Hello, long lost friends! I'm coming out of blog hiding today for a great reason - to help spread the word about Mindy Cone's fabulous new book, Gourmet French Macarons. I have been a fan of her blog, Creative Juice for a long time and had the pleasure of meeting her at Alt SF this summer. Let me tell you, this is a subject that she is passionate about. Mindy developed (and photographed!) over 75 unique and creative designs for the book that are perfect for any holiday or season. I'm especially excited about all of the Halloween designs - Frankenstein, pumpkins and ghosts, oh my! When you purchase the book it comes with a CD that has printable
templates to make piping circles or unique shapes so much easier. Though making macarons can be daunting, Mindy's recipes, techniques and templates make it simple.
Chocolate macarons are my absolute favorite. Mindy has been kind enough to share this recipe and it is on my baking agenda for the week.
Chocolate French Macarons with chocolate ganache filling
Free 1.5 in circle template download for this recipe here:
Chocolate French
Macarons
100g of egg whites aged at
room temperature
Pinch of Cream of tartar
35g of superfine sugar
110g of Almond flour
200g of Powdered Sugar
10g cocoa powder
1. Measure out all
ingredients using a gram scale
2. Prepare the baking
sheets by lining them with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Slide a printed 1
½ inch template sheet underneath and set aside. Prepare piping bag to be filled
and set aside.
3. Sift powdered sugar, almond
mixture, and cocoa powder together two or three times through a sieve and set
aside.
4. Place the egg whites in
a large bowl or in stand mixer with wire whisk attachment. Whisk on low until
egg whites become foamy. Add the pinch of cream of tartar. Continue to whisk
until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the superfine sugar. Once all of the sugar
is incorporated, scrape down the sides with a spatula.
5. Turn your mixer on medium-high
and continue to whisk until you reach a stiff meringue. If adding liquid or gel
food dye, do so toward the end of whisking.
6. Sift 1/3 of the almond
flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder mixture through the sieve and into the
meringue. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue. Repeat with the remaining
mixture. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, the batter will be
thick and have a dull shine. Continue to fold. As you do so, the batter will
loosen. Stop folding when the batter has a glossy sheen, a “lava-like”
consistency, and falls in a ribbon like manner off the spatula.
7. Transfer the batter
into a large pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 1½ inch rounds on the
parchment paper following the template.
8. When all of the rounds
are piped on the parchment, rap the sheet pans evenly on work surface a few
times. Remove templates from below your parchment paper carefully. Let the
batter rest at room temperature for 20-40 minutes.
9. Pre-heat oven to 350
degrees. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and bake one sheet at a time for 12
minutes rotating the pan half way through.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
11. Match up similar size shells into pairs and
sandwich with filling.
MAKES:
About 4 dozen 1.5 in
shells (two dozen sandwiched macaron cookies)
Chocolate Ganache Filling
100 g (3.5 oz) chocolate*
1½ Tbsp. heavy cream
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Boil cream and pour over chocolate.
Stir until all the chocolate has
melted and texture is smooth**
When warm, pipe onto macaron shells.
*I prefer to use the mini chocolate
chips when possible to speed up the process.
** If the cream is not able to melt
all the chocolate, place bowl in microwave. Heat for 20 seconds on low power.
Remove and stir. Repeat until chocolate is fully melted.
Watch this adorable video to learn more about Mindy and how her passion for macarons developed:
Gourmet French Macarons from TK Productions on Vimeo.
