Chocolate-Almond Macarons: Like Laduree!

In Paris I fell in love.  Yes, Paris is the city of love, and yes, it was my honeymoon… but it was also when I was introduced to Macarons.  Ahh… Macarons.  Macarons are light French cookies, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside with a ganache center.  When I say light, I mean super light... these cookies have no flour in them and mostly consist of sugar and egg whites, similar to meringue. 

Ground Almonds! 

When I got home I knew I needed to recreate these little bites of heaven.  Adam had given me a cookbook from La Maison du Chocolat (my other favorite French chocolate bakery) and luckily they had a chocolate-almond macaron recipe.  My hopes were not set high mainly because I had made stuff out of this cookbook before and the recipes are usually VERY difficult.  But this recipe was different.  It was short, to the point and didn’t seem too hard.  With the long weekend ahead I thought I’d give it a try.

Firm Peaks- just after sugar was added

Stiff Peaks

So on Saturday when Adam was studying I attacked the Chocolate-Almond Macaron recipe.  It was a little time consuming and confusing, but the results were AMAZING!!!  Some things to note:  out of the oven these cookies taste crunchy and not that good, but once you put the ganache in the middle the cookies absorb some moisture and become much chewier and light.  Which proves my point that ganache makes everything taste better!  

Stir until just incorporated

Although they were not the same caliber of Laduree, it felt like I had recreated a little of France and my in-laws and Adam loved them!

I made some really tiny ones... we called them lil' hamburgers.

Cookies cooling

Ganache!!

The final product: Chocolate-Almond Macarons

Chocolate-Almond Macarons

Cookies:

1 ½ cups plus 1 Tbsp ground almonds (I used whole almonds ground in a blender)

2 ½ Tbsp cocoa powder

3 cups confectioner’s sugar

5 egg whites

Ganache:

14 ounces chocolate (the recipe calls for bittersweet, but all I had was semi-sweet which worked just as good!)

1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together ground almonds, cocoa powder and 2 ½ cups of the sugar.  Set aside.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks (throw the yolks away or use them to make homemade ice cream!) and in a large bowl beat the egg whites until they hold firm peaks.  Add the remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks.  The difference between firm and stiff peaks is as follows: firm egg whites will stand up a little when the beaters are lifted; stiff egg whites will stand tall on their own and are much sturdier.  Make sure not to over beat because then they fall and are ruined, so better to beat too little then too much. 

With a spatula gently fold in the ground almond mixture, folding just until the batter is smooth and light.  This can be tricky because if you over work the egg whites they will fall which will make the cookies not as airy and light.  So try to mix as little as possible, just until the almond/sugar mixture is incorporated.

Place small round mounds of batter on lined cookie sheets.  To form the cookies I tried two different ways.  Using two spoons I formed balls (not perfect circles, but close enough) and I also used a piping bag.  Let me correct myself, I don’t own piping bags so I used a zip-lock bag with the tip cut off.  I feel like if I could do it again I would just use the spoons because I think the egg whites fell when they were in the bag and so the cookies were flatter.

Note: you can make the cookies as big as you want.  They don’t spread much so it depends on how big you want them.  I would recommend the regular 12 to a pan, but you could raise that to 15 because they don’t really spread.

Bake for 20 min. Remove from the oven and using a glass of water moisten the spatula to help remove the macarons from the cookie sheets so they can cool completely on a rack. 

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate ganache by placing the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl.  Bring the heavy cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate letting it melt.  Stir to blend and then set aside to let the ganache harden slightly (I let it sit for maybe 20 min).

Lastly assemble the cookies by spreading the ganache on the flat side of the macaron and taking another cookie to create a sandwich.  These are a chocolate lover's paradise!