Chocolate French Macarons

I love macarons, like everybody. These delicious, beautiful colored, classy little cookies are a royal pampering. This is the first time I made chocolate macarons and I was happy with the result. I will repeat it, for sure, as soon as possible 🙂

Ingredients Chocolate French Macarons

►For the shells

• 160 g powdered sugar
• 100 g almond flour
• 20 g cocoa powder
• 100 g egg whites (from about three medium sized eggs)
• a pinch of salt
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

►For the filling (milk chocolate ganache)

• 100 g milk chocolate
• 100 g whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon of dark rum

Directions Chocolate French Macarons

• Preparing the shells: Mix almond flour, powdered sugar and cocoa; and sift them three times through a fine sieve. Discard the items which don’t pass through the sieve.

Beat the egg whites with salt until foamy, then add gradually the caster sugar and continue to beat at medium-high speed, until the meringue holds stiff peaks.

Then, in two additions, sift the dry mixture (almond-cocoa-powdered sugar) over the meringue and fold in gently, using a silicone spatula, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Fill a pastry bag, fitted with a 1 cm round tip and prepare the tray. I have some cheap but good silicone mats and I use them with great commitment 🙂 But a parchment paper sheet works just as well. Pipe rounds of 3 cm diameter, then tap the tray on the counter – two or three times on each side – in order to release the air bubbles from the shells.

Let the shells rest at room tepmerature for 20-40 minutes  (depending on the air humidity) until their surface is no longer tacky. Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 140 Celsius with the oven racks in the top and bottom third of the oven.

Bake the cookies, two sheets at a time, for about 12-15 minutes. If needed, rotate the pans, top to bottom and front to back about halfway through baking. Remove from oven and let the shells cool completely before remove them from the baking sheet.

• Preparing the filling: Bring the whipping cream to a boil, add rum and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Let sit for 2-3 minutes, then stir until all chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Place the mixture into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, then mix at high speed for about one minute, until it gets fluffy and silky. Transfer the frosting into a piping bag.

Assembling Chocolate French Macarons

To assemble the macarons, take two cookies and sandwich them together with the filling (place filling on flat side of cookie).

Macarons can be eaten immediately, with great commitment. Specialists say that they are much better after 1-2 days . We have not been able to verify this theory, because my macarons have never survived that long 🙂