Chocolate Macarons

So if you have been wondering where I have been for the past few weeks, the answer is I have been all over the place. Yes I am aware that a little bit of life update is overdue.

First we went on holiday to Denmark, Sweden and Italy. Then I started a new job in a completely new industry, and while I am enjoying myself, I find myself extremely tired at the end of a day.

But I to make up for my absence, I would share a recipe. One that I have wanted write about, on my blog from its very inception.

In case my blog name hasn?t given it away already, I love macarons. When I first started my blog, I decided one day I would make them and share the recipe here.

You will need:

For the macaron shells

• Powdered Sugar 125 grams
• Almond  Flour  ? cup 50 grams
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 3tbsp 25g
• 2 large Eggs 66g
•  Granulated Sugar 5tsp 75g

For the ganache

• Bittersweet Chocolate 120g
• Heavy cream  ? cup 120g
• Instant Coffee 1tsp
• Butter 1tsp 14g

Tools:

• Whisk
• Spatula
• ? inch 12mmplain tip pastry bag bag
• Baking sheet
• Baking Tray
• Weighing Scale (optional)

For the macaron shells:

Take the powdered sugar, almond  flour and unsweetened Cocoa Powder and mix well in grinder. This also helps to further grind all the powdered ingredients, especially the almond flour.

Sift the powdered mixture. Once done, you will be left with the finer powder, which is used for the batter. Discard the larger lumps.

In a bowl take two egg whites at room temperature, add a pinch of salt and beat the egg whites using a whisk. Beat until,  they begin to rise and hold their shape.

Add the granulated sugar and continue beating the eggs for approximately another two minutes, or until the mixture is very stiff and firm.

Add the dry ingredients to the egg white mixture and fold in using a spatula. Do this in two batches, so that dry ingredients are mixed in well with the mixture.

Mix slowly so that the mixture doesn?t fall flat. Continue mixing until th mixture is smooth and there are no more streaks of egg white.

Now pour this mixture in a pastry bag.

Lay the baking paper on the baking tray and Pipe the macaron batter (about 1 inch). Also try to leave space a 1inch space between each circle as the mixture is spread out once on the sheet.

Tap the tray on the counter top a few times. This helps in releasing any air bubbles that might be trapped in the batter.

Sit the baking tray aside for 20- 30 minutes, until the circles set a little. You will see a skin form up.

Bake for 10-15 minutes at 180 degree celcius. Once ready, you macarons will rise up.

Let them cool completely before taking.

For the ganache:

Put the chocolate in a bowl.

Heat the cream, until it boils to the edges.

Add the instant coffee to cream.

Now pour in the cream to the chocolate bowl. Pour the hot cream over chocolate so that the chocolate melts.

Let it sit for a minute.

Stir until smooth

Add the butter and continue stirring

Cool the mixture completely before using. Once cool, the mixture will solidify slightly.

Assembling the macaron:

Now peel off the cool macaron shell off the baking sheet.

Select similar sized shells to sandwich and make a macaron.

Arrange your macaron shells in a way where you can pipe in the chocolate ganache.

Now you can start piping the shells. While piping, put the ganache to the centre only, as it will spread out once you sandwich the two shells.

Once you finish piping all the macarons, put on the top shell on each macaron and voilla! Your Chocolate Macarons are ready.

Let them stand for a day before serving. This helps to meld the flavours.

 

Tips:

Try using a weighing scale while making macarons to ensure that your measurements are accurate, rather than eye balling the ingredients.

When using the whisk, an electronic whisk might work better and faster than a manual one when beating the egg whites.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients slowly so that the mixture doesn?t fall flat.

You can also try using the readymade silicon mould for the perfect shape of the macaron. (I couldn?t find mine when I was making this, so went free hand)

If you are a visual person, like I am and need to watch the actual process of making macarons, here is the original recipe.