the honey with a pinch of flaky sea salt.
- Place the remaining macaron shells on top of the cookies with filling and squeeze gently, until the filling just reaches the edges.
Jitendra says
Very nice recipe & good information 👌