These brownie macarons feature a brownie filling, with rich chocolate frosting. The top shell is dipped in chocolate, and then topped with a brownie heart.
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.
I prefer using a 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 simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
With the whisk attachment, whisk the mixture on low, and gradually increase the speed over the next 2 minutes, until you achieve high speed. Then continue to whip 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 peaks should be shooting straight up. The peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top, but not bending down to the side.
Pour the powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula. Add food coloring at this point, if using any. I like to add a bit of brown to enhance the color.
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 form a figure 8 a few times. If you can draw a figure 8 with the batter falling off the spatula a few times, without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
Then, you can perform what I call the Teaspoon Test. Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat, then tap the tray gently against the counter and wait one minute.
If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, fold the batter a bit more, then test again.
Once the teaspoonful of batter smooths out on top and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper/silicone, without forming a peak at the top, transfer the mixture to the piping bag.
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.
Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. Then use a toothpick to poke any remaining air bubbles from the surface of the macarons.
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 300°F.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, and rotate the tray.
Bake for 5 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 than the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.
Bake for a total of 15 to 20 minutes.
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, and cocoa powder sifted mixture.
Mix on low until dry ingredients are incorporated with the butter.
Raise speed to medium-high, and cream from 30 -60 seconds, until smooth.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add milk if necessary for consistency.
Frosting should be smooth, thick, not too stiff. Add more milk if the frosting is too stiff, and add more powdered sugar if your 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 your frosting.
Place frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small tip.
Brownies
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper and grease with oil spray or butter. Set aside.
Melt the butter and chocolate chips together in a bowl. You can use the microwave or a double boiler. If using the microwave, simply microwave the mixture for 30 second intervals, whisking in between.
Whisk until smooth and melted together.
Add brown sugar and granulated sugar to the chocolate/butter.
Whisk until incorporated.
Add the egg and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt to the bowl. It’s best if you pre-sift the dry ingredients before adding them, or sift them right into the bowl.
Mix until combined.
Pour the batter on the bottom of the prepared pan.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until set.
Let it cool down before cutting.
To assemble
Once the brownies have cooled down, you can use a small circle cutter to cut brownie rounds. Make sure the cutter is smaller than the diameter of the macaron shell, in a way that you will have a ring around the macaron about 1/4” thick for you to pipe the frosting. You can also cut heart shapes to decorate the top of the macarons, or whatever shapes you prefer.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, until melted evenly.
Dip the top part of half of the macaron shells in the melted chocolate. Place a heart brownie on top immediately, if you wish to do so, because the chocolate will still be wet, and it will make the brownie stick to it.
Place a brownie round in the middle of each bottom shell. Pipe a ring of frosting around each brownie circle.
Top with the chocolate dipped shell.
Let macarons mature in the fridge overnight before serving.
Storage
Store macarons in the fridge for up to 1 week. If you want to freeze these, make sure to place them in an air-tight container for up to 2 months in the freezer.
Notes
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.