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, place the template underneath.

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. I added a few drops of brown food coloring.

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.

Pipe around the circle in the center forming little donut shapes (check the post above for a template of the donut shape macaron). Use a toothpick to poke any air bubbles, and to help smooth out the circle where the batters meet.

Remember to remove the template from under the mat before baking the shells.

I also piped some regular shaped shells (without the hole in the middle) so they could be the bottom of the macaron sandwich.

Once you’ve piped as many shells as you could, bang the trays against the counter or against the palm of your hands to release any air bubbles.

Now let the macarons rest until completely dry to the touch, it’s very important to let them dry extra time because otherwise the shapes will crack. I cracked a couple of trays of these on my first try because I didn’t let them rest enough, while the trays from the same batch that rested baked up perfectly. Time drying will vary depending on the weather where you are and the consistency of the batter.

Pre-heat the oven to 310ºF.

Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.

I bake each tray of the donut shaped macarons for about 15 minutes, and the whole macarons for about 18.

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.

Begin by placing the water and granulated sugar in a pan with a heavy bottom over medium heat. Mix the water and sugar together until incorporated. Use a brush dipped in water to brush the sides of the pan and dissolve any sugar crystals.

Place a candy thermometer on the side of the pan and let the syrup come to a boil, undisturbed. Slowly, it will start to darken. Once the syrup reaches about 340ºF (171 ºC) and has a deep amber color, remove it from the heat. It should take 20 to 25 minutes to reach this temperature, but it will depend on how strong the heat is.

Once the caramel starts browning, it can be seconds away from burning and becoming bitter, so you have to act fast, which is why it’s important to have all of the ingredients ready to go before getting started.

Pour the heavy cream over the amber colored syrup, and be very careful because the mixture is going to bubble up.

Place the pan back on the stove and turn the heat low.

Add the butter to the pan, a couple of tablespoons at a time, stirring in between. Then remove the caramel from the heat, add the toasted coconut. It will be very runny, so pour it into a heat proof bowl, let it cool down to room temperature, then cover and place it in the fridge overnight.

Dip the bottom 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.

Remove the caramel from the fridge and place it in a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe a bit of caramel on each chocolate dipped shell.

Top with a donut shaped 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, and then top them with shredded toasted coconut.