Macarons Au Chocolat

By joshuaalan

Viva la macarons with this traditional recipe for chocolate macarons filled with chocolate ganache.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup ground almonds, 190 g
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 30 g
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 310 g
• 5 egg whites, aged for 4-5 days, see below
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 95 g
• Red food coloring
• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup heavy cream

Details

Adapted from chefjoshuaalan.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 270 degrees fahrenheit (150 C)

Place your powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and ground almonds in a sifter over a large clean bowl. Sift the three ingredients.

Using a clean spatula, gently stir the mixture to ensure it is thoroughly mixed together.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Add sugar to egg whites and continue to beat the whites, until you have stiff peaks.

Add a few drops of red food coloring, just enough to get a soft pink color, and mix well.

Add egg whites (or pinks, I should say?) to the sifted mixture. Gently mix the ingredients until completely combined.

With a pastry scraper, scape the batter back and forth along the bowl multiple times. This will eliminate those air pockets. When done properly, your batter should come off the scraper in ribbons.

Place the batter in a piping bag with a simple round tip. Pipe out the desired size in the shape of a circle on a piece of parchment paper over your cooking sheet, try to keep them all about the same size. Once done, gently tap the cooking sheet on the table one or two times. This remove the dome or any other deformations on top.

Let the macarons sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. You should be able to touch them and not have batter on your fingers at the end of this time. If not, add more time.

Cook for 9 to10 minutes. Your finished macarons should have litte "feet." Macaron feet are the ruffled edges down at the bottom. Watching the feet form is the most exciting part of baking these little guys. You will literally scream and dance when it happens, I guarantee you!

While the macarons are cooking, prepare the chocolate ganache.

Place the chocolate into a medium size bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chocolate and whisk until smooth.

Assemble the macarons:

Once cooled, remove the cookies and try to find another one identical or similar in size to it, it's "twin." Group the two together.

In the bottom center of each cookie, make a small indention with your index finger.

Pipe your ganache in the center, then place the twin cookie on top. Voila, c'est fini! You have macarons!

* To age egg whites, simply remove the egg whites from your eggs, place in a covered container, then leave them in the fridge for the desired length. Before use, bring them to room temperature by setting out for about 30 minutes to an hour.