Samoa Cookie Macarons

Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Measure out all of the ingredients.

Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.

Place the egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of barely simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.

Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.

Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.

Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. 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.

Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending to the side.

Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.

Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.Add the food coloring at this point, if using.

How to know when to stop folding the batter: 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.

First, pick up some batter with the spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.

There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.

Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.

If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds. Test again.

Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it's ready.

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.

When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.

Transfer the batter to the piping bag.

Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” disks as you could (check the post above for a template of the donut shape macaron), 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.

Let the 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.

Pre-heat the oven to 325F.

Bake one tray at a time.

Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.

Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.

I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.

When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.

Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.

Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Mix caramel candies, coconut flakes, and heavy cream in a small saucepan. Place pan over medium heat, and stir constantly while the caramels melt.

Keep stirring until the caramels have completely melted.

Set mixture aside to cool. You want it to be at room temperature at the time you assemble your macarons. If the caramel mixture is cold from the fridge, simply let it sit at room temperature until it has softened.

For the chocolate drizzle/macaron bottom

Melt chocolate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the chocolate has completely melted.

Dip half of the macaron shells in melted chocolate. Let them sit, on a parchment paper lined pan until completely dry. You can put shells in the fridge to speed up this part.

Place about 1 teaspoon of caramel filling on top of the chocolate covered macaron shell.

Top with another shell.

Place remaining melted chocolate in a pastry bag (you may need to re-melt it if it has been sitting for a while), cut a little hole at the end, and drizzle some of the melted chocolate on top of macarons.

Let macarons mature in the fridge overnight before serving. Best served at room temperature, or after sitting out of the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Macarons will freeze well. Keep them in the freezer, in an air-tight container, for up to 1 month.

Macarons will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.