Macarons: The Fancy Oreo

It took me over a year and several awful recipes before I finally turned out a decent--even good--batch of macarons.

The final product is my own recipe, but I worked from this tutorial and these two recipes to get started. (I really recommend looking at the tutorial if you're confused about any of the steps!)

Now that I've mastered the chocolate macaron, I'll probably try some other flavors. Rose and matcha green tea have always intrigued me...

Chocolate Macarons
makes about 30 assembled sandwiches

For the shells:

3/4 cups almond flour/meal
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 egg whites, room temperature (I set mine out for about an hour before I started, and that worked fine)
8 tablespoons granulated sugar

1.  Sift together almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, whip egg whites with a mixer until frothy (about 30 seconds). Add granulated sugar and continue to whip until mixture is white and glossy and does not move when turned upside down (about 5 minutes).

the meringue should look something like this when it's finished.

3.  Sift dry ingredients into the meringue. Fold the dry ingredients into the meringue with a rubber spatula.(It will seem difficult at first, but keep going.)

4.  Once the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated, begin to deflate the meringue by pressing it into the sides or bottom of the bowl with the flat of the spatula. When completely incorporated, the batter should resemble molten lava.

5.  Transfer batter to piping tool. Pipe 1-inch circles onto parchment paper- (not wax paper!) covered baking sheets.

6.  Rap each tray on the counter (hard), rotate, and repeat. This will get rid of air bubbles and prevent cracking.

7.  Let the cookies rest for about 30 minutes to let a shell form. If the cookies appear matte and can be lightly touched without transferring any batter, the shell is formed. Preheat oven to 325F.

8.  Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Cookies are done when they can be removed from the parchment paper without leaving much residue.

Ideally, your cookies should have these little "feet," but it may take a few tries.

For the ganache:

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 ounces semisweet chocolate

2 tablespoons butter, room tempeature

1. In a saucepan, bring the cream to boil.
2. Pour over the chocolate and mix until the chocolate is completely melted.
3. Add the butter and mix until melted.
4. Put the ganache in the fridge until it is firm enough to pipe.
5. Pipe ganache onto cookies and sandwich.

ta-da!