How to make Black Sesame Salted Egg Macarons (Totoro Macarons!)

Hello :-) More quarantine baking to share here. Macarons are one of my favourite things to bake. Although the recipes can be technical and finicky, you can adapt them to almost any design and occasion. When they turn out well, it's very satisfying.

Macarons are known for their sweetness. With sugar representing half of the ingredients by weight, macarons are arguably more candy than cookie. Here, I share a flavour combo of black sesame and the currently popular salty egg. The salty egg buttercream filling contrasts really well with the sweetness of the macarons. Here's the recipe:

Totoro Macarons (Makes 20 large or 30 small macarons)
http://bakelogs.blogspot.com/2020/12/...
Macaron base:
60 g egg whites
45 g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste/extract (optional)
-- plain almond batter --
32 g icing sugar + 26 g almond pwd (AKA almond flour)
-- black sesame batter --
64 g icing sugar + 32 g almond pwd + 20 g black sesame pwd
pinch of charcoal powder (or scant black food colouring)
Filling:
112 g (1 stick/half cup) salted butter
2 salted duck eggs
1 large chicken egg
60 g granulated sugar
Decoration:
1-2 white chocolate chips
pinch of charcoal powder (or black food colouring)

Baking temp 300 F / 148 C, no convection
Baking time: approx 10 min
Special equipment: piping bags x 2, piping tips (8 mm/5/16"/Wilton #12, and 5 mm/3/16"/Wilton #8).

Check out my Insta for more baking adventures :-) @kelly.elly

Thank you for watching! Warm wishes for a happy and cozy holiday season :)