Macaron is a French sweet and colourful confection commonly filled with ganache, buttercream, or jam sandwiched between two meringues cookies. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, pistachio, strawberry, lavender, hazelnut, orange blossom, and lots more! They are not difficult to make, but they can be so finicky!
Enjoy!
French Chocolate Macarons with Toffee
Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour or almond meal
3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch cream of tartar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Ganache filling
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick), at room temperature and cut into cubes
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Directions for the Ganache
- Place the dark chocolate chips in a large bowl.
- Warm the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to boil.
- Stir it into the chocolate without creating bubbles.
- Let sit for 1 minute. Add the butter and stir until smooth.
- Chill in the refrigerator until thickened but still spreadable, about 30 minutes.
Special equipment
You will need a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip. If you don’t have one, you can either spoon round dollops of batter onto the baking sheet or make a pastry bag by snipping off one corner of a large resealable plastic freezer bag.
Directions for macaroons
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the powdered sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment and pulse several times. Process until fine and combined, about 30 seconds.
Sift through a flour sifter into a large bowl; set aside.
Meringue recipe – place the 3 egg whites in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until opaque and foamy, about 30 seconds. Now add a pinch of cream of tartar, increase the speed to medium high, continue to beat until the egg whites are white in color and hold the line of the whisk, about 1 minute.
Continue to beat, slowly adding the granulated sugar, until the sugar is combined, the peaks are stiff, and the whites are shiny, about 1 minute more. Do not over whip. Transfer the meringue to a large bowl.
Take a rubber spatula, and now gently fold the dry mixture with the egg whites in four different scoops until the dry ingredients are just combined.
Now you will need to spoon half of batter into pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain round tip. Pipe batter onto each prepared sheet in 12 walnut-size mounds, spacing mounds apart because cookies will spread slightly.
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm to touch in center and dry and cracked on top, about 7 minutes pull the pan put and then rotate and bake for another 7 minutes.
IMPORTANT Slide parchment with cookies onto work surface; cool cookies. Repeat with remaining batter, cooling sheets completely and lining with clean parchment for each batch.
Assembly
- Arrange 1 macaroon, flat side up, on work surface. Drop 1 scant tablespoon filling onto cookie.
- Top with second macaron, flat side down.
- Press lightly to adhere, making sandwich.
- Repeat with remaining macarons and filling. Arrange macarons on platter.
- Cover; chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
- Serve cold.
French Chocolate Macarons with Toffee
Ingredients
Macaron
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup almond flour or almond meal
- 3 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 3 large egg whites at room temperature
- Pinch cream of tartar
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
Ganache filling
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/4 stick, at room temperature and cut into cubes
Instructions
Directions for the Ganache
- Place the dark chocolate chips in a large bowl.
- Warm the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to boil.
- Stir it into the chocolate without creating bubbles.
- Let sit for 1 minute. Add the butter and stir until smooth.
- Chill in the refrigerator until thickened but still spreadable, about 30 minutes.
- Special equipment
- You will need a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip. If you don’t have one, you can either spoon round dollops of batter onto the baking sheet or make a pastry bag by snipping off one corner of a large resealable plastic freezer bag.
Directions for macaroons
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the powdered sugar, almond flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment and pulse several times. Process until fine and combined, about 30 seconds.
- Sift through a flour sifter into a large bowl; set aside.
Meringue recipe
- Place the 3 egg whites in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until opaque and foamy, about 30 seconds. Now add a pinch of cream of tartar, increase the speed to medium high, continue to beat until the egg whites are white in color and hold the line of the whisk, about 1 minute.
- Continue to beat, slowly adding the granulated sugar, until the sugar is combined, the peaks are stiff, and the whites are shiny, about 1 minute more. Do not over whip. Transfer the meringue to a large bowl.
- Take a rubber spatula, and now gently fold the dry mixture with the egg whites in four different scoops until the dry ingredients are just combined.
- Now you will need to spoon half of batter into pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch plain round tip. Pipe batter onto each prepared sheet in 12 walnut-size mounds, spacing mounds apart because cookies will spread slightly.
- Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm to touch in center and dry and cracked on top, about 7 minutes pull the pan put and then rotate and bake for another 7 minutes.
Assembly
- Arrange 1 macaroon, flat side up, on work surface. Drop 1 scant tablespoon filling onto cookie.
- Top with second macaron, flat side down.
- Press lightly to adhere, making sandwich.
- Repeat with remaining macarons and filling. Arrange macarons on platter.
- Cover; chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
- Serve cold.
Thanks for sharing this sounds and looks delicious,hoping to try this one over the winter !
Thank you for the recipe, I got a macaroon mat for Christmas and have been trying to find a recipe to try. On my list to do this weekend now!
That’s a nice Christmas gift! Let us know how you liked them:)
These look decadent, will have to try them
Let us know who you like them:)
Just had to check out what a macaroon mat was 🙂 That’s a good way to get the sizing right. These look delicious – I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten a macaroon but I do love meringues so I’d probably like macaroons too 🙂
Those look yummy. i can’t wait to try out the recipe!
I love macaroon’s. I’m not sure if I’m up to the task of baking them myself (I’m no baker expert)… It seems easier to pick them up from a bakery! 🙂
Give it a try, with practice they will come great!
French Chocolate Macarons with Toffee sounds delicious,hope to make these sometime !!
I have my very first macaron this past september in Paris. It was dreamy. This recipe looks like it could transport me back in time. I love it!
mmmm. what a marvelous recipe. thank you!!
Thank you and hoping you will make it!
One of these days I would love to try to make Macaroons, they look easy enough to make but looks are deceiving..lol, they are so good though!!
It’s time consuming, but definitely worth it! Let us know it went if you decide to make them:)
Thank you for sharing this recipe. They look delicious!
I can’t believe how good you are at making wonderful treats like these
Baking is a huge hobby of mine and I’m always up for a challenge. I made macarons for the first time and I was very pleased with the outcome. It was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. To me, it was easy, but I also bake a lot. After trial and error, I came out with perfect results. Here are some tips I learned when it comes to baking the macarons.
1. I lowered the oven temperature to 325
2. Once piped onto the sheets, bang the sheet on the counter about 5 times to release air bubbles.
3. Let rest, uncovered, for about 40-60 mins. The second sheet sat out for an hour before baking and there were no cracks while baking. Very few macarons had cracks the first sheet and it sat out for 30 minutes.
4. Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on how fast your oven cooks
I am so happy how the macarons turned out and they taste delicious. I felt like a little kid on christmas. I can not wait to use this recipe again!
Thanks for sharing your tips and so happy you liked the recipe! I find the hardest part is the oven temperature and time as it seems that it will differ with different brand of ranges.
Sounds decadent! Is there a substitute for almond flour though as I have family with nut allergies?
You would have to Google it. This is what I use and not sure if other flour would make a good substitution. Maybe other recipes will mention different flour.