Hallo! The title says it all... this is an easy chocolate macaron recipe! Well, okay I lied a bit, because we all know that baking macarons entirely is not an easy task whatsoever! I was successful with my first try but I had no idea exactly how. I followed a recipe online but added a few mixes on my own after doing some research and watching youtube videos on tips on how to get good macarons. And now I've learned over the past few weeks of baking these constantly that it's mainly technique that gives you the desired look to the macarons in conjunction with the taste!
I'm still somewhat confused as well with why exactly I'm so adamant in creating these. They're certainly not my favorite desserts known to man, but I've developed somewhat of an obsession with creating these due to its infamous reputation for its difficulty level. Additionally, the fact that many bakeries sell $2 per macaron just drives me to create some myself.
The recipe I'm going to share is perhaps one of the simplest. These french cookies are already finicky and unstable with just a typical vanilla or chocolate flavor, so when you start adding different flavors and fillings it gets even tougher to create shells that look decent. So far I've been able to successfully make S'mores, Strawberry, Pistachio, Rose, and Lavender flavors. My list is ever growing and I'm venturing out to create these using the Italian Meringue method -- but alas I digress and for the sake of your time and mine I'll be saving those recipes for a later date. I will update constantly on my journey for the perfect macaron, but until then here is my narrative recipe! I purposely wrote it this way so that my directions are a bit more informative rather than cut and dry, because macarons are definitely NOT cut and dry and are totally complex! I will have to revamp this post some other time or redo it with actual pictures of me doing it -- my love Rynel isn't here with his 7D to help me out while I'm away for clinicals so it's rather hard to take pics by myself!
Enjoy!
Macaron Shell:
2 cups of Confectioner's/Powdered Sugar
1 cup of grounded blanched slivered almonds (or almond meal)
1 tsp of Cream of Tartar
2 tbsp of Cacao powder
3 egg whites (room temperature, set aside for at least 2 hours to age)
2 tbsp of granulated sugar
Nutella Ganache Filling:
1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup of Nutella (about half a Nutella container)
1 Hershey's bar
1. My usual routine starts off a few hours prior to baking. I set aside the 3 eggs and bring them to room temperature. About one hour later I break the eggs and separate the egg whites into a bowl. Afterwards, I cover up the bowl and set aside on the counter for 2 more hours to age.
2. When I'm ready to start the whole process I make sure that I get all of my dry ingredients prepped. I start by working with my almonds. Because I don't live close to a grocer that offers almond meal, I create my own simply by buying blanched slivered almonds and placing them in the food processor to grind into a very fine texture (technically about 3 minutes of grinding). No matter how much you grind there will always be bigger particles, so 3 minutes is sufficient.
3. I make about 1 cup of ground almonds and afterwards I sift the almond meal into a bowl and throw away any big particles that can't go through. After 1 round of sifting the almonds I take 2 cups of powdered sugar and place it on a sifter and add my almonds to go through the sifter once more (round 2!).
4. Almonds have a natural oil that seeps out when you grind them and can potentially give you different textured results - it's important that you sift the almonds once more but this time with the powdered sugar to have some of the natural oil absorbed by the sugar.
5. I repeat this process once more to get a homogenous and fine texture for my fine ingredients. With this third round of sifting you want to add 1 tablespoon of cacao powder (or any unsweetened chocolate powder) with the almonds and sugar. I then set aside the dry ingredients for now.
6. The meringue I think is the trickiest thing! You want to place your eggs in a mixer or have your beater handy. I don't have a fancy mixer so I'll be using my egg beater. Place eggs in bowl and cream of tartar then beat on low-medium until it gets foamy after 30-45 seconds. I take about 1 tablespoon of sugar and add it to the meringue then beat on high, slowly adding another 1 tablespoon of sugar as it beats. You want to keep beating until you get stiff peaks with the meringue and the overall consistency is glossy. Adding sugar can help stiffen your meringue so if the meringue is not stable and doesn't show peaks, you can add a little sugar to help stabilize it.
**Extra tip:! This if from my friend Vicki -- make sure to have a glass bowl when making the meringue as this is the only type of bowl that doesn't add extra oil and moisture to your batter!**
7. Place your dry ingredients and add it to your meringue. You don't want to mix it together -- you want to perform the fold and scrap technique. I do approximately 40-50 strokes of the fold and scrap technique. By this count I usually get the consistency I want.
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| This is the consistency you want - glossy and easily returns back to the batter when you move it around -- btw this pic is from when I was creating pistachio macarons -- which explains why it's greenish |
9. This is important!! - You want to bang the tray against you counter directly parallel to it several times to let the air bubbles out ASAP after you're done piping all the mixture into the tray. Yes, you will make some startling noises, but banging you tray is what creates the feet (or the little bubbly things) on your macarons. Set aside for 20-30 minutes and heat your oven to 285 degrees F. By the end of the 20-30 minutes of sitting aside, your macarons should no longer be liquidy and should be tacky to the touch.
11. After 20 minutes put the tray(s) into the oven. Most people nowadays have a convection oven with a fan... this is sometimes a disadvantage to the way your macarons might come out. In order to avoid this try putting your trays either as high or as low as you can in the oven - ergo avoid the middle, where the fan tends to affect the most. I've been really fortunate that my parents have double ovens so I can usually make double the batch and just have two trays in each oven - one tray at the top, another at the bottom. --- you want to leave these in the oven for 25-28 minutes.
11. While you are waiting for it to bake, it'll be a great time to make the ganache! This ganache recipe is super easy!
Ganache: - place 1/2 cup of heavy cream into microwave and heat for 2-2.5 minutes.
- after it's heated take 3/4 cup of Nutella and the whole Hershey's Bar and mix with the
cream using a small spatula or spoon, make sure to mix until you get one nice consistency with your ganache
- refrigerate for minimum 30 minutes to 1 hour
12. Take out the macarons once finished baking and cool for 15-30 minutes!
13. Peel off the macarons slowly (it maybe still moist) and place them on a plate. They should have a smooth bottom surface. You can then match macaron sizes. At this point is when I get out the ganache and pipe a small dollop and create a finished macaron!
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| Finished product! |
I hope you guys try it! It's actually quite addicting once you've had a few of them -- and especially when you start baking them. To get them perfect and to fill my macaron flavors list has been an obsession lately. If only I had the time! :)
Here is a picture I had of my pistachio macarons -- I apologize for the quality... it was midnight when I finished making these!
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| Pistachio flavored! |
Jacqs
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