Chocolate Macarons

Seriously, have I not posted this up yet??? I must be outta my mind. Here we go

You can see by now I am not that adventurous in terms of the basic macaron recipe, but more playing around with the flavours and combinations. My winner has always been the italian method, not so much with the french method.. But well, hopefully I’ll find enough time to experiment more with the French method..

Chocolate Macaron with Dark Chocolate Ganache

(makes 20-24 macarons)

100g Almond meal
100g icing sugar
20g  cocoa powder

36g fresh egg whites (about 1 egg white)
pinch of salt

100g caster sugar
30g water

36g aged egg whites (about 1 egg whites)
1g egg white powder

Dark Chocolate Ganache

80g Valrhona Guanaja discs
50g cream
15g butter
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Make ganache. Put chocolate in a bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a light boil. Pour into chocolate and stir till chocolate has melted. Add in butter and salt and stir till everything is combined. Cover with a cling wrap on top of the surface and leave it to cool.

2. Make macaron. Sift almond meal, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a wide bowl. Add in the egg white and salt and mix well. Do this only when you’re ready to cook the sugar, otherwise it gets hard.

3. In a medium sized pot, pour in caster sugar and water. Bring to a boil and to 118 C. Which means that yes you need a candy thermometer. When the sugar syrup reaches 110 C, in a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and egg white powder (I’ve tried without it, it’s alright) It should be somewhat medium peaks when the sugar syrup reaches 118 C.

4. While the mixer is still whisking (about medium speed), gradually pour in the sugar syrup. (To wash the pot, add in water and bring to a boil, it’s easier to wash) Then turn up the speed of the mixer for about 2 minutes till it turns glossy. Reduce the speed to medium and let it whisk till it’s stiffer. It should be somewhat stiff, but not so stiff. (Picture on row 3, left)

5. Now, add in 1/4 of the meringue into the almond mixture from step no.1. Whack it till it’s well incorporated. At this first step, I usually literally do it un-TLC-ly just to get some air out from the meringue and to lighten the almond mix.With the remaining 3/4 of meringue, add into the almond mix and fold it in. This time, a little more TLC until it becomes lava like.

6. I’m using a 10mm nozzle. Fit into a piping bag and scoop the batter into the bag. Pipe onto a tray lined with parchment paper or silpat. Lightly tap the tray on a table top. Let it rest for about 10 minutes then bake at 150 C for 14 minutes.

7. When it’s cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool on a rack. Once it’s completely cool, it should be able to peel off easily.

8. Pair the right sizes and arrange them on a tray. Fill with chocolate ganache and let it mature in the fridge and eat the following day (That is if you can resist but trust me, macs definitely need the maturing stage)

 

For these macs, I brushed on some metallic bronze powder (for chocolate use) to create the lush effect. I tried on both ways, one with sprinkling the powder on top of the mac shells, then bake it. That didn’t turn out strong enough. So I used a brush and lightly brush some of the metallic powder on top of the shell after it’s baked. Prefer the later.

I am submitting this to  Aspiring Bakers #17 – March Macaron Madness! (Mar 2012) hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies