December recipe: Chocolate macaroons
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| Chocolate macaroons |
If
you like chocolate, this recipe is for you.
These chocolate macaroons are light, surprisingly simple to make, and
delicious enough for any festive occasion. When you’ve eaten enough fruit cake, mincemeat meringue
and mince pies
for one Christmas, try these for a change.
You
can use the egg yolks in sweet pastry,
or substitute two egg yolks for one of the eggs in custard tart
for a richer custard.
Chocolate macaroons
For the macaroons
2.5
oz (approx 60 g) ground almonds
4.5
oz (approx 125 g) icing sugar
0.5
oz (approx 12 g) cocoa
0.5
oz (approx 12 g) granulated sugar
2 egg
whites
For the ganache filling
2 oz
(approx 50 g) plain chocolate
2
Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) double cream
0.5
oz (approx 12 g) unsalted butter
To make the macaroons
Sieve
the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa together.
Whisk
the egg whites until starting to thicken.
Add
the granulated sugar and whisk until stiff.
Fold
the icing sugar, cocoa and almonds mix into the egg whites using a metal spoon.
Line
a baking tray with baking parchment. (Yes, you really do have to do this. If
you just grease the tray the macaroons will stick).
Spoon
(or pipe, if you have a piping bag) the mixture onto the baking parchment in
discs about 2 inches (about 5 cm) in diameter, well separated.
Leave
to stand for 15 minutes to form a skin.
Bake
in a hot oven at 180 C for approximately 12-15 minutes, until the macaroons are
dry on top.
Remove
from the parchment using a palette knife and cool on a wire rack.
To make the ganache filling
Break
the dark chocolate into pieces and melt it in a bowl over a pan of simmering
water.
Stir
in the butter and double cream.
Remove
from the heat.
When
the ganache has cooled but is still soft enough to spread, sandwich the
chocolate macaroons together in pairs.
This
quantity makes about 16 macaroons (8 pairs).
Before
you sandwich them with the ganache, the macaroons will keep for several days in
an airtight tin.
After
you’ve sandwiched them together with the ganache, they will keep for a day or
two. Not that they are likely to get the chance.
Happy
Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
4 comments:
Oh, those sound good! Can I just eat the ganache without a cookie underneath it??
Of course, whatever you want :-) The ganache sounds quite similar to an old recipe I have for home-made chocolate truffles, so I should think that if you roll the ganache into small balls and coat them in chocolate, icing sugar or chocolate vermicelli you could make your own chocolate truffles.
But actually the combination of the macaroons and the ganache is particularly good, I think nicer than either alone.
Have a good Christmas!
Happy belated New Year.
We got a shop here that sells handmade truffles and other things bad for the hips ;-). The guy makes great macaroons of all sorts, too. Since I'm hopeless in the kitchen, I buy some on rare occasions. Though I bet it would be cheaper to make them myself.
Happy New Year, Gabriele! That sounds like a great shop to have nearby :-)
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