Nutella Chocolate French Macarons
Chocolate Macaron Shells filled with indulgent Nutella ganache make delicious Christmas treat
Equipment
- Scales
- electric mixer
- Food Processor
- A fine mesh sieve
- piping bags and tips
- A template
- Baking Tray and baking paper (or silicone baking mat)
Ingredients
Chocolate Macaron Cookies
- Dash Vinegar or Lemon Juice
- 100 grams Egg Whites (approximately 3 eggs)
- 110 grams Powdered Sugar
- 140 grams Almond Flour
- 25 grams Cocoa Powder
- 90 grams Caster Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
Nutella Ganache
- 75 grams Nutella
- 25 grams milk chocolate
- 40 grams cream
Instructions
The day before baking: age egg whites
- First step is to age your egg whites. Separate the egg whites from the yolk and place the egg whites in a clean airtight container (that has been wiped down with a little vinegar or lemon juice). Store in the fridge overnight.
Make the Ganache
- Place the cream, chocolate and Nutella in a plastic microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 20 seconds.
- Once heated, remove the bowl from your microwave and stir to combine. The chocolate should melt and combine with the cream and nutella to form a ganache. If needed microwave for a further 10 seconds and stir again. Repeat this process until the mixture combines to form a silky, shiny ganache.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the fridge to cool.
Prepare your macaron making equipment
- When your ready to make the macaron batter, remove egg whites from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature while you prepare the equipment & dry ingredients.
- Next prepare your baking tray & piping bag by lining a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone mat. Put the baking tray to the side. Next place a piping tip into your piping bag, and snip off the end of the bag. Place this to the side also.
- Wipe down a fresh bowl and your electric mixer with vinegar to remove any possible traces of oil.
Make the Macaron Cookies
- Place the icing sugar, cocoa powder and almond flour in a food processer and blitz for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a fine mesh sieve and gently sift the mixture into a bowl. Discard any pieces of almond flour that do not pass through the sieve. If you are discarding a lot of almond flour weigh the amount that is being discarded and replace with the same amount of finely sifted almond flour.
- Place egg whites the bowl that was cleaned with vinegar/lemon juice and begin to whip on low speed using your electric mixer.
- Once the eggs start to look frothy, add the cream of tartar.
- Continue whipping until the eggs look foamy, then gradually add the caster sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition until all the sugar has been incorporated.
- Turn the mixer up to medium-high and continue to whip the meringue until it reaches stiff peaks.
- Double check that all the sugar has been dissolved by carefully rubbing some of the meringue between your fingers. If you feel any grains of sugar continue whipping the meringue and test again. Repeat this until the meringue is smooth to touch.
- Once the meringue is ready it is time to combine it with the almond flour/icing sugar. You want to do this while keeping as much air in the meringue as possible. Best method is to add half the almond flour to your meringue and gently fold in - aka use your spatula to scrape around the outside of the bowl until this first batch of almond flour has been mixed in). Then, fold in remaining almond flour using the same technique.
- Now it's time to perform the macaronage. In this stage we are trying to remove some of the air from the meringue. To do this use your spatula to gently spread the batter around the sides of the bowl, pressing it slightly as you do so. Continue doing this until your batter reaches the consistency of hot lava. Check out my blog post on how to make the perfect macarons at home for more information about how to perfect the macaronage.
- Once your batter is at hot lava stage, transfer it to your prepared piping bag.
- Place a dap of macaron batter in between the baking paper and tray in each corner to hold the baking paper in place, then pipe batter onto your prepared baking tray.
- Bang the tray on your counter a couple of times to bring and any air bubbles to the surface of the macarons, then use a toothpick to pop any visible bubbles and smooth the top of the cookie.
- Rest the macaron cookies by leaving the trays on the bench until the tops of the macarons feel dry to touch. The amount of time this takes will depend on the weather in your area. Where I am in Melbourne, it takes about 20mins. You'll know the macarons are ready to bake if they feel smooth and dry to touch.
- Preheat oven to 110 degrees. Transfer the tray of macarons to the oven. Bake at 110 degrees Celsius for 18 minutes (or a little longer if you are using a silicone mat instead of baking paper). You will know when the macarons are cooked because they will peel easily off the baking paper. Leave the macarons on the baking tray until they have cooled completely.
Assemble Macarons
- Once cool, sort through macaron cookies to match them up into similar size/shaped pairs.
- Check the ganache is still soft, if it is too firm to pipe place the bowl in the microwave for 5 seconds to soften it slightly. Give it a good stir, then transfer to a piping bag.
- Pipe a layer of ganache onto the underside of one cookie, than place the second cookie on top to make a sandwich.
- Decorate with melted chocolate and sprinkles.
- Place macarons in an airtight container and store in the fridge. For best results allow them to sit in the fridge 24 hours for 24 hours to "ripe" before serving.Macarons can be kept in the fridge for up to a week or stored in the freezer for up to 2 months. See the paragraph above for more details of how to best store your macarons.
Tried this recipe?Mention @Kylies_cakes_ or tag #theniftybaker!