Salted Caramel Macaron Recipe


How is it possible that it is already September? The days have been going by so incredibly fast and I have already been back at work for a week. Summer feels like it was ages ago! Speaking of summer, all summer long I was baking and perfecting my salted caramel macaron recipe. In fact, I brought almost 2 dozen of these french goodies with me to Toronto when I visited my family. I have been making these macarons repeatedly and for good reason as they have been super popular with everyone that has tasted them.

I have blogged about Hazelnut Salted Caramel Macarons previously, but I found that when I filled my macarons with only caramel the caramel oozed all over the place and was overall a big mess.

So this summer, I decided to spend more time experimenting and found that the best option was to surround that oozy caramel with buttercream! 



I tried making a variety of different caramels to see which would taste the best in the macaron- lighter caramel, darker caramel or almost burnt. Throughout this process, I must admit that I often found myself waiting impatiently for the sugar to melt and nearly almost always think that I have somehow failed at making a good batch of caramel. Turns out, the most important things to remember when making caramel is to not touch that sugar while it is melting and to use a candy thermometer.

Once you have created your salted caramel, allow it to cool. Then, make the macaron shells according to this post (I used Wilton Brown gel food colouring). Next, make the salted caramel buttercream according to the recipe below.

Salted Caramel Macaron Buttercream 

  • 80g castor (caster) sugar (superfine sugar)
  • 25g water
  • 1 whole egg (~60g)
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 180g soft unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
  • 3 tablespoons of dark salted caramel (Recipe here)
  1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small pot. Heat the sugar to 250F(120C) using a candy thermometer. If it boils, clean the sides of the pan with a damp pastry brush. Try not to mix the solution, but allow the sugar solution to heat on its own.
  2. In another bowl or the bowl of your stand up mixer whisk the eggs and egg yolks until it lightens in colour.
  3. Once the hot sugar mixture reaches 250F slow down the whisking speed of the eggs, and immediately pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg mixture. Increase to a higher whisking speed (8 on my KitchenAid). Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled down completely (approximately 10-15 minutes). It will look glossy, white and meringue like (see video below). 

    Whisk with the meringue
  4. Keep whisking the meringue until it has cooled (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk the butter until it has thickened. It will lighten a bit in colour. Once the meringue has cooled (temperature drops down to 50F), slowly add in the whisked butter a tablespoon at a time. Continue whisking until the buttercream is smooth.
    whisked and creamed butter
  5. Add salted caramel into the whisking buttercream mixture; one tablespoon at a time.
  6.  Once the salted caramel has incorporated into the butter mixture, transfer the salted caramel buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a tip. 
Salted Caramel Macaron Assembly
  1. Set up your macaron shells so that each shell has a partner shell that matches it in size. Using a small spoon, gently place a small dot of salted caramel into the middle of each half macaron shell.
  2. Pipe salted caramel buttercream around each dot of caramel.
  3. Sprinkle fleur de sel on top of the caramel.
  4.  Assemble the macarons by placing the tops on the macaron and gently push together until the buttercream mound flattens. 
  5. Store the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 days. 2 hours before serving, bring them out of the fridge as they are best enjoyed at room temperature.
I actually tried a bunch of different methods for the filling such as piping the buttercream first and then adding a dot of caramel, but it ended being trickier. I am most happy with putting the caramel first, and then surrounding it with the buttercream. Almost like a buffer zone!

As I wrote, these were a hit! I think it was because of a good balance between the darkness of the caramel and the sweetness of the buttercream. The fleur de sel gives a nice contrast to the macaron. If you have ever experienced any problems with controlling the oozing caramel in your macarons, I highly recommend trying this method! If you want to try your hand at making these macarons go for it! I'm always available on twitter or instagram @beyondumami to answer questions or to help you trouble shoot!

Click here for my dark Salted Caramel Recipe

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