Dark Chocolate Macaron with Dulce de Leche

Preheat oven to 425 F.

To make the dulce de leche, pour the sweetened condensed milk into a shallow baking dish. Stir in the sea salt. Cover it with aluminium foil. Place the dish into another larger pan. Add hot water into the larger pan until it reaches halfway up the side of the small dish.

Put pans into the oven. Bake for an hour or until the milk becomes browned and caramelized. Remove from oven and let it cool. You can turn the oven off at this point. Whisk until smooth before use.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Put a 1 1/2-inch circle master template under the parchment paper or draw 1 1/2-inch circles in rows on the paper, about 1 inch apart.

Process the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and almond flour in a food processor until finely ground. Sift the mixture through a sieve. If there are more than 2 tablespoons of large chunks left in the sieve, grind them and sift again. Set the mixture aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium speed until frothy. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to high and beat until very stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.

Sift the almond flour mixture over the egg whites. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the almond flour mixture into the egg whites until the ingredients are combined and the mixture has loosened and falls in a ribbon from the spatula.

Fit a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch round tip and fill the bag with the batter. Using the template as a guide, pipe circles onto the parchment paper. Tap the bottom of each sheet on the work surface to release trapped air bubbles. Let the cookies stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes until the surface of the cookie shells is completely dry to touch. This allows the cookies to develop their crusts.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Put the pans into the oven and bake the macarons for 10 to 12 minutes, until set but not browned. Transfer the baking sheets from the oven to wire racks and let the macarons cool completely on the pans. Once cooled, gently lift half of the cookies from the parchment paper and turn them upside down.

Spoon or pipe a teaspoon of dulce de leche onto each of the upside-down cookies. Top with the remaining cookies.