This is the second time I work with caramel, first time was two years ago when I did some charity cupcakes for an animal welfare event in Cyprus, called “Hot Dog Show”. Funny coincident is that I again decided to work around a dogie theme. The chihuahua shape that I was going for did not come out that well and my caramel sauce stayed a bit too runny, which makes the macarons messy to eat, but still delicious and pretty cute – don’t you think?
Ingredients (makes around 20 dogie macaron cookies)
For the macaron cookies:
- 80g egg whites, divided
- 100g granulated sugar
- 25ml water
- 100g ground almonds
- 100g powdered sugar
For the filling:
- 60g golden caster sugar
- 60g soft brown sugar
- 50g unsalted butter
- 85ml cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
- sea salt flakes
For dogie faces:
- 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
- drop of concentrated lemon juice
- black food coloring
- red heart sugar sprinkles
Instructions
- Prepare a dogie cookie template by drawing on a baking paper and place it under another baking paper or a silicone baking sheet, you will need two baking sheets but can use one template for both.
- Divide your egg whites to two, leaving 40g aside and placing 40g in a mixing bowl.
- Place the granulated sugar and water in a pot and put it on the stove on medium heat, at the same time start whisking the egg whites in your mixing bowl in medium high speed.
- When the sugar starts to boil let it boil for one minute until it comes a thick syrup.
- Lower the mixing speed and slowly pour the syrup in the egg white foam.
- Turn whisking on high speed and continue whisking for about 5 minutes until you get stiff and glossy peaks.
- Meanwhile mix almond flour, powdered sugar until fully incorporated, then add remaining egg whites and mix well.
- Add the almond paste in your bowl with meringue and gently mix it by folding with a spatula or big spoon.
- Pipe the macaron shells onto the baking sheet following the template. If the ears start to round up, you can sharpen the top by remodeling using a toothpick.
- Tap your baking sheet few times to get rid of possible air bubbles and leave them to air dry until you finish piping the other baking sheet.
- Preheat oven to 160ºC.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, then let the shells cool down.
- Prepare the caramel by placing all ingredients, apart from sea salt flakes, in a sauce pan and put on the stove on medium heat, mixing until it starts to boil. Let it boil for 2 minutes then take off the stove and stir in some sea salt flakes. Let it cool down before using for filling the macarons.
- Find matching shells and line them for decorating and filling.
- In a small bowl or cup mix tablespoon of powdered sugar with a few drops of lemon juice and a drop of black food coloring, then by using a brush use it to draw eyes, nose and ears on your dogies.
- In another small bowl or cup mix tablespoon powdered sugar with drops of lemon juice and use it to apply to attach a heart for the tongue.
- Place the caramel in a piping bag and pipe on the flat side of the shells.
- Top with another shell to make a sandwich, a dogie sandwich 🙂