Brigadeiro Macarons

Howdy, friends! Today we are celebrating! And when there’s a celebration, there are always brigadeiros involved! Brigadeiro Macarons are inspired on the Brazilian birthday party treat called brigadeiro, extremely popular and present at every single birthday party ever.

If you have never had brigadeiro, I advise you to make this, because it will be worth it. Making brigadeiros isn’t really hard. It’s a walk in the park. Just bring condensed milk, chocolate, and butter to a boil, and keep stirring through a low simmer for about 15 minutes.

What’s really hard, they say, is to make the macaron shells.

Is it really that hard to make macarons?

The answer is yes. And no.

Once you get the hang of it, everything will be alright.

You just have to find the right method that works for you. There are 3 different ways to make macarons: French method, Swiss, or Italian.

I use the Swiss style in my recipes. After experimenting with all methods over the years, I’ve settled with my Swiss. I know people who prefer the Italian, and some that swear by the French method.

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to stuff like that. For example, some people believe you should let your egg whites age, so they will be “drier”, and more optimal for the meringue. Others swear by sifting the powdered sugar and almond flour a bunch of times before making your macarons.

As for me, I don’t do either of those things. I don’t let my whites age, but I do use room temperature whites. I’ve let my whites dry in the past, but I haven’t noticed any differences. Perhaps I should experiment again.

I only sift my flour and powdered sugar once.

But I don’t doubt that those steps might help other people, or be perfectly incorporated into their preferred macaron baking method.

To nail making macarons is a matter of finding out what the batter is supposed to look and feel like, above anything else. Once you know with confidence when to stop folding, you have mastered macarons. Which is not to say that you will get them perfect every single time. Sometimes you have an off day, or you get distracted and overfold the batter.

So get your head in the game and let’s make some macarons.

I have pretty detailed instructions down below.

And now, I am working on a Macaron E-book. A project that I’ve been designing and thinking about for a while, and I started writing, baking, and shooting for it. So be on the lookout for my Macaron E-book, sometime soon!

For now, I have some resources you can check out.

If you are new to making macarons, check out my Matcha Macarons post, where I go over some main tips and techniques.  On my Raspberry Macarons post, I talk about Almond Flour, brands, sifting methods, etc. On my Espresso Macarons post, I answer common questions about making macarons. On my Lemon Macarons post, I talk about macaron shelf life and storage. Check them out! And also, there are tones of other resources online that can help you.

And also, if you like the idea of this Brazilian treat called brigadeiro, I have a few more recipes that involve this fudgy treat absolutely impossible to resist.

For example, on my Death by Brigadeiro Cupcakes, Almond Cupcakes, Macadamia Coconut Cupcakes, in the filling of my Chocolate Strawberry Cake, and Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes.

So brigadeiros are present at every single birthday party or celebration in Brazil. And brigadeiros are so versatile, you can make them infinite different flavors. The chocolate one is probably the most popular one, along with the coconut. They are all my favorite and I could literally eat the whole thing with a spoon.

If you have made my chocolate macaron shells before (like in my Dulce de Leche Macarons, and Espresso Peanut Butter Chocolate Macarons) I have an update to the recipe. I’ve toned down the amount of cocoa powder in the recipe by half of a tablespoon. It didn’t make a huge difference, but made the macarons a bit less dense.

I hope you liked today’s recipe. If you are looking to master macarons, I have a tone of macaron recipes on my website. Just click here to check out some more macaron recipes.

This page contains affiliate links. Which means that every time you make a purchase of an item you clicked through my website, I receive a small amount from Amazon. It doesn’t cost anything extra to you, but helps my blog! Thanks!

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Brigadeiro Macarons

These Brigadeiro Macarons have a chocolate macaron shell, and a fudgy chocolatey brigadeiro filling.

Course Dessert

Cuisine brazilian, French

Keyword brigadeiros, macarons

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 26 macarons

Calories 80 kcal

Ingredients

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• 3 egg whites 100 grams, 3.5 oz
• 1/2 cup white sugar 100 grams, 3.5 oz
• 1 cup almond flour 96 grams, 3.4 oz
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 75 grams, 2.64 oz
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder 14 grams, 0.8 oz

Brigadeiros

• 1 can condensed milk
• 100 grams good quality chocolate dark, semi-sweet, milk, whatever fancies you (3.5 oz, or about 1/2 cup chocolate chips)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 0.5 oz, 14 grams

Instructions

Chocolate Macaron Shells

1. Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
3. Under my parchment, I put a layout with circles that measure about 1 1/2 inches each. That’s how big I like to pipe my macarons.
4. Measure out all of your ingredients.
5. Sift powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
6. Now you can finally start.
7. Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes.
8. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
9. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. (I use my kitchenAid bowl when doing this, because it makes it easier)
10. With the whisk attachment, whisk mixture on high speed for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
11. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
12. You don’t want to overbeat the mixture at this point, because you don’t want to add too much air to it. Just whisk until stiff peaks have formed.
13. Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
14. Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
15. It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this, and you might have to have a couple failed batches before you get this right.
16. First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to form a figure 8. If the 8 forms without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
17. Then, I grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto my parchment paper or silicon mat.
18. If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
19. Test again.
20. Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
21. You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
22. This is the most important part about making macarons in my opinion.
23. Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
24. Let your trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
25. Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
26. Bake one tray at a time.
27. Bake for 4 minutes, rotate tray.
28. Bake for 4 more minutes, check if it needs to be rotated again. You will know if it needs to be rotated again depending on how the macarons are baking. Take a look at them, if one side seems taller then the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.
29. Bake for around 2-4 more minutes. Really keep an eye out, not to overbake.
30. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet.
31. Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
32. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Brigadeiro

1. Place condensed milk, chopped chocolate of preference, and butter in a medium saucepan.
2. Over medium-high heat, cook the mixture, constantly stirring. Seriously, don’t stop stirring.
3. You are going to cook this mixture for approximately 15-20 minutes.
4. Depending on what you’re using your brigadeiro for, you might want it to be softer or firmer. Since we are using it to make fudge balls, and then to frost the cupcakes, we want the consistency to be on the firm side.
5. You will know that the brigadeiro is ready to go when you tilt the pan over and all of the brigadeiro comes out from the bottom of the pan easily.
6. Remove brigadeiro to a heat proof bowl. Let it cool down. You want to pipe the brigadeiro when it’s a room temperature. If you place the brigadeiro in the fridge to continue with the filling later, just make sure you bring it back to room temperature for a couple of hours before using it to pipe the filling on the macaron shells.

To assemble

1. Place brigadeiro in a piping bag and pipe on top of half of the macarons. Top with another macaron.

Storage

1. Keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days, and in the freezer for up to 1 month. Make sure to package macarons really well in an air tight container to place it in the fridge