VICTORY! Sweet, Sweet Victory!

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Hey bakers!

WE DID IT!!!!!!! WE FINALLYYYYY DID Y’ALL!!!!!!!! CHOCOLATE MACARONS IN THE BOOKS!! Or…from the books…?? The Ladurée macaron book that is! That’s right! Recently I got the holy grail of French pastry cook books! Haley and I instantly fell in love. Opening the box is nothing short of a heavenly experience! Coming in a dull brown shipping box, but within is the cutest mint colored box, decorated with adorable sketchings of…You guessed it!… MACARONS! Within its pages are countless recipes of shells, ganaches, fillings, and the prettiest poster you will ever lay your eyes on!!

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Today, we decided to give one of the recipes (that yields ONE HUNDRED shells… HOLY COW!) a try. Surprisingly, classic chocolate macarons are ones we have never attempted to bake. UNTIL NOW!! Low and behold… the chocolate macaron was the one that turned out absolutely perfect!! (not to toot our own horn or anything) We have finally accomplished our Summer goal of perfecting the macaron! 

How did we do this you ask?… Well, we are going to let you in on the “Ladurée way”. 

Equipment:

  • Kitchen Aid mixer (with whisk attachment)
  • 2 silicon baking mats or parchment paper
  • 2 cookie sheets
  • kitchen scale
  • sifter
  • spatula
  • mixing bowls
  • piping bags & 3/4″ circle tip

Ingredients: 

  • 260g almond flour (Bob’s Redmill)
  • 250g confectioners sugar
  • 15g unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2  1/4 oz semi sweet chocolate (Ghirardelli)
  • 6 egg whites
  • 210g granulated sugar
  • 1  1/2 tsp meringue powder (we use this because it is SO HUMID here in FL! It isn’t entirely necessary)
  1. First things first, we did not age our egg whites. We separated them and let them sit out for about 45 minutes.
  2. While the egg whites sit, sift the powdered sugar, the almond flour, and cocoa powder separately. Mix them together, then sift the mixture once more.
  3. Beat egg whites on medium speed until frothy then slowly add granulated sugar 1 tbsp at a time. If you are using the powder meringue, now is the time to add it in. Continue beating egg whites on high speed. Beat until hard peaks form. A good tip to see if its done is to flip the bowl upside down. (Hopefully your meringue doesn’t fall out!!) We do not stop the mixer until we think it is really done. It will take at least 8 minutes, usually 10 minutes. Finished meringue should look glossy and fluffy (Like marshmallow fluff).
  4. Melt the chocolate. Use your spatula to roughly incorporate it into the meringue.
  5. Slowly fold in the cocoa-sugar-almond flour mixture until combined completely. It took us about 155 folds. It is important when you first start to count your folds so you get an idea of how long it should take. Do not under-fold in fear of over-folding!!! The batter may be thick at first, continue folding. Once it runs nicely enough to set, do not fold it anymore. You should be good to go! 
  6. Put the batter into a ready piping bag with 3/4″ tip. Pipe 1.5″ circles onto the silicon mats or parchment paper. Let the batter rest for 30-45 minutes. Feet will begin at this stage.
  7. Now is the time for that yummy filling! See below. 
  8. Set the oven…we found it best to not turn the oven on until the batter is done resting. You don’t want the oven to be too hot!! This time we set the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the shells are in the oven, set the timer for 15 minutes. If you have 2 trays in one oven it may be best to leave them in for a couple more minutes. 
  9. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. DO NOT REMOVE THE SHELLS FROM THE TRAYS RIGHT AWAY! RESIST THE TEMPTATION!! We like to gently pull the mats/paper off of the tray to let them cool down completely.
  10. Now the best part… Find their soul mates!! Give that macaron shell its perfect half! Ours came out so well this time we only had two little guys at the end that didn’t quite match up! 
  11. Fill a piping bag, with the same tip used for the shell batter. Pipe the ganache onto one of the halves and behold your macaron!

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Chocolate Ganache:

  • 10 oz semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter (softened)

Put the cream in a small saucepan, and bring it to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate in a medium bowl in 3 parts. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. Gradually add in small pieces of the butter until it is blended and smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1 hour.

We hope you have success in your macaron venture!! If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you!

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**Recipe taken from Ladurée: Macarons (The Recipes)

 

 

 

Happy baking!!

Sarah and Haley

 

 

 

 

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