How to Make Chocolate Macaron
A recipe from a regular….
Here’s a recipe courtesy of this site’s resident Elizabeth David; the lovely Cid. It’s a recipe for making her wonderful chocolate macaron and the photograph and words are all by her:
Recipe for Chocolate Macaron
100g Icing Sugar
50g Ground Almonds
25g Cocoa Powder
2 Egg Whites
65g Caster Sugar
Oven: 180c
Cooking Time: 10-12 minutes
2 Baking Sheets Lined with Silicone Paper
“Macarons are little French designer macaroons that are sold in shops like Laduree, who have made them into a culinary art form. They come in assorted flavours and colours all boxed up and looking gorgeous, the price, alas is not for the faint hearted so have a go at making some for yourself. The general idea is for them to look smooth on top with a sort of frilly skirt at the base which is called the food and this is very important. Don’t be alarmed if it takes more than one attempt…some professional cooks have struggled to perfect the texture and appearance according to various articles I have read.
The list of flavours seems endless so do a bit of research to see which you prefer…my next batch might end up as cardamom or lemon or coffee or hazlenut, pistachio or saffron…just omit the cocoa and ass a few drops of natural food colouring as well.
Start with lining two baking sheets with some silicone baking parchment so they don’t stick. Blitz the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor until very finely ground. Whisk the egg whites in an electric food mixer (or by hand it’s up to you) until they ‘peak’ then add the caster sugar a little at the time until the meringue is thick and glossy. Sieve in the cocoa and add the almond/icing sugar mixture and fold in gently. Don’t over do it just fold until combined with no streaks. Use a piping bag with a plain nozzle and pipe small circles about an inch across onto the silicone paper leaving plenty of space in between. Make them all the same size as they will be paired up later.
Leave the macarons to settle for half an hour or so on their trays, then bake for about twelve minutes. Let them cool before sandwiching together with a filling of your choice like perhaps chocolate ganache or cream cheese sweetned with a little icing sugar and flavoured with vanilla extract or your favourite liqueur. This recipe should make about twelve to fifteen double macarons. Mine turned out better than expected but certainly not perfect and I should tell you that my best double layered baking sheet produced the most uniform macarons, the rest looked a bit like the surface of the moon 
Macarons, especially the multi coloured kind, look fabulous as cake decorations too. Now about those spare egg yolks…I’m thinking confectioners custard or fresh pasta?”
Many thanks Cid, they look wonderful and the recipe sounds great.
Miles
Miles,
I spotted a typo…. should read ‘Laduree’ !
Cid
October 13, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Cid,
Sorry, bit of a rush today
Miles
October 13, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
Miles,
I couldn’t resist showing a work colleague the Laduree site since she had never heard of macaron. These simple little sweet biscuits are show stoppers especially when seen in a French patisserie palace I imagine. Why they are quite so expensive I’ve no idea…. yes they’re a bit fiddly but they take no time to bake and the almond content isn’t that high. I shall be attempting cardamom next time and possibly roasted hazelnut.
Thanks for the feature Miles, it’s not every day a person gets to see their humble culinary experiments go global
Cid
October 13, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
Cid,
I’ve got three French pastry chefs two of whom worked in the boutique patisseries in Paris so they can bloody well make me some!
well done and thanks again
Miles
October 13, 2008 @ 8:49 pm
Miles,
Tell your French pastry chefs that I’m here to help should the need arise…. with my 10 minutes experience on the subject, I’m standing by to dish out the advice
Cid
October 13, 2008 @ 10:11 pm
Cid,
You temptress! You know that I will have to try this. First challenge will be to find the silicone.
Very kind of you to share this recipe. I quite fancy a lemon flavour, coffee ones are renowned also. Hmm, lovely…
Elsie
October 15, 2008 @ 8:49 am
Elsie,
It’s good to hear from you and welcome to the Macaron makers club!
Silicone paper shouldn’t be too difficult to find but if you struggle try Lakelands. All the sites I read through seemed to have trouble getting the macarons off the paper at the end of cooking, whereas mine came off cleanly without any effort. A year or so back I bought a new baking sheet which is in fact double skinned with a gap in the middle and this seemed to work very well compared to my old one.
My piping was a scream….. definitely not one of my strong points but somehow I managed. I understand some people use a template to get perfect circles of equal size….. my, my this all sounds very technical but it’s great fun and everyone seems to like macaron. Let us know how you get on and what you thought of the flavours. As the credit crunch hits we could always set up a business selling these….. something tells me I’ll do well with my bag of mis-shapes in the bargain basket
Cid
October 15, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
Miles,
Update on the macaron….. I’ve had several goes at making these lately, one batch definitely looked more like crunchy meringues but the next batch looked just right. Silicone paper is a must folks and so is mixing all the ingredients carefully until it flows like ‘magma’ so one site suggested. Let the piped macaron sit for about 30 minutes or so before putting into the oven at a reduced heat of 150 for about 15 minutes. When cold carefully lift off the paper.
Cid
October 30, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
Cid,
Thanks for that, this page has received a lot of ‘hits’ and will prove invaluable to anyone searching for a recipe.
Miles
October 31, 2008 @ 8:07 am
Miles
I’m glad to hear that this subject has received it’s fair share of hits…. I’m certain it’s because of the current global macaron craze. Lots of sites give helpful tips and honest comments about failures. Only one site gave the advice that the mixture should be folded in until it flows like magma, which as it happens is quite accurate. My next challenge is to find some natural colours… low and behold elderberry is one, how fortunate then looking at my bottle of syrup in the fridge!!
Cid
October 31, 2008 @ 9:31 am
Miles,
Today I managed to make wintery sky mauve macaron…. what the devil is that I hear you say
Well funny you should ask because I used elderberry as a colour which initially looked blueish. When they came out of the oven they were light golden brown on the outside and a murky violet inside! I filled them with an alcoholic sweet cream cheese mix and popped them into a white card cake box and gave them to my mother instead of the more usual birthday cake.
Next try will be coffee flavour.
Cid
November 1, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
Cid,
I pronounce you the Queen of Macaronsville
Lucky mother, that’s all I can say.
Miles
November 1, 2008 @ 8:57 pm