Nutella Macarons with a Nutella Buttercream filling, drizzled with melted chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. So delicious!
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword macarons, nutella
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Resting time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 3 hourshours20 minutesminutes
Servings 26macarons
Calories 180kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Chocolate Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramswhite sugar
105gramsalmond flour
75gramspowdered sugar
14gramscocoa powder
Nutella Buttercream
4tbspunsalted butter2 oz, 56 grams
1/3cupnutella
2cupspowdered sugar9 oz, 255 grams
1/8tspsalt
2-4tbspmilkmore, or less, as needed
Topping
1/4cupchocolate chips
1/4cupchopped hazelnuts
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 form a bird’s beak shape, but 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 over mix. It’s always best to under mix 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.
Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles of air that may have formed on the surface of the macaron 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.
Pre-heat the oven to 300°F.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 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.
Nutella Buttercream
Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Cream the butter for 1 minute.
Add Nutella and mix to combine.
Add sifted powdered sugar and salt.
Mix on low until powdered sugar is incorporated.
Raise speed to medium high and cream for another minute.
Add milk, as necessary. If the buttercream has the perfect consistency, skip on adding the milk. If the buttercream seems dry, add milk. If the buttercream is too runny after adding the milk, add more sifted powdered sugar.
To assemble
Place Nutella Buttercream in a piping bag fitted with the tip of choice.
Pipe some filling in half of the macarons. Top with another shell.
Melt the chocolate, place it on a piping bag and drizzle over shells, and then sprinkle chopped hazelnuts on top.
Storage
These Nutella Macarons will store well in the fridge for up to 1 week.
They can also be frozen for up to 2 months in an air tight container.
Notes
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. I use Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.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 is the Storage Container I use to store my macarons.