These are some rich chocolate macarons, with a dark and indulgent filling. Enjoy this detailed recipe to make your favorite gluten-free cookies!
Course Dessert
Cuisine French, Gluten-Free
Keyword chocolate, macarons
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Resting 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours50 minutesminutes
Servings 20macarons
Calories 120kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Chocolate Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramswhite sugar
2gramsegg white powderoptional (read notes)
96gramsalmond flour
75gramspowdered sugar
14gramscocoa powder
brown food coloring(optional to deepen the color)
Rich Chocolate Frosting
5tbspunsalted butter(70 grams)
1/3cupcocoa powder(40 grams)
2 3/4cuppowdered sugar(343 grams)
2-4tbspmilk
1/2tspvanilla extract
Ganache Filling option
200gramschopped chocolate (or chocolate chips)
2/3cupheavy cream(156 ml)
Instructions
Chocolate Macaron Shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a round tip, I like to use a Wilton 12 or a tip measuring 1/4" in diameter.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicone mat, or parchment paper.
Wipe the mats and bowls you will use down with vinegar, this gets rid of any grease particles that might be in the tools.
Measure out the ingredients before starting out.
Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water.
Add the egg whites to the sugar and whisk the mixture 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 don't feel any sugar granules you can remove it from the heat.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
With the whisk attachment, start whisking the syrup on low (speed 2 KitchenAid) for about 30 seconds.
After 30 seconds I’ll increase the speed to 4 and let the meringue whip for another couple of minutes here. Now I will finish whipping my meringue on speed 6 for about 10 minutes or so. Some people like to whip their meringue at a higher speed, and some people like it to be at a slower speed. I know of people who whip their meringue for a long time on speed 4, which can take a little while. And others like a faster speed. It all depends. Experiment with different speeds to find out how it affects your meringue. Generally, a faster speed will add lots of air bubbles to the meringue way too fast, which can create an unstable meringue, or hollow shells. Which is why I like to stay at a medium speed for the most part.
Continue to watch the meringue whip to avoid over whipping.
Once the whites get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to start checking.
Whip until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whisk up, the peak should be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder into the stiff meringue. Add food coloring if using. Adding a little bit of brown food coloring can help deepen the color of the shells, specially if you've reduced the amount of cocoa powder.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula. Fold the dry ingredients with the meringue until the perfect consistency has been achieved.
The batter should be flowing slowly and effortlessly off the spatula, you should be able to pick up some batter with the spatula and draw several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing, without having the batter break up. And even after the batter breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly.
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 over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
Once the batter achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to the piping bag. Secure the top with a tie, so the batter doesn’t scape while piping, and to keep the batter from drying out.
Now position the piping bag over the center of the circle template, and start applying gentle pressure to release the batter. Then pull the bag up twisting slightly at the top.
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles on the surface of the shells.
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 and doesn't stick to your finger.
Pre-heat the oven to 300°F.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray. Not everybody has to rotate their trays, depending on your oven you may not have to do this. If I don't rotate my trays, the macarons come out lopsided.
Bake the macarons for a total of 15 to 20 minutes, until you try to move a macaron and it doesn't feel jiggly. You can also gently touch the top of the shell and it shouldn't feel soft.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will peel off the tray easily.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Rich Chocolate Frosting
Start by sifting the powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
Add softened butter to the mixer bowl, and cream on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
With the mixer off, add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and milk.
Mix on low until dry ingredients are incorporated with the butter.
Raise the speed to medium-high, and cream from 30 -60 seconds, until smooth.
Add the vanilla and mix.
The frosting should be smooth, thick, not too stiff. Add more milk if the frosting is too stiff, and add more powdered sugar if the frosting is too runny and you went overboard with the milk.
Always remember the a little bit of liquid here goes a long way, so you don’t want to be adding too much milk to the frosting.
For the Ganache filling option
Chop dark chocolate very finely. Place it in a bowl.
Heat the heavy cream in a small pan over medium heat, or in the microwave. No matter what method you choose, be very careful not to boil the heavy cream.
Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate. Let it stand for a minute.
Start stirring with a spatula until completely melted.
Let it come to room temperature. Refrigerate for a bit before using, until it has piping consistency.
To achieve the piping consistency for the ganache, you will have to rely a lot on the temperature of the ganache.
If it has been in the fridge for a while, and it’s too thick and hard to pipe, insert it in the microwave for a few quick seconds, and stir it again. Test for consistency and keep going until you achieve the desired consistency.
To be pipeable, the ganache should be thick, but easy to spread.
If it happens that the ganache is too thin, you might want to put it in the fridge for a few minutes so it will harden up.
To assemble
Place the frosting or ganache in a piping bag and pipe on top of half of the macarons. Top with another macaron.
Storage
Keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days, and in the freezer for up to 1-2 months. Make sure to package macarons really well in an air tight container to place it in the fridge.
Video
Notes
Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.Egg white powder: Egg White Powder is not the same as meringue powder (though some people do use meringue powder successfully). Egg White Powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 2 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites when making chocolate shells.Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.Tools: Click here to check out my macaron tools.Chocolate dipped macarons: melt 2 ounces of chocolate and dip half of the assembled macarons in the melted chocolate. Then place them in a baking sheet and let them dry.Chocolate Macaron Filling: after many requests I decided to provide an option for the Chocolate Buttercream filling. So I added to the recipe a Chocolate Ganache filling for the Chocolate Macarons. Make either or, or make both and freeze whatever is leftover. Both buttercream and ganache will freeze wonderfully if well packaged, and can be thawed in the fridge before the next use.