Alp Herbs macaroons with goat cream cheese filling
Time to prepare: 30 min + drying and baking time
Makes about 40 macaroons
Ingredients for the macaroons
4 EILLES TEE Alp Herbs Swiss Style Tea
Diamonds®
145g almonds, blanched and finely ground
145g powdered sugar
52g egg white, part 1
52g egg white, part 2
140g sugar
30g water
Ingredients for the filling
300g goat cream cheese (or other firm cream cheese)
120g butter, soft
Pinch salt
Honey to taste - see suggestion
To make the macaroons
Place ground almonds in a bowl, sieve powdered sugar into bowl and mix very
thoroughly.
Tear open tea pyramids and add Alp Herbs to the almond-sugar mixture, and
work in.
Now add egg white part 1 to the almond-sugar mixture and mix together; set
aside.
Put egg white part 2 in a grease-free stainless-steel mixing bowl. In another pot, bring sugar and water to 118°C over medium heat. Measure the temperature exactly.
When the thermometer shows 114°C, beat the egg white in the mixing bowl at high speed. Then reduce the speed.
When the thermometer shows 118°C gently pour the sugar solution under the egg white mass by the edge of the mixing bowl. Important: The mixer must be at the lowest speed for this step. As soon as all of the sugar solution is in the egg white, turn the speed all the way up and beat until the mass is cold. Now use a dough scraper to add 1/3 of the resulting meringue to the almond mass, and work it in vigorously.
Add the remaining 2/3 and work it in carefully, and then fold the mass back and forth until it drops slowly off the dough scraper. Important: Do not fold too much or too little.
Fill the mass into a piping bag with a 10 cm dia. nozzle and press macaroon-size portions onto baking paper or a macaroon mat.
Let macaroons dry about 45 minutes and then oven-dry at 130°C (convection) for about 20 minutes. The macaroons must come free of the baking paper or mat, but should not discolour.
Allow them to cool thoroughly, and only then remove them entirely from the paper or mat.
Suggestion: If desired, you can colour the macaroons. To do so work food colouring into the almond mass before adding the meringue.
To make the filling
Work the goat cream cheese and soft butter into a smooth paste. Season with a pinch of salt and honey to taste.
Fill into a piping bag with closed star nozzle (6B) or round nozzle.
On a baking sheet, lay out same-sized macaroon halves together in pairs.
Press filling onto one half of each pair. Start in the middle and do not go all the way to the edge.
Place the second macaroon half on top and press gently until the filling goes all the way out to the edge.
The macaroons are best enjoyed fresh. They will keep 1-2 days in the refrigerator, or can be frozen for up to 2 weeks.
Suggestion: To get a honey core in the goat cream cheese filling, use a very fine piping bag nozzle to press honey into the middle of the goat cream cheese. To keep it from getting too sweet, do not add honey to the goat cream cheese. Be careful when pressing the macaroon halves together so that the core doesn’t drip out.