I’ve seen these glorious things of beauty on so many blogs over the last few months. In a multitude of colours too, they just scream EAT ME! So when I came across this apparently simple recipe I decided to have a go for myself. My first attempt wasn’t so good – we didn’t make it to the sandwiching stage this time – but apparently once you’ve mastered them you’ll want them all the time.

Firstly, you’ll notice that my macarons are a bit lumpy. The reason for this is that my ground almonds were not fine enough – it’s not enough to pass it through a sieve, ideally you want to have these mixing in a food processor with the icing sugar and cocoa. Alas, avid fans may remember my food processor had a bit of an accident and I haven’t been able to replace it yet. I have subsequently been told that this is the definitive recipe for chocolate macarons but it’s slightly different to what I did.

You may have noticed that my photo quality has been – well, abysmal lately. Unfortunately I’m relying on my mobile phone just now until I get my camera sorted so please bear with me!

You will need:
3 egg whites
50g granulated sugar
200g icing sugar
110g ground almonds
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 150C/Gas 2. Combine the icing sugar, ground almonds and cocoa powder and put them in a food processor to get rid of any lumps. In a glass or metal bowl, beat the egg whites until they begin to hold a shape then and slowly add the sugar. Beat until they are stiff then fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites half at a time. Pipe them on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper and bake them at 150C for 12 to 15 minutes. Sandwich them together with a chocolate ganache or if (like me) you’re a bit lazy, get some nutella on the go.

Let me know if you’ve made these and have had better success than I did!

Posted under baking, recipes