And here is the most delicious macaron, the dark chocolate one!
What can I say, it is truly a delicious and delicious biscuit and one leads to another. The procedure is always the same (in this article with the French method of Ladurèe). Are you ready? Let’s begin!
Ingredients (about 40-50 macarons of 3.5 cm in diameter).
- 260 g of almond flour
- 250 g of powdered sugar
- 6 egg whites (aged 24-48 hours) + half an egg white
- 210 g of granulated sugar
- 15 g of bitter cocoa
- 65 g of melted 70% chocolate
Ingredients for the dark chocolate ganache
- 145 g of 70% dark chocolate
- 135 g of fresh cream
- 30 g of butter
Start with the filling:
Dark chocolate ganache: chop the chocolate and put it in a bowl. Put the cream on the stove and bring it to the boil (be careful it must not whip and rise in volume). Pour it in three times (a third, a third and a third) slowly over the chocolate, stirring with a spoon to melt the chocolate perfectly. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the chocolate cream, stirring, obtaining a smooth and shiny cream.
Cover the container with the film adhering to the cream and let it cool completely. Put in the piping bag and let it rest for at least an hour in the refrigerator until it has the consistency of an ointment.
Macaron Biscuit:
Prepare the macaron pans in advance by drawing the 3.5 cm circles well spaced on a sheet of paper to place under the baking paper. Then fix the baking paper with a little macaron mixture so that it does not move.
In the food processor, activate the blades and mix the almond flour and the icing sugar at maximum speed in short pulses until they are perfectly mixed. Sift the mixture with a fine mesh steel sieve and remove any larger pieces.
Chop the chocolate and melt it in a bain-marie and bring it to a temperature of 35°C.
Whip the six egg whites in the mixer until stiff.
When they are well whipped, white and fluffy, add a third of the sugar and continue whipping to dissolve and incorporate the sugar well. At this point add another third of the sugar and beat for another minute, finally add the last third and whip for another minute. Add the chocolate melted at 35°C and mix gently.
Using a soft spatula, gently fold the sifted flour and almond mixture into the whipped egg whites. Add the half egg white previously beaten in a bowl and mix so that the mixture deflates slightly so that it softens slightly. If you let it drip from the spatula, it should drip but be consistent. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Form your macarons with the piping bag (nozzle size 10) on the previously prepared baking trays. Tap the tray lightly from underneath to ensure that the macarons finish settling (see video).
Let the macarons rest for at least an hour in the air (they must form a film in contact with the air so that if you touch them with your finger they do not stick), this time is variable, so be patient. Bake and cook for about 15 minutes until a light crust has formed and you will see the collar forming, they must not color at all.
Remove the baking trays and remove the baking paper and leave the macarons to cool on a cold surface (marble or the kitchen counter). Remove the macarons only when they are cold.
Assembly:
arrange the macarons upside down on a plate and press lightly in the center to make a very small hollow to insert the filling well. Take the lemon cream from the fridge and cut the tip of the piping bag (about 0.5 cm diameter) and fill with a dollop of cream keeping the cream as central as possible (not on the edges) and do this for half of the biscuits.
At this point, overlap the second half on each one, rotating it slightly so that the filling reaches almost to the outer edge. The filling should be a little less than half a cm. Place the macarons on a plate or in an airtight container and let them cool in the fridge for at least 12 hours before eating them. You can keep them in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze them and let them defrost in the fridge for the first festive occasion.
Here they are… aren’t they beautiful?
Editor’s note (or rather, from Nicolò, Angelica’s boyfriend). Or rather, the hard truth about macarons: macarons don’t always turn out well, maybe it’s the humidity, maybe you didn’t let them rest for too long, maybe your oven, maybe it’s a particularly unlucky day. I’ve rarely seen Angelica as disconsolate as I saw her in front of the cracked macarons. But don’t give up. In the end they’ll work, and you’ll ask yourselves about the ones that come after, “but why didn’t they crack if I made them in the exact same way?
