With Chinese New Year baking completed and no baking schedule for Valentine’s Day, I finally had some time to make caramel fleur de sel, something that I’ve been wanting to try for the longest time.

I used Chef Pang’s recipe, found on Chubby Hubby’s blog, but found the resulting caramel way too salty on its own. It might have something to do with the accuracy of my digital weighing scale (I rounded up the amount of fleur de sel from 3.75g to 4g), but the next time I make this, I’m definitely cutting the sea salt down to 3g or maybe even 2g.

I really couldn’t bear to throw all that caramel away and turned it into a buttercream filling for macarons instead. I also used vanilla flavoured macaron shells made with hazelnuts instead of almonds.

I have to say that I loved the resulting flavour; slightly savoury with a deep caramel flavour that still shone through the buttercream. I included them in a box of macarons I’d made for a dinner party at WL’s and they quickly became the most sought-after macarons, beating even the ever popular dark chocolate and opéra flavours!

These are definitely going onto the menu!

Caramel Fleur de Sel Recipe (adapted from Chef Pang’s version)

Ingredients
200g sugar
Sufficient quantity water
1/2 tsp pure vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla pod
200g whipping cream, warmed
3g fleur de sel
140g unsalted butter, well-chilled and cut into cubes

Method
1. Place the sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Add just enough water to dampen the sugar.
2. Cook the sugar to 160 degrees C without stirring. The sugar syrup should take on an amber hue.
3. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the vanilla bean paste or the scrappings from the vanilla pod.
4. Add in the warm cream a little at a time - be very careful here as the caramel will foam up and sputter. I recommend wearing an oven mitt.
5. Add the fleur de sel and stir to make sure that all the caramel has dissolved.
6. Allow the mixture to cool to around 40 degrees C.
7. Add the cubes of butter and blend in the butter using an immersion blender until you have a smooth glossy paste.
8. Line the surface of the caramel with cling wrap to prevent a layer of skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator until needed.

When I received my first enquiry back in August about Christmas baking, I thought it’d be a great idea to come up with limited period macaron flavours just for the Christmas season.

I was pretty excited about the new flavours I’d dreamt up, but the steady stream of orders for macarons and cakes meant that I never had the time to actually try them out until this week.

All three new flavours have a hidden centre, which I thought was wonderfully appropriate for Christmas; biting into the macaron to find a hidden surprise in the middle would be like opening up a beautifully packaged Christmas present to get to the gift inside. Well, almost…

Peppermint Shells with Mint Tea White and Dark Chocolate Ganache

After all, what would Christmas be like without peppermint candy canes? While I love mint, I didn’t want the flavour to be overpowering and decided to go with chocolate as a filling. Even my husband who isn’t a great fan of mint likes the occasional After Eight thin chocolate square. For a subtler mint flavour, I went with mint tea infused white chocolate ganache as the main filling and a dark chocolate ganache in the centre. For those who don’t fancy white chocolate, there is also a mint tea dark chocolate ganache only version.

Christmas Spice Macaron with Ginger Rhubarb Buttercream and an Almond Paste Centre

I’ve always associated the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies with Christmas. It was easy to come up with just the right mix of spices for the macaron shells, but the filling was a little more difficult. I finally settled for a mildly tangy ginger rhubarb buttercream and a wonderfully aromatic homemade almond paste centre. Inspired by the deeply coloured macarons offered by Pierre Hermé and Ladurée, two of the finest pâtissieries in Paris, I went with a deep pink (almost red) colour for the shells. It wouldn’t be Christmas in a box without a touch of red now, would it?

Ginger Macarons with Ginger Rhubarb Buttercream and Candied Ginger (pictured in the first photograph above)

My sister had told me many months ago about a ginger flavoured macaron that her colleague had tried. While I was mildly intrigued, I wasn’t too sure if it’d be well-received. Then I remembered those blistery cold winter nights in Sweden and how wonderful that cup of firey hot ginger tea I’d shared with WL and SH had felt then. While Christmas in Singapore isn’t quite as cold, there are days when it’s cold enough to make me wish for that extra bit of warmth. I suppose it was worth a shot.

The results were surprisingly good. I kept the ginger flavour in the shells and buttercream on the mild side and added candied ginger to the centre for a stronger flavour. It made for a mildly tangy macaron until you hit the slightly spicy candied ginger centre.

The downside of having waited so long to make these Christmas macarons is that I only have a few slots left for anyone wishing to try them.

Available for Purchase: Christmas in a Box @ a Price of S$45. Includes 28 macarons (3 Christmas flavours or any other flavour you fancy from the list here) in a long glossy red custom made box with fat green or gold ribbon.

My fridge is overflowing with a huge giraffe cake (more about that in a later post) and you’ve guessed it, macarons! Some of these miniature confections were my own, but some were from various famed pâtisseries around Europe, brought back by very generous friends who’d travelled there recently.

3 weeks ago, my husband and I met up with a friend at a party. He mentioned that he was leaving for Zurich on a work-related trip the following week. We suggested that he visit Sprüngli in his spare time there and try at least one of their popular luxemburgerlis. 2 weeks went by and I’d completely forgotten about the conversation that we’d had about Sprüngli, which was why I was completely surprised to receive a message from him last week, telling me that he’d got us a box of (close to 40) luxemburgerlis! Thank you, CR! We really enjoyed them.

Today, I met up with another friend for lunch. She’d just got back from Paris on a work trip last week and had bought me a box of beautifully packaged macarons from Ladurée! I was really touched that she’d gone out of her way to get me these “cookies”. Thank you so much, HL, for the macarons and for everything else that we’ve shared in the last few months!

I feel really blessed to have such wonderful friends! Wouldn’t you?