I was in the mood to make some macarons the other day, and these were what I came up with! I wanted to definitely do matcha, since it’s been a while since I made matcha-flavored anything, and I figured, just to make them a little unique, why not add some yuzu to them? The shells themselves are flavored with matcha powder, while the filling is a matcha-yuzu French buttercream. Overall, a fairly straightforward recipe in terms of the ingredients, but there is the obvious struggle behind the actual technique of making a macaron.

The biggest tip I could give is monitoring your macaronage – the flowiness of the batter. If it is really dense, then you’ve underfolded the mixture, so that will result in large air pockets that will bake off into cracks, no matter how much you rest the shells or tap them. You want to be able to write the number “8” with your batter, but also that batter should then spread slowly and melt back into itself across the span of 30 seconds. The next piece of advise I would offer is tapping the macaron-lined sheet trays against a flat surface, and then resting the shells for at least 30 minutes – the tapping, as I mentioned, removes the air pockets that could create cracks in the shells, while resting allows a thicker shell to form on the top of the macarons. These shells are important, as they contain the batter inside of them, allowing the cookies to rise without either spreading out, or cracking or exploding. With those tips in mind, happy baking!

Makes about 30 macarons:
For the macaron:
2 egg whites
2/3 cups almond powder
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon matcha powder
a pinch of salt

Whip egg whites with granulated sugar until stiff peaks form. Sift the other dry ingredients together. Fold into the whipped egg whites, and count out to about 25 folds. Transfer to a piping bag, lined with a medium to small sized circular tip. Pipe into about 1 inch circles, keeping them about 2 inches apart, on parchment. Be sure to tap the tray against a surface at least 4 times to remove air bubbles and allow to sit for 30 minutes before baking at 300 degrees F for 14 minutes. Cool completely before attempting to remove from the baking sheet.

For the French buttercream:
3 tbsp yuzu juice
2 tbsp water
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tspn matcha powder
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter

Heat up the yuzu juice, water, salt, and sugar. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolk with matcha powder and vanilla first. Pour the yuzu syrup, which should be reduced by half at this point, into the egg mixture and whisk. Then slowly whisk into that the butter until everything is combined.