Vanilla Olive Oil & Balsamic Caramel Macarons

About a week ago, I had some leftover white chocolate and saw this interesting recipe over here for Pierre Herme's olive oil and vanilla ganache. So of course I had to try it! Honestly, I found it very... interesting. The olive oil flavor came through very strongly! I didnt think it was bad at all and I actually would keep going back to taste and re-taste it. But, I didnt have that "Mmmmm" feeling when I bit into the Macaron. Well, then I became very busy with other Holiday stuff and stuck the ganache in the fridge for later.

Then, I came across MacTweets' challenge for the month - a savory sweet macaron! It got me thinking about the olive oil ganache again. An idea began to form. I realized that while I dont mind dipping some good french bread into some nice olive oil, its never as good plain as with a sprinkling of sea salt in the olive oil or some balsamic vinegar.

So here are my olive oil macarons v.2!



After piping the olive oil ganache I sprinkled on some sea salt and then mixed some balsamic vinegar into some salted caramel buttercream and piped it into the center.



I actually really did enjoy it! I thought I was just weird and offered some to my family and they all actually said they liked it. I guess it was a sucess!

The ganache recipe can be found at the above link.

Salted Caramel Buttercream
200g sugar
1 vanilla pod
200g cream
3.75g fleur de sel
1 cup butter, room temp

In a heavy pan or pot, wet sugar with a little water and heat over a medium-high heat. Meanwhile, boil the cream and have it standing by. Continue to cook the sugar until there is an even caramel color throughout. Whisk in the cream, vanilla and salt until well combined. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Chill until thickened, then beat with an electric mixer. To create the balsamic caramel, I just took a couple spoonfuls of the caramel and stirred in a couple splashes of balsamic to taste. Go slowly, remember how strong balsamic vinegar can be!

Happy Happy Happy Holidays!