I have wanted to do this recipe for a while now. After the success that the Praline and Salted Caramel French Macarons had in my family, I wanted to do macarons again.
And they were a success again! Of course, this time I decided to go with chocolate, which is always a safe bet with my family.
The ganache is so rich and velvety! I thought that it may be too strong with the amount of chocolate that has in it but it pairs with the Macarons incredibly well.
The Macaron shell has no flavour in itself, but I sprinkled a little bit of cacao on them and, really, they do not need anything else.
Chocolate
Macarons
Ingredients
(yields
50 macarons)
- 3 egg whites (aged for 3 days)
- 125g almond meal
- 210g confectioners sugar
- 30g granulated sugar
Directions
- Three days before you make the macarons: separate the whites of three eggs and place them in an open container in the fridge, without covering them.
- Mix the almond meal and the confectioners sugar and triturate it in the food processor for some minutes and sift it.
- Beat the whites until they reach a fluffy consistency. Add the granulated sugar while beating until they are glossy and opaque, and they form peaks.
- Add the almond meal and sugar mix little by little. You should do it in 4 or 5 times, always mixing carefully with the spatula with movements from bottom to top, in order not to deflate the whites.
- Once all the ingredients are incorporated, pour the mix in a pastry bag with a round tip.
- Make circles with the mixture, about a little less than 3cm diameter. It's better if you have done yourself a template with the circles drawn, so you can put it under the parchment paper. Once you have finished piping the mix, hit the tray on a flat surface three times. The air inside the mix in the macarons will come to the surface, puncture the bubbles with a toothpick.
- Let the macarons sit until the surface has dried (you can test it by lightly touch them with your finger- it must come out clean). They can be done in 20 minutes or 2 hours, depending on the humidity of the ambience. You must wait, however, otherwise the macarons will not rise when baked.
- Preheat the oven at 150ºC (300ºF).
- Bake for 15 minutes. After this time, open the oven door and, carefully so you do not get burned, touch the upper part of one of the cookies. If the top can be slide off the bottom, let them bake for 5 more minutes, testing them again after.
- The baking time will depend on the oven and the temperature. It is better to let them cook longer than to rise the temperature too much; I have baked them for a little more than 25 minutes.
- Take them out of the oven and let the parchment paper slide off the tray onto the table or the kitchen marble. Wait for them to cool down completely before peeling them off the paper.
Assembling
the Macarons:
- Match the cookies by size. Put a small ball of chocolate ganache on one of them and put the other half on it, gently. Twist the halves until they are separated only by some milimeters.
- Let the macarons sit in the fridge, in an air sealed container for at least 24 hours before serving.
As you can see, the shells are shiny: I used a little bit of syrup (1 part sugar, 1 part water and heat it in a pot until the sugar has completely dissolved) in order to moisten them.
Dark
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
- 100g heavy cream
- ½ Tbs sugar
- 125g unsweetened chocolate
- 20g butter
Directions
- In a small pot, heat the heavy cream with the sugar until steam starts to rise from it.
- Chop the chocolate and place it on a heat resistant bowl. Pour half of the heated heavy cream on it and let it melt. Stir with a spoon to reach a shiny appearance. Add the rest of the heavy cream and stir until the chocolate has completely melted.
- Add the butter and stir.
- Let it cool down for at least an hour before using it.
Here are the pdf documents with the recipes: Chocolate French Macarons and Dark Chocolate Ganache.
Anna
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