These chocolate macarons are rich, fudgy and delicious! They’re made with a tasty almond shell and filled with decadent 2-ingredient chocolate ganache.
I’ve often found macarons to be a bit of an elusive dessert, because they take such a long time to make and are fairly temperamental. You have to let the shells dry before putting them in the oven so that the cookies can rise and gain “feet” (the bumpy, crackly layer you see in the middle of the cookie).
However, I’ve tried to make this recipe as simple as possible. You whip the egg whites, then add the dry ingredients. Pipe the cookies, let sit, then bake. You make the ganache with just two ingredients, and you frost the inside of the cookie and make a sandwich. Simple stuff. But the result? Exquisite!
Below are the step-by-step photos to accompany the recipe. Try these out to help you make your way towards being a (practically) professional French pastry chef 😉
Chocolate Macarons
Ingredients
For the Macarons:
100 g powdered sugar
25 g cocoa powder
50 g almond flour
60-65g egg whites (2 eggs)
5 tbsp granulated sugar
For the Ganache:
120g dark chocolate
120g heavy cream
Directions:
1. Make the Macarons: In a large mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and the granulated sugar together until stiff peaks form.
2. In a small bowl, sift together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and almond flour. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the eggs whites with a spatula. Fold only until the batter looks uniform.
3. Get an icing bag and prepare it with a large, round tip. Fill the bag with your macaron batter. Prepare cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pipe 2-inch circles of batter, about an inch apart from each other.
4. Let these cookies sit in a cool, dry place for two hours, or until the tops appear set and slightly hardened (to test, touch the cookies. They are ready to be baked if batter doesn’t stick to your finger).
5. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Bake for about 12 minutes.
6. Make the Ganache: Heat the heavy cream until hot, but not boiling. If you do this in a small saucepan on the stove, you will see tiny bubbles forming on the edges of the pan. That’s when the cream is ready. Remove from heat, then add the dark chocolate. Let sit for about 5 minutes, then mix until smooth. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
7. Once your macarons have cooled, start pairing them up by size.
8. Next, prep another icing bag, this time with your choice of a round or a star tip. Fill the icing bag with the chilled ganache. You will know the ganache is ready to be used if it has a consistency thicker than buttercream, but softer than fudge.
9. Pipe the ganache onto one cookie, then make into cookies sandwiches.
10. Enjoy your macarons fresh, and place leftovers in the fridge.
A couple notes on this recipe:
These chocolate macarons taste great cold or room temperature. They taste great fresh, but they actually taste even better a day or two after they were made because this allows the ganache to soften the dry shells. The result is a brownie-like consistency, where the ganache blends into the inner shells of the cookies, and the outer shell acts like the crunchy top that brownies normally have.
Also, you will notice that the recipe is all in grams. This is because it is hard to get a macaron recipe right if you’re measuring by volume. I bought a nice kitchen scale on sale at Costco, but you can get something even cheaper on Amazon.
Looking for another chocolate dessert to make?
Try these Mini Molten Chocolate Orange Cakes!
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