Chocolate French Macaroon Recipe

Believe it or not this was another recipe that I made using only the contents of my cupboards...no grocery store trip here. It seems so hard to make, but I had everything on hand already!

Ingredients

Macaron Batter

1 cup (100 gr) powdered sugar
                 ½ cup powdered almonds (about 2 ounces, 50 gr, sliced almonds, pulverized)
3 tablespoons (25 gr) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
5 tablespoons (65 gr) granulated sugar



PRE-HEAT OVEN to 350
using a food processor grind whole almonds to a coarse powder. It calls for it to be a fine powder, but you will blend it again with the rest of the powdered ingredients!

add the coarse almond powder, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder to blender or food processor and blend away! The almond powder tends to make the mixture stick since it contains oils, so you may need to shake the blender a bit to get it all going and mixed up.

Transfer mixed dry ingredients to a bowl, as you have to carefully fold it into the egg mixture and transferring it directly from the blender or food processor cup would make it more difficult.

At this point blend you egg white. I used a stand mixture but I actually prefer to use a hand mixer as you can control it more. Whip the egg whites until they start to rise and hold their shape. Do not whip them long enough to see peaks or the bright white color. I don't think I whipped mine enough though.

Add granulated sugar and whipe egg whites until they are very firm and hold their shape.

The recipe I looked at said about 2 minutes, but mine took longer!

GENTLY fold dry ingredients in 2 batches into the egg whites. Fold JUST enough so that no egg white streaks are visible in the mixture.

Put blended batter into a pastry bag or a ziplock with the tip cut if you are poor lazy thrifty desperate!

I always fold my pastry bags or ziplock over a tall glass cup to put the batter in so it doesn't get everywhere! Works for me! : )

Pipe those suckers onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper or no stick tin foil down.

The first batch I made I piped the batter into a spiral kind of thing, and the second batch I pushed the ziplock onto the cookie sheet and slowly pulled up as the batter came out and those cookies turned out SO much better!

Cook macaroons in the oven for 18-20 mins and leave them to cool completely on the pan (I moved them onto a cooling rack and they were fine) fill with frosting of your choice when they are completely cool and

ENJOY!

Honestly I ate some the next day and the day after and they just seemed to get better everyday, so I dunno whats up with that...but I guess just know you can cook them a couple days ahead for a party!

2 things

1. I folded the the dry ingredients into the egg white too much and the inside of my macaroons were just the slightest bit chewy.
2. When I spiraled the batter out of the piping bag the macaroons cracked in weird places, but when I piped the batter out slowly they cracked right where they were supposed to on the bottom edge.

Hope you have success with these little French wonders!