German Chocolate Macarons
German Chocolate Macarons have a chocolate macaron shell, filled with a coconut fudge filling. The top shell is dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut flakes.
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
Coconut Fudge Filling
- 1- 14 oz. can condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/3 heaping cup of coconut flakes
Chocolate for the shells
- 3 oz chocolate chips or candy melts 1/2 cup, 85 grams
- 1/4 cup coconut flakes
Instructions
Macaron Shells
-
Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.
-
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon 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 silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicon mat
-
Measure out all of your ingredients.
-
Sift powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
-
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. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
-
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
-
Transfer mixture 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 mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise 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 shooting straight up, it shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.
-
Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
-
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
-
Add the food coloring at this point, if using. You can add a bit of brown food coloring to enhance the color of the shells if you want to.
-
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, I pick up some batter with my 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 a bit, I start folding 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, I transfer my 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.
-
The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
-
Transfer batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
-
Place piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply equal pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
-
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.
-
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.
-
Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
-
Bake one tray at a time.
-
Bake for 6 minutes, rotate tray.
-
I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes.
-
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.
-
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
-
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Coconut Fudge Filling
-
Add condensed milk, butter, and coconut flakes to a small saucepan. Place it over medium heat.
-
Cook the mixture stirring non-stop.
-
Lower the heat if the mixture seems to be sticking to the bottom.
-
If you stop stirring, even if it’s just for one second, it will stick to the bottom and burn.
-
Stir fast and without stopping.
-
Cook the mixture at medium or medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, until thick, fudgy, and you can see the bottom of the pan when you run the spatula through the middle of the fudge.
-
Remove to a small bowl and let it cool down all the way. Don’t place it in the fridge before filling the macarons, or it will get too hard to pipe on the macarons, and you won’t be able to recover the proper texture even if you leave it at room temperature.*
To assemble
-
Dip half of the shells in melted chocolate, or candy melts. And while the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle some coconut on top. Place it in the fridge so the chocolate will set, or wait until it is completely dry before proceeding.
-
Place cooled down (but not cold) fudge filling in a piping bag. Pipe a small amount of coconut fudge in each bottom shell.
-
Top with a chocolate dipped shell.
Storage
-
Store macarons in an air-tight container (check post to see what I recommend) for up to 1 week in the fridge, or 2 months in the freezer.
Recipe Notes
*If you have to make the filling beforehand, go ahead and place it in the fridge. However, you won’t be able to pipe the filling, because it will be too hard and most likely will rip your piping bag as you try to squeeze it out. Instead of piping the filling, use a spoon to scoop some of the fudge and roll it between your hands (helps if you grease your hands), and then flatten the ball out to a disk, the same diameter of the macaron shells. Place it in between two macaron shells.
**You will have some fudge filling leftovers. This is so delicious, you will want to eat it with a spoon, or you can simply roll it into balls and coat it in coconut flakes to make delicious fudge treats. This will also freeze really well for up to 3 months, and up to 15 days in the fridge.
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. I use Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set
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.
Storage: This