Salted Honey Rose Macarons

Sweet honey, soft florals, and a pinch of fleur de sel mesh together to create this unique macaron flavor perfect for Valentine’s Day or the upcoming Spring. Follow along with this tutorial to see the process from start to finish!

First, you’ll need to make your shells. For a detailed look at the macaron shell process, jump over to my Basic French Macaron recipe and be sure to take a close look at the consistencies of the stiff meringue peaks and the final batter texture. 

For the soft warm pink shell color, I used a blend of Americolor Deep Pink, a hint of Wilton Brown, and also a hint of Americolor Lemon Yellow. Start with a SMALL amount of color during your soft peak meringue stage and work your way up from there!

The filling is fairly straight forward, and can easily be adjusted to your taste preference. Rose (or floral flavor in general) is one of those love hate things, so feel free to add more or less based on what you think tastes good! I personally want to be able to taste it prominently, but not feel like I flavored my macarons with perfume. Shocker right?

I packed in just about the max amount of honey possible to the buttercream, so I do want to note that I wouldn’t recommend adding any more for the sake of sturdiness. If the buttercream gets soupy at any point, pop your bowl in the fridge to chill for awhile and then beat it in your electric mixer again to bring it back together.

Once you are ready to assemble, match up each shell with a partner of equal size, and then pipe the buttercream filling on one half. I used one of my favorite big bubba piping tips, the Wilton 8B! After piping the buttercream dollop, pipe honey into the center of each dollop. You can use a honey filled ziploc sandwich bag with the corner cut off if you don’t want to use a piping bag. To finish it off, sprinkle a generous amount of fleur de sel before sandwiching a shell of matching size on top!

Before we talk decoration, I wanted to share a little blurb about a hack I came across! I knew I wanted to feature the rose ingredient in my shell decoration, so I researched ways to dry flower petals. First and foremost though, if you are drying your own petals, you need to do the proper research to make sure they are food safe!

DO THE PROPER RESEARCH TO CONFIRM THE FLOWER IS EDIBLE AND NON TOXIC, AND CHECK WITH YOUR SUPPLIER THAT IT HAS NOT BEEN GROWN WITH CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES.

A few places you can potentially find flowers like this are…
The produce section in grocery stores
Farmer’s Markets
Grocery Stores that have a florist which can source flowers for their own bakery

Now that we have that covered, let’s move on! While I was working on these, I was running short on daylight to take photos, so thankfully I was able to find a method to dry them quickly in the microwave! Check out the video below for a tutorial on how to quick dry flower petals.

Microwave Dried Florals

1. Ensure flower is edible, non toxic, and hasn’t been grown with chemicals or pesticides.
2. Wash petals and carefully pat dry.
3. Place parchment paper on microwave safe dish, and arrange petals on the paper in a single layer.
4. Microwave in 30 Second Intervals, checking each time to remove any dry and crispy petals.

Factor approximately one rose worth of petals for each dozen you need to decorate if you’re only planning on using a small sprinkle per macaron. Less is more if you’re planning on leaving them on when you eat the macarons. From what I was able to find online, all varieties of roses are edible, but like I said, do your research and check with your supplier about pesticides and chemicals as well! Eating something poisonous would certainly put a damper on your day no matter HOW beautiful the florals are!

If you’d rather purchase your rose petals, I’ve heard good reviews about this Suncore Brand.

Suncore Foods Dried Rose Petals Bloom, Caffeine-Free Tea, Gluten-Free, Non-GMO, 0.3oz (1 Pack)

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For the white drizzle on the shells, you can further tie in the rose flavor by using rose water in your royal icing. Shoot for a medium/soft peak consistency when whipping up your icing so your drizzle will hold a clean line.

While your icing drizzle is still wet, add on your favorite blend of sprinkles to add extra texture/dimension. I used Wilton Pearls and White Non Pareils. Finish them off with a few small pieces of your dried rose petals!

Wilton White Nonpareils Cake Decorating Supplies, 3 Ounce (Pack of 1)

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Wilton Sugar Pearls, White, 5 Oz, Non Toxic

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Allow macarons to mature in an airtight container in the fridge for 24 hours to develop flavor and texture. Enjoy!

Salted Honey Rose Macarons

Sweet honey, soft florals, and a pinch of fleur de sel mesh together to create this unique macaron flavor perfect for Valentine’s Day or the upcoming Spring.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Resting Time 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 27 Assembled Macarons

Ingredients

  

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Macaron Shell

• 130 grams Egg Whites Approximately 4 Large Eggs, measure with scale
• 120 grams Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 200 grams Finely Ground Almond Flour
• 200 grams Confectioner's Sugar
• 1 pinch Salt Optional
• Gel Food Coloring 1-2 Drops of Deep Pink, Smidge of Brown, Smidge of Lemon Yellow

Honey Rose Buttercream

• 4 oz Salted Butter
• 1 pinch Salt
• Scant 1/4 tsp Rose Water 20-25 drops Flavor to taste
• 8 oz Confectioners Sugar
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 1 tbsp Heavy Cream
• Fleur de sel to taste (to sprinkle on after piping filling)

Rose Royal Icing Drizzle

• 4.7 oz Confectioner's Sugar
• 1/2 tbsp Meringue Powder
• 1/4 tsp Rose Water
• 1.5 tbsp Water

Assembly

• 1/4 Cup Honey for Centers
• 2-3 tbsp Dried Edible Food Safe Rose Petals For Decoration, See Tutorial in Post
• 2 tsp White Non Pariel Sprinkles

Instructions

 

Macaron Shell

• Line 2 baking sheets with a silicone mat (circle template optional but recommended).
• Place a medium sized round piping tip (such as a 2A) in a large piping bag. Twist the bag right behind the tip and add a clip to seal off the opening. Place the bag tip down into either a clean tall cup with the edges folded over the rim to keep the bag open, or clip it into a bag holder.
• Using a kitchen scale, carefully weigh out and sift the confectioner’s sugar and almond flour into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk well to fully blend the two together.
• Place egg whites, granulated sugar, and cream of tartar into a large mixing bowl, and begin beating with a whisk attachment using either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer for 2 minutes on a medium low speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 4).
• Turn up the mixer to a medium speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 6) and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add pink gel food coloring.
• Turn mixer up to medium high speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 8) and beat for 3 more minutes, or until peaks are very stiff and the meringue clumps up in a ball in the center of the whisk. Test stiffness by removing whisk and pointing it upward. (See photos in post) Once the peaks can hold their shape flipped upright, your meringue is ready.
• Pour half of your almond flour/confectioner’s sugar mixture into the bowl with your meringue, and fold 15 times. One fold is scraping all the way around the edge of your batter in your bowl, and then dragging your spatula through the middle. Be sure to scoop around the bottom of the bowl as well so you don’t miss any dry ingredients.
• Pour in the remaining powdered sugar and almond flour, and continue folding (approximately 30 more folds) until dry ingredients are fully incorporated, your batter is no longer clumpy and stiff. Do not overfold. This recipe's batter stays a bit thicker than traditional macaron batter. Start checking your batter's readiness every 5 folds or so at this point by scraping all batter down to the bottom of your bowl, and then wiggling your bowl back and forth several times. If the batter levels out with very few peaks and lines remaining, it should be ready. (See photos in Basic French Macarons post for reference)
• Pour batter into prepared piping bag, and twist the opening off. Hold your bag at the twist between your thumb and pointer finger. Remove the clip.
• Holding the piping bag straight up and down, apply pressure to begin piping your batter in the center of your circle templates, releasing pressure once you are a few millimeters short of your desired size. After you release pressure, use a small quick circular flick to release your tip from the piped macaron.
• Once you’ve piped a full tray, firmly bang the tray on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles and smooth out shells. Pop any remaining large bubbles with a toothpick. Repeat with the second tray.
• Begin preheating your oven to 300 degrees, using an oven thermometer if possible to ensure accurate temperature readings.
• Set aside shells to dry until they form a skin and are no longer tacky to the touch. Once you can gently run a finger over your shells, they are ready to bake. Use a fan to speed up the process, rotating the tray every few minutes to ensure even drying. This usually takes at least 16-20 minutes for me even with a fan.
• Once shells are dry, and the oven has fully preheated to 300, place one tray in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 18 minutes.
• Quickly open door to check the shell's doneness by gently pressing on the side just above the feet to see if it's firm. If it moves at all, rotate and bake for another 2 minutes.
• Check shells by performing the same test, pressing on the side. If they are still unstable, bake for one more minute, and check again. Repeat until shells are firm and do not budge.
• Allow shells to cool completely, and the carefully remove from silicone mat or by gently peeling them off.

Honey Rose Buttercream

• Beat butter, honey, and rose water until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer.
• Add in powdered sugar and the pinch of salt and beat until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of your bowl periodically.
• If buttercream becomes soupy, see note below *
• Add in heavy cream and beat until just combined.

Rose Royal Icing

• Whisk together powdered sugar and meringue powder in the bowl of an electric mixer.
• In a separate small bowl, combine water and rose water, and then pour into the powdered sugar mixture.
• Whip for approximately two minutes.
• Check for medium/soft peak consistency. If it’s too thick, and a small amount of water to thin it out. Whip to combine, and check again. Repeat until you’ve reached the medium/soft peaks.

Assembly

• Match each shell with a partner of equal size.
• Pipe a dollop of the Honey Rose Buttercream on one shell using a piping bag fitted with an 8B piping tip.
• Pipe honey into the center of each buttercream dollop using a separate piping bag with just a small piece of the tip cut off creating a tiny opening.
• Add a generous sprinkle of fleur de sel.
• Sandwich the partner shell on top.
• Drizzle a few lines of rose royal icing on the top of each assembled macaron.
• While icing is still wet, add a few sprinkle pearls, non pareils, and small pieces of the edible rose petals.
• Place in an airtight container for 24 hours to fully develop optimum flavor and texture. Store in the fridge, but serve at room temperature. Enjoy!

Notes

If buttercream becomes soupy from overmixing, pop in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to chill, and then try again. 

Keyword Floral, Honey, Pink Sugar Cookies, Rose, Salted, Spring, Valentine’s Day

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