Malted Milk Chocolate Macarons (Robin Egg)

Move over Easter Bunny, I’m taking over the candy gig this year! — The absolute best part of the spring season, other than the actual daylight after noon that we finally get, is the candy. Y’all know what I’m talking about. It’s those bags of malted milk candy shell eggs that pull me into the aisles every single week. I grab a bag and tell myself that I will ration them out, but always end up tearing into them immediately (usually in the car before I get home). It’s a cycle that somehow manages to happen more often than I care to admit.

Usually, around this time of year, I am Peep-crazed. I made some pretty stellar Homemade Peeps a couple years back that I usually whip up for a better version of the classic favorite. This year, I decided to fully embrace the Robin Eggs candy and create my own twist on the seasonal favorite. (Did you know that the shape is actually made with some weird vacuum sci-fi contraption and not an egg-shaped mold?! Weird.)

Almond macaron shells, filled with an incredibly decadent whipped malted milk chocolate ganache. I guess when they stores stop carrying the Easter candy, I’ll have a backup recipe to ensure that my blood sugar stays high enough to not go into a candy crush downfall while I wait for the next year.

My Macarons 101 post is now the most popular on the blog, with some really amazing comments and reader experiences shared every day on social media and in the comments. It includes a FREE printable piping template that you can slide right under your parchment paper and keep using over and over. That’s my secret to getting a perfect size every time. Be sure to leave a comment if you try it out. It’s awesome to see everyone give the daunting macarons a try and be successful.

Free Printable Piping Template over on my Macarons 101 post.

The macarons that I usually make are based on the traditional French method. French macarons are often a bit more tricky than the Italian meringue macarons that I made for this recipe, with everything relying on the technique and mixing methods. I find Italian macarons, that incorporates a hot sugar syrup, to be more stable and less tricky to make. The downside is that the shell texture just isn’t quite the wow factor that I expect from a wonderful mac. Italian meringue leaves you with a bit more matte finish, often less-defined feet, cookies. Neither are bad, it’s just a matter of preference and how comfortable you are with the methods for each.

When I was trying to figure out how to mimic the malted milk candy eggs, I noticed that the shells aren’t really all that glossy. They have a distinct crisp outer candy shell that I think is perfectly paired with Italian meringue macarons. A bit of food coloring, vodka (not all for me… to dilute the food coloring with as well), and a paintbrush, and you are left with that iconic spotted pastel finish. Rarely do recipes that I develop work out the first time, but this one was an immediate first place winner.

I toyed around with including some ground candies into the macarons themselves, but decided against it. You already get that crisp outer shell with a standard almond flour macarons cookie. I decided to focus on the filling.

Buttercream is my usual go-to for filling macs. It’s rich and can pack a ton of flavor, but for this recipe round, I went with an incredibly simple ganache. If I’m completely honest… I was lazy. I decided to try these last night (for real…), and was tired when I started, and even more tired when I was almost finished. This is the life of an early-30s-year-old with two obnoxiously loud cats that keep him up at night.

Ganache is simple, simple, simple. It’s a chocolate to cream ratio system, and never fails me. This is all based on weight. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, I can’t recommend grabbing one enough. It will change your baking life. I recommend THIS ONE ($50) as my favorite, or THIS $10 ONE if you want to spend a bit less.

• For thick glazing, I use a 1:1 chocolate to cream ratio
• For pourable glazes, 1:2 chocolate to cream ratio
• For pipable ganache, 2:1 chocolate to cream ratio.
  • This is what I picked for this recipe.

Since you can’t possibly have a ganache filling for a malted milk macaron without the malt, I made the decision to mix malt powder into the ganache process. Malt is notorious for being difficult to dissolve in some circumstances, but will easily dissolve in fats. Since ganache is made with cream, we have a super simple way to incorporate it into our filling without worrying about it being clumpy or grainy.

Just add in a bunch of malted milk powder (click here to find the one I use) to the cream and heat it until it just reaches a slight boil. You’ll pour this over the chocolate pieces. That is seriously all you have to do. We are that much closer to crawling into bed after making some midnight macs, y’all. The ganache was the right choice.

Once your cookies are baked and cooled, you can freeze them as shells, or go ahead and fill them. I’ve had amazing success with filling macarons, lining them up in a row and then freezing them. I would almost argue that they are better after they have been frozen, honestly.

Happy Spring! Be sure to share what you made with me on social media by tagging @southernfatty and #southernfatty. I would love to see and say hey.

What macaron twist would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below!