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Copyright, 2015
August 19, 2013
Rob
Macarons
27

Recipe: Chocolate macarons (Italian meringue)

Macarons are definitely fashionable these days! Here in France they can be found everywhere in hundreds of flavours and even abroad they are now quite popular.

Chocolate macarons - 02

Making homemade macarons is definitely a challenging experience: it requires precision and technique, but with some practice it can become highly rewarding (and you will also save a lot of money since macarons are usually ingloriously expensive)!

Moreover, macarons are a great way to use up your leftover egg whites!

Chocolate macarons - 06

For this recipe, taken from Christophe Felder‘s magical book “Pâtisserie“, the Italian meringue is used: this means that a thermometer is required for a good result (come on, you can buy it, it’s 15€ in my supermarket). In case you’re wondering, the Italian meringue is used in order to confer more stability to the batter and also to make a final product with a longer “shelf life”.

Chocolate macarons - 01

 

Here is the step-by-step recipe of chocolate macarons… just remember to prepare the ganache filling the day before!

More info on the troubleshooting of macarons coming soon!

 

Chocolate macarons

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Ingredients

Macaron batter

185gAlmond flour (chilled)
185gPowdered sugar
75gEgg whites (room temperature)
30gCocoa powder
Dark red/Brown food colouring (powder - optional)

Italian meringue

50gWater
200gGranulated sugar
75gEgg whites (room temperature)

Chocolate ganache - Filling

200gHeavy cream
140gDark couverture chocolate (60% minimum)
45gUnsalted butter (diced, room temperature)
15gHoney

Directions

1
Put the cream in a saucepan with the honey and bring to a boil
2
Pour the cream over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute.
3
Stir carefully with a spatula to avoid incorporating air. Add the diced butter.
4
Stir again to emulsify the ganache until no strikes remain
5
Mix the ganache with an immersion blender for a few minutes to remove all the air. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or better overnight.
6
Put the almond flour, powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a food processor and mix 2-3 times for about 10 seconds each, with at least 10 seconds of pause
7
Put the dry mixture in a bowl and mix with the first half of the egg whites until you obtain a thick paste
8
In the meantime, put the granulated sugar and water in a saucepan on medium heat
9
When the sugar syrup reaches 104°C, start whipping the egg whites at high speed. Slow the mixer down in case soft peaks form before the syrup is ready.
10
When the sugar reaches 119°C, pour it slowly on the egg whites in a steady stream between the side of the bowl and the beater while the mixer is running
11
Continue beating at medium speed until the egg whites are completely cool. At this point, you have the so-called Italian meringue! The Italian meringue is ready for macarons when it forms a soft peak usually called "bec d'oiseau" ("bird's beak").
12
Using a spatula, fold in a third of the meringue into the almond, sugar and cocoa paste and mix
13
Macaronage: carefully fold in the remaining meringue with an upward movement that starts from the centre and reaches the border of the bowl; at the same time, make sure you slightly turn the bowl in the opposite direction of the spatula
14
The batter is ready when it becomes shiny and it is not too thick nor too runny (achieving the right consistency is actually the hardest part of making macarons)
15
Using a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain tip, pipe the batter into small rounds (about 3-4cm each) on paper-lined sheet pans.
16
Let the piped batter sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes...
17
... if a tip forms when you touch them, they are NOT ready!
18
When macarons are ready to be baked, they have a thin "crust" on top that ensures a smooth surface
19
Bake at 150° for around 18 minutes. Macarons don't have to darken too much in the oven.
20
Cool the macarons completely before removing them from the pan
21
Press the interior of the baked shells gently (without crushing them!) in order to make more room for the filling
22
Pipe the chocolate ganache in the middle of a shell
23
Sandwich two shells together and store for 24 hours in the fridge before serving

Note

  • When the food processor is in action, its blades will heat the almond flour: for this reason it is very important to work with a chilled flour and to avoid overheating it by pausing the processor regularly
  • Macarons require precision in terms of quantities, technique and also temperature: use a chilled almond flour, room temperature egg whites and check the sugar syrup temperature with a thermometer
  • The macaronage step is the most delicate part of the recipe. As a good approximation, pass the spatula through the batter and if the latter becomes smooth again in around 10 seconds, it should be ready (I usually focus more on the shininess anyway).
  • Based on personal experience, silicone mats are not the best choice for macarons as the "crown" at the bottom might not develop well; I prefer the good old parchment paper in this case
  • To pipe the batter, keep the pastry bag at a 60° angle and mechanically apply the classical technique: Pipe - Stop piping/squeezing - Move the piping bag in a round path on the macaron to prevent a tip from forming - Lift the pastry bag and move on
  • For best results, pipe the macarons alternately in the pan, like in the pictures
  • It is possible to scale this recipe, but be careful when scaling down since it can be very difficult to whip well less than 60g of egg whites
  • Macarons need to absorb humidity for at least one day in the fridge . Then they can keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge and can be frozen as well for several months.

 

More Posts Like This One

Recipe: Pistachio macarons (with Italian meringue)

February 15, 2014

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October 22, 2014

Recipe: Saint-Honoré

November 8, 2013

Recipe: Chocolate and hazelnut Christmas yule log

December 8, 2013
ChocolateChristophe FelderEgg whitesFranceFrenchGanacheItalian meringueMacarons
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27 Comments General

27 Comments

  • Gillian
    August 19, 2013 10:57 am

    Move over Ladurée!

    Reply
  • Xavier
    August 19, 2013 1:34 pm

    Thanks a lot !
    Need to try it now and be as perfect as you :S

    Reply
    • Rob
      August 20, 2013 11:49 pm

      Ahah seriously, they are manageable, they’re not impossible… hope my article helps!
      Xavier, it’s a shame that I won’t be there at our next pic nic to taste your macarons!!! 😛

      Reply
  • Florian
    August 19, 2013 7:36 pm

    Wow – I had no idea how difficult they are to make. After reading this recipe I appreciate them even more!

    Reply
  • Claudette
    April 11, 2014 1:36 pm

    Hi Rob, I just made those chocolate macarons and they turned out perfect..thank you for your recipe….it’s going in my book as favorite chocolate one…

    Reply
    • Rob
      April 20, 2014 6:14 pm

      Thank you! It’s great to read that! 🙂

      Reply
  • Filo
    September 15, 2014 12:20 am

    It worked!!! :DDD No words can say how grateful I am, thanks Rob!

    Reply
    • Rob
      September 18, 2014 9:21 am

      Greeeat! 😀

      Reply
  • Ping
    September 16, 2014 4:26 pm

    Hi! May i know how many macarons does this recipe make?

    Reply
    • Rob
      September 18, 2014 9:20 am

      Hi Ping, the recipe is for around 30-35 macarons 🙂

      Reply
      • Ping
        September 18, 2014 3:41 pm

        Oh! Thank you very much for this recipe! I’ve already prepared the chocolate ganache just now. So excited to bake these tomorrow. I would twist it up by piping half strawberry yoghurt buttercream and half choc ganache in each macaron. 😀

        Reply
  • Kasandra
    March 16, 2016 10:53 pm

    I am making these for french class and would like to know if you are baking at 150’c or f.

    Reply
    • Rob
      March 16, 2016 11:51 pm

      Hi Kasandra, all the temperatures on the blog are in Celsius 🙂 150°C should be around 300°F.

      Reply
  • Barbara
    November 8, 2016 3:22 am

    I hope this makes it to you even though your last comment was in 2014. My macarons are good, but end up having “freckled” tops and bottoms. Haven’t I mixed enough?

    Reply
    • Rob
      November 11, 2016 6:01 pm

      Hi Barbara, yes I’m still here 😀
      Freckled: do you mean with small “dots” in relief? I think it means that the almond flour was too coarse and perhaps you should mix it a bit more with the sugar.

      Reply
  • Deb
    December 22, 2016 4:05 pm

    Hi there! I’m about to attempt using this recipe to make my own macarons 🙂 May I know what’s the purpose of storing the ganache in the fridge overnight? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Rob
      December 29, 2016 11:37 am

      Hi Deb, first of all the chocolate has to solidify and that takes a few hours in the fridge. You could use the ganache once it is solid, but the pros say that it’s better overnight because it has the time to “crystallize” and the final result is shinier.

      Reply
  • Nicole
    February 9, 2018 6:06 pm

    Hello Rob,

    Your recipe was the only success I have ever had with macarons! so thank you for that. I’m really want to make matcha macarons and was wondering if I could substitute the cocoa powder for matcha? Or would that change the texture of the batter? Do you have any other suggestions? Please Let me know. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Rob
      February 18, 2018 7:54 pm

      Hello Nicole, thank you, glad to read that!! I think you can definitely substitute the cocoa powder with matcha but I am not sure about the proportions, as I’ve never used matcha and don’t know how strong a colouring it is. Anyway, usually for macarons, the flavour is almost always given by the filling, and most chefs use neutral shells with different colors.

      Reply
  • Crystal Donovan
    September 13, 2018 8:24 pm

    Your recipe says to add ‘first half’ of the egg whites to the dry mixture (step 7), which leaves 35 grams for the meringue. But in your notes you state how difficult it is to whip less than 60 grams. Can you please clarify?

    Reply
    • Rob
      September 26, 2018 10:44 pm

      Hello Crystal, in the ingredients I’ve already split the quantities of egg whites… so you have the first half (75g) for the macaron batter and the remaining half for the Italian meringue.

      Reply
  • Rosanne
    November 9, 2018 4:51 am

    Your chocolate macarons work very well! So happy to find chocolate Italian macarons! Had no issues!

    Reply
    • Rob
      December 1, 2018 1:06 pm

      Great! 😀

      Reply
  • Tina
    September 7, 2019 9:33 pm

    Hi!

    Do you whip the first half of the egg whites? Or you just add tthem to the dry mix?

    Thanks for your answer!!!

    Kind regards from Slovenia, Tina

    Reply
    • Rob
      September 8, 2019 10:38 am

      Hi! The first half is added as is, not whipped.

      Reply
      • Tina
        September 11, 2019 10:29 am

        Thanks for the answer!!! It doesn’t work for me. It looks like there is to many dry ingridients. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I did everything as in a recipe.

        Kind regards, Tina

        Reply
  • caitlin
    August 19, 2020 3:58 pm

    I made these macaron years ago and have been trying to find the recipe since and so glad I stumbled across it again – these turn out perfectly every time! Thank you so much 🙂

    Reply

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WELCOME

Hi, my name is Rob, I work in IT but I love baking and I also got a pastry diploma. I created this blog to keep track of my journey from complete beginner to world pastry champion (I'm not there yet).

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