Ever since The Great British Bake Off I've had the desire to make the perfect macaroons. About a month ago and probably near on 10,000 macs later (maybe a slight exaggeration) I finally got them as good as I'm going to get.
The probably is now I have the bug and I want to experiment with different colours, flavours, sizes, even nuts. I've gone Mac crazy.
Well these are my latest babies and I mean that literally, tiny little baby chocolate mac's with a ganache filling and they are so good. And honestly, something that tiny really can't be bad for you, Can it? The other problem is I think that every time I past the fridge!
For the Macaroon shells
60g ground almonds
15g cocoa powder
115g icing sugar
2 room temp egg whites
50g caster sugar
1. In a food processor blend together the ground almonds, cocoa and icing sugar for about 1 minute
2. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks then slowly add the caster sugar, whisk until glossy
3. With a metal spoon fold in the almond mix a third at a time, once all combined gently carry on folding until you have shinny ribbons that fall from the spoon
4. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe about 60 little dots onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, I add 4 dots of mixture onto the baking tray to hold the paper in place.
5. Drop the tray onto the table or work surface a couple of times to release the air.
6. Leave for about an hour to form a skin
7. Preheat the oven to 150 fan
8. Bake for 10- 12 minutes until firm to touch try to remove one if it seems nearly set they should be ready, if not pop back in but don't leave the oven check each minute.
9. Leave to cool completely on the baking tray.
Chocolate Ganache
60g dark chocolate
40g milk chocolate
90ml double cream
10. Place all of the above in a bowl set over a saucepan of water
11. Set over a medium heat stirring all the time
12. Once mixture has come together and is smooth and shinny take off of the heat
13. At this point I now stand a disposable piping bag into a large mug, leave the bottom sealed and pour in the ganache
14. Put into the fridge until well set
15. Snip the bottom off of the piping bag and pipe small mounds onto a mac shell then sandwich with another shell.
16. Store in the fridge