Yuzu & Matcha Macarons

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Game, set and matcha! Making your own macarons may seem a bit of a chore, but when they’re this cute - and involve a tennis-themed pun - they’re worth giving a go. Instead of the cloying sweetness of many store-bought macarons, the earthy matcha green tea ganache contrasts with a floral yuzu finish.

For the yuzu macaron shells Serves: 15

150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
12.5g yuzu powder
110g egg whites, divided into 2 x 55g portions (approximately 4 small egg whites in total)
¼ tsp intense lemon yellow food colour mixed with 2 tsp water
150g caster sugar
35g water

For the matcha ganache

70g double cream
1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
1 tbsp boiling water
125g Sous Chef white chocolate couverture

For the icing

10g egg white (approx. 1/2 of a small egg white)
60g icing sugar

Equipment

Stand mixer
Piping bags
10mm piping nozzle or the plastic tip that may have come with an old piping set (used for other tips to screw into)
Baking parchment paper
Thermapen thermometer

To make the yuzu macaron shells

Place the ground almonds, icing sugar and yuzu powder in a food processor and whizz for 10 seconds until well mixed. Sieve into a bowl discarding any large almond pieces. Add 55g of the egg white together with the yellow food colour and mix together. Set aside.
Next prepare the Italian meringue. Pour remaining egg white (55g) into a stand mixer with a whisk. Heat together caster sugar and 35g water in a small pan. When it reaches 117°C, start to beat the egg whites on full speed until they form soft peaks. When the sugar syrup reaches 121°C slowly pour over the egg whites, whisking at high speed. Leave the whisk running for another 6 minutes until the meringue is just warm to the touch.
Fold the Italian meringue into the almond and egg white mixture. Mix firmly with a wooden spoon – at least 20 times in each direction. If you prefer a more intense colour add a dash more food colour and continue mixing. Keep going until it loosens and turns glossy.
Place a 10mm round nozzle in a piping bag and fill with the macaron mixture. Pipe rounds onto the non-stick baking parchment. We used 3.5cm diameter spaced a few centimetres apart (just larger than the small circles on the macaron mat guide). For perfect circles, hold the piping bag perpendicular to the work surface, ½ cm above the centre of the guide circle. Keep the bag perfectly still as you squeeze. When the macaron is the size you want, stop and lift away quickly.
Leave the macarons to dry out overnight or place in a dehydrator on the lowest temperature setting for 20 minutes. A dry skin should form on the surface of the macarons so you can run your fingers over them without them becoming sticky.
Pre-heat the oven to 160°C (fan). Cook the macarons for 12 minutes. Open the door for a few seconds after 8 minutes to release the steam and again after 10 minutes. Wait for the macarons to cool before peeling them off the non-stick baking parchment.

To make the matcha green tea ganache

Mix together cream, matcha powder and boiling water in a small pan. Mix well with a whisk, and bring to the boil.
Place the white chocolate in a mixing bowl, and pour the cream over it. Leave for 30 seconds then stir to form a smooth, glossy ganache. If there are any pieces of chocolate left, heat the bowl over a pan of boiling water until they melt. Leave to cool for 20-60 minutes until piping consistency.

For the royal icing

Whisk together egg white and icing sugar until smooth

To assemble

For the tennis ball decoration, fill a piping bag with the royal icing and trim off the end so you have a 2mm hole. Pipe tennis ball ‘curves’ on half of the macarons. Leave to set.
For the filling, turn the remaining shells over so the bottom faces up. Fill a second piping bag with the matcha green tea ganache and trim off the end, making a 5mm-1cm hole. Pipe rounds to within 3mm of the edge. Top with the decorated macaron shells and – if you can wait – the macarons are best refrigerated for 24 hours before serving, and then left to return to room temperature.

Choose from a range of matcha teas here and choose from several types of yuzu here.

About the author

Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.

Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.

Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.

Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).