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Salted butter popcorn macarons topped with crushed popcorn
Macarons

Salted Butter Popcorn Macarons

Macaron shells filled with white chocolate popcorn ganache, finished with melted butter and crushed salted popcorn.

By Food Equals Happy Me
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For the shell ingredients, see our almond flour guide and caster sugar substitutes. Once filled, follow the macaron storage guide.

These macarons pair a sweet white chocolate ganache with buttered popcorn flavouring and sea salt. A little melted butter holds the crushed popcorn topping in place.

Allow time for the shells to rest before baking and for the filled macarons to chill overnight. The ganache should be cool and thick enough to pipe before you fill the shells.

Let’s make something good

Salted Butter Popcorn Macarons

Baking time
17–18 minutes per tray, plus 30–45 minutes to rest the shells and overnight chilling

Ingredients

Tick off each ingredient as you go.

Method

  1. Make the ganache. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Pour over the chopped white chocolate and leave for a few minutes, then stir until smooth. Add the popcorn flavouring and sea salt a little at a time, tasting as you go. Set aside to cool and thicken.
  2. Prepare the dry ingredients. Briefly pulse the icing sugar and almond meal in a food processor. Avoid over-processing, which releases oil from the almonds. Sift into a bowl and discard any large pieces left in the sieve.
  3. Whisk the egg whites. Whisk the egg whites in a large metal bowl until soft peaks form. Add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time, continuing to whisk until you have stiff peaks.
  4. Fold the batter. Fold half the almond and icing sugar mixture into the egg whites, then add the remainder. Continue folding until combined and the batter drops from the spatula and settles back into itself.
  5. Pipe and rest. Transfer to a piping bag with a large round tip. Pipe rounds about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) across onto baking-paper-lined trays. Gently tap the trays to release air bubbles. Leave at room temperature for 30–45 minutes, until a skin forms and the tops are no longer sticky to touch.
  6. Bake. Preheat the oven to 130°C (about 265°F). Bake for 17–18 minutes. A shell should lift easily from the paper without a sticky base; if it does not, bake for another minute and check again. Lift the shells from the trays and leave to cool.
  7. Fill the macarons. Match the cooled shells into pairs. Pipe ganache onto half of the shells, then sandwich with the remaining halves.
  8. Add the popcorn topping. Pulse the popcorn into small pieces in a food processor. Lightly brush the tops of the macarons with melted butter and sprinkle with the crushed popcorn.
  9. Chill and serve. Refrigerate the assembled macarons overnight to set. Let them come up to room temperature before serving.
White chocolate filled macarons with a salted popcorn topping

A few things to check

  • Use a scale for the icing sugar and almond meal. The gram measurements are carried over from the original recipe.
  • Add flavouring gradually. Concentrated buttered popcorn flavourings vary in strength, so taste the ganache before adding more. The original recipe suggested a baking flavouring such as LorAnn.
  • Check the shells before baking. The surface should feel dry rather than sticky after resting.
  • Let the shells cool before filling. Warm shells can soften the ganache.

For another macaron filling, try our banana macarons. For more sweet and salty baking, see the maple bacon cupcakes.

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