Adorable bear-shaped French macaron shells, sandwiched together with a rich Thai tea white chocolate ganache. They’re decorated with royal icing (see recipe notes below) and but feel free to use melted white + milk/dark chocolate!
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About these Thai tea macarons
I’ve been really excited about Halo Pantry, a brand that sells all natural Asian-inspired flavorings. The owner, Jaime, was kind enough to send me two flavorings to try out—Thai tea and ube! And after making my chocolate bear macarons, I thought it would be perfect to make white bears filled with a Thai milk tea white chocolate ganache.
If you’re wondering, this blog post isn’t sponsored at all. I’m just super ecstatic that Halo Pantry is selling flavors that I love, which are easy to incorporate into my baking. Since the Thai tea flavoring is light, I added 3-4 tsp to the white chocolate ganache, but feel free to an amount to your liking. The flavoring also doesn’t contain any colors, which is great if you are hoping to dye whatever you make a specific color. I decided to add a bit of orange food coloring to my ganache, but feel free to omit it.
All of my taste testers LOVED these Thai tea macarons and told me the flavor was spot on, so I was quite happy! I have some ideas on how to use the Thai tea and ube flavorings, but if you have any you’d like to share, feel free to reach out!
Bear macaron template (2.2 W x 2 H inch)
Tips for baking and decorating
Use a kitchen scale
Macarons are incredibly finicky. A kitchen scale allows you to measure all the ingredients correctly and helps you create consistent, full, sturdy shells. AND, if you use a cute kitchen scale like this heart-shaped one, it’ll increase your overall happiness by at least 10%.
How to get white macarons
You actually won’t use any white food coloring, you’ll want to use a tiny amount of purple food coloring! The purple will offset the yellowness of the almond flour, giving you white batter. This trick is also helpful in other baking recipes to get white batters/doughs, especially when butter is involved.
Decorating with royal icing
You can use a piping bag, cookie scribe, or toothpick to add on the details. I used a piping bag for these guys.
To decorate the polar bear macarons, I used royal icing (like this royal icing recipe) since I always have it stocked in my freezer. If you don’t want to make royal icing, you can also use melted white chocolate for the snout/ears and milk/dark chocolate for the eyes + nose!
For dying white chocolate, you’ll want to use oil-based food coloring or the chocolate will seize up and become lumpy. However, if you don’t have oil-based food coloring, you can try mixing in a tsp of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) at a time! The chocolate should come back together. Maaagic.
Storing the kawaii cookies
Store the macarons in an airtight container. They can last in the fridge for up to 5 days, otherwise, they’ll get pretty soggy over time. I highly recommend freezing them instead (for up to one month), and eating them at room temperature.
I really hope you enjoy this recipe. If you make these teddy bear macarons, I’d love to see them. You can tag me at #bitesbybianca / @bitesbybianca on Instagram. Enjoy! 🙂
Other cute macaron recipes
Check out this link for chocolate bunnies, Thai tea bears, strawberry cheesecake Kirbys, Oreo bears, lemon duckies, chocolate pigs, and more!
Bear-Shaped Thai Tea White Chocolate French Macarons
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Ingredients
For the French macaron shells:
- 50 g egg whites, room temperature ($0.24)
- 40 g granulated sugar ($0.08)
- ⅛ tsp cream of tartar ($0.04)
- 60 g almond flour, sifted ($1.13)
- 50 g powdered sugar, sifted ($0.20)
- purple food coloring, optional
For the Thai tea white chocolate ganache:
- 100 g white chocolate ($1.03)
- 40 g heavy cream ($0.33)
- 2-4 tsp Thai tea flavoring ($2.61)
- pinch of salt ($0.01)
- orange food coloring, optional
For the decorations:
- black, pink, and white royal icing (see recipe notes), OR melted milk/dark chocolate and melted white chocolate
Instructions
Preparation:
- Put printed macaron template on baking trays. Place silicone baking mats or parchment paper on top of templates.
- Set up one large piping bag with a medium round tip If you do not have a round tips, you can just snip the end of the bag before piping using scissors.
For the French macaron shells:
- In a medium bowl, mix the sifted almond flour and powdered sugar.
- In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and cream of tartar.
- Pour the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer. Set up a stopwatch to time how long to whip the meringue. (These times are listed to help beginner macaron makers. With practice, you can go by eye.)0:00 – 4:00 minutes: Mix on medium-low for 4 minutes (Kitchenaid speed 4).4:00 – 9:30 minutes: Turn the mixer to medium speed (Kitchenaid speed 6). Add a third of the granulated sugar and cream of tartar mixture. After 30 seconds, add another third. After another 30 seconds, add the last of the granulated sugar and cream of tartar mixture. Keep mixing at medium speed until you have reached a total of 9:30 minutes. The meringue should be balled up onto the whisk, very thick, glossy, and have stiff peaks. If not, keep mixing at 30-second intervals at Kitchenaid speed 8 until it is.
- Add all of the powdered sugar, almond flour, and a SMALL amount of purple food coloring to the meringue. I like to use a cake tester or knife, get a bit of purple food coloring on it, and scrape it into the meringue. The purple offsets the yellow color from the almond flour, making your batter white.Gently fold the macaron batter, often scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl. Continue folding, adding more purple food coloring as needed.
- Fold the batter until it reaches a thick, glossy consistency and flows off the rubber spatula into ribbons. To test if it is ready, allow the batter to flow off the spatula and into the batter. If the ribbons do not melt into the rest of the batter after 30 seconds, continue folding. Be careful not to over mix. When it passes this test, transfer the batter to your piping bag.
- With your medium piping bag, pipe 24 round shells onto your silicone mats/parchment paper, using the round macaron template as a guide. You should have some batter leftover for the ears. Tap the trays against the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles. If there are bubbles on the surface, you can use a toothpick or cookie scribe to pop them. Popping the air bubbles helps stop them from cracking when being baked.
- Once you get rid of as many air bubbles as possible, you will now pipe the ears on half of the shells, since the backs do not need ears. On 12 of the shells, pipe a small circle on the top left of on of the shells to make one of the ears. Repeat on the top right side for the other ear. Remove the macaron templates.
- Allow the macarons to sit out at room temperature to dry for at least one hour. They will be ready to bake once the surface of the macaron is matte and dry to the touch. If it is a really humid day, it can sometimes take 2 hours for them to dry.
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Place an empty baking sheet upside-down on the middle rack.
- Place the baking sheet with the macarons on top of the upside-down baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through. To test if they are done baking, gently push the side of one shell. If it wiggles on the sheet, they need to be baked longer.
- Remove the macarons and place them on a wire rack. Bake any remaining macaron shells.
- Allow macarons to fully cool before peeling them off the parchment paper or silicone mats.
For the Thai tea white chocolate ganache:
- Add white chocolate, salt, and heavy cream to a microwave-safe bowl.
- Microwave for 45 seconds, then mix. If the chocolate is not fully melted, microwave at 10-second intervals and mix until it is smooth.
- Add Thai tea flavoring a tsp at a time. Mix and taste the ganache, adding more flavoring as needed. If you'd like the ganache to be orange, add orange food coloring now.
- Place bowl into the fridge and stir it every 5 minutes until the ganache is thick enough to pipe, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer ganache to a piping bag.
Assembly:
- Match the macaron shells, lining up each pair on your work surface. If you're using royal icing, pipe on white for the snout, pink for the ears, and black dots for the eyes and nose.Alternatively, you can use melted white chocolate for the snout + ears and melted milk/dark chocolate for the nose + eyes.
- Pipe a dollop of the Thai tea white chocolate ganache on the bottom shell, then add the other shell on top.
- Leave macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for at least 12 hours before eating. This allows them to mature, making them softer, chewier, and more flavorful. Eat at room temperature.