Macaron Love: Mint Chocolate Chip Macarons

It's almost officially summer! And I'm getting super excited, too. So for this month's macarons, I was inspired by one of my favorite things...Mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Mint Chocolate Chip Macarons

(makes about 2 dozen, depending on size)

Macaron Shells:

Ingredients:

• 80 g ground almonds, sieved to remove large particles
• 130 g powdered sugar
• 1 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
• Splash of vinegar
• 2 large egg whites, room temperature (~66-70 g)
• 20 g granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• Green food coloring

Method:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Grind the chocolate chips in a food processor or coffee grinder.
3. Sieve the ground chocolate and separate large pieces from small pieces. Set aside.
4. Sift the powdered sugar into the almonds. Stir to combine.
5. Wipe a large, clean bowl with a paper towel covered in vinegar.
6. Put in the egg whites, and whip until bubblebath-y.
7. Add the cream of tartar, and whip until doubled in volume.
8. Sprinkle in the granulated sugar, in 3-4 batches, and whip until stiffened (like shaving cream. Not quite stiff peaks, but stiff enough that if you held the bowl upside down, it wouldn't come out. Also, still moist and shiny and the peak will curl down a little)
9. Add in a few drops of food coloring to egg whites and gently stir in (make it a little darker than desired in the finished cookies, as the color fades after baking).
10. Fold in the almond mixture in about 4 batches.
11. Fold until completely combined and the batter flows in a thick, slow ribbon.
12. Put into a piping bag, and pipe small, 1-inch circles on the baking sheets.
13. Poke down any points with a dampened finger.
14. Hit against a table, counter top, your knees, etc. so that the piped circles flatten a bit.
15. Sprinkle the tops of half of the piped macarons with the large pieces of ground chocolate.
16. Let rest for 30-45 minutes.
17. In the last few minutes, preheat the oven to 300° F.
18. Place the baking sheets upon a larger one and place in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
19. Turn down the over temperature to 290° F and bake for another 4-5 minutes, depending on size (take out when the shells are hard and dry).
20. Let cool completely and remove from parchment paper.
21. Pipe the cookies without chocolate sprinkled on top with honey mint chocolate chip buttercream and sandwich a cookie with chocolate chunks on top.
22. Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. milk
• 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
• Green food coloring
• Reserved finely ground chocolate chips (from earlier)

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar together. Mixture will be dry and loose.
2. Add in the milk, extract and food coloring (to desired color), and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in the ground chocolate to give the desired speckle-y effect.
4. Pipe into macaron shells.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Macaron Love: Earl Grey Macarons + Honey Buttercream

My absolute favorite tea is Earl Grey. And one of my absolute favorite things to eat straight from the jar is honey.

I'm also quite fond of macarons, so this is definitely one of my new favorite things to make. It tastes like a cup of Earl Grey with honey in it :-)

Earl Grey Macarons + Honey Buttercream

(Macaron recipe adapted from here)

Makes 14-15 Macarons

Earl Grey Macaron shells:

Ingredients:

• 80 g ground almonds, sieved to remove large particles
• 130 g powdered sugar
• 2 satchels of Earl Grey tea, ground to a fine powder
• 2 large egg whites, room temperature (~66-70 g)
• 20 g granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• Splash of vinegar

Method:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift the powdered sugar and tea powder into the almonds. Stir to combine.
3. Wipe a large, clean bowl with a paper towel covered in vinegar.
4. Put in the egg whites, and whip until bubblebath-y.
5. Add the cream of tartar, and whip until doubled in volume.
6. Sprinkle in the granulated sugar, in 3-4 batches, and whip until stiffened (like shaving cream. Not quite stiff peaks, but stiff enough that if you held the bowl upside down, it wouldn't come out. Also, still moist and shiny and the peak will curl down a little)
7. Fold in the almond mixture in about 4 batches.
8. Fold until completely combined and the batter flows in a thick, slow ribbon.
9. Put into a piping bag, and pipe small, 1-inch circles on the baking sheets.
10. Poke down any points with a dampened finger.
11. Hit against a table, counter top, your knees, etc. so that the piped circles flatten a bit.
12. Let rest for 30-45 minutes.
13. In the last few minutes, preheat the oven to 300° F.
14. Place the baking sheets upon a larger one and place in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
15. Turn down the over temperature to 290° F and bake for another 4-5 minutes, depending on size (take out when the shells are hard and dry).
16. Let cool completely and remove from parchment paper.
17. Pipe half of the cookies with honey buttercream and sandwich a plain cookie on top.
18. Enjoy!

Honey Buttercream

(adapted slightly from here)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 c. white granulated sugar
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1+1/3 sticks butter

Method:

1. In a medium sized bowl, beat the egg yolks with a mixer until they become pale in color.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, honey and water.
3. Without stirring, let the mixture reach ~230° F.
4. While mixing the eggs, slowly pour the sugar mixture into a thin steam.
5. Once all of the sugar mixture is added, turn the mixture to high speed and beat the mixture until it reaches room temperature (~15 minutes).
6. Turn down the mixer to low, and add in the vanilla.
7. Once combined, add in the butter, 1 tbsp. at a time, slowly. Mix to combine after every addition of butter.
8. Pipe into macaron shells, sandwich with a plain cookie, and enjoy with a cup of Earl Grey!

TA-DA!

Macaron Love: Chocolate Macarons on My Birthday!

Today, I am...old. I can get a tattoo without parental consent. I can finally volunteer at the soup kitchen. I'm old enough to vote. I can drive around at 2 in the morning, if I so desire. And my parents can even kick me out of the house if they want to! Yay, adulthood!

Yesterday (since today will be spent studying....), my mom said she would take me anywhere in the world, time permitting, and I the only thing I wanted to do was...make macarons. And so I did...

Chocolate Macarons with Chocolate Buttercream

(recipe adapted from here)

Makes 14-15 Macarons

Macaron shells:

Ingredients:

• 80 g ground almonds, sieved to remove large particles
• 130 g powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 large egg whites, room temperature (~66-70 g)
• 20 g granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• Splash of vinegar

Method:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder into the almonds. Stir to combine.
3. Wipe a large, clean bowl with a paper towel covered in vinegar.
4. Put in the egg whites, and whip until bubblebath-y.
5. Add the cream of tartar, and whip until doubled in volume.
6. Sprinkle in the granulated sugar, in 3-4 batches, and whip until stiffened (like shaving cream. Not quite stiff peaks, but stiff enough that if you held the bowl upside down, it wouldn't come out. Also, still moist and shiny and the peak will curl down a little)
7. Fold in the almond mixture in about 4 batches.
8. Fold until completely combined and the batter flows in a thick, slow ribbon.
9. Put into a piping bag, and pipe small, 1-inch circles on the baking sheets.
10. Poke down any points with a dampened finger.
11. Hit against a table, counter top, your knees, etc. so that the piped circles flatten a bit.
12. Let rest for 30-45 minutes.
13. In the last few minutes, preheat the oven to 300° F.
14. Place the baking sheets upon a larger one and place in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
15. Turn down the over temperature to 290° F and bake for another 4-5 minutes, depending on size (take out when the shells are hard and dry).
16. Let cool completely and remove from parchment paper.
17. Pipe half the cookies with whatever you love and top with another cookie half.

Chocolate Buttercream:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. (180 g) powdered sugar
• 5 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 4 1/2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp. milk, as needed

Method:

1. Beat the sugar, butter, salt and cocoa powder until combined.
2. Add the vanilla extract and beat together.
3. Add milk until the right consistency is reached.

...and that's all I really wanted.

Macaron Love: My First Successful Macarons!

Because of all the snow, I'm snowed in and have nothing better to do than to make...

MACARONS!

My first attempt was a total fail, but I also didn't age my egg whites or double up the baking pans. But since I had some leftover egg whites sitting in the fridge since Monday, I decided to give macaron-ing another try!

French Macarons

(adapted from here)

Makes: About 30 Macarons (60 shell halves)

Ingredients:

• 200 g powdered sugar
• 110 g almond meal (or almond flour, if you don't want the speckles from the skins)
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 90 g egg whites (3 large or 4 medium, but it's better to just weigh them. Also, leave them uncovered in the refrigerator for 1-5 days. Another thing: at room temperature.)
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Method:

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, mix the powdered sugar and almond meal until combine.

3. Sift this mixture together, and put any refuse in a coffee grinder (or food processor, if you're fancy). Grind until fine enough to go through the sifter.

4. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy ("Bubble bath", as Helene Dujardin, the macaron master, would say.

5. Add in the granulated sugar and cream of tartar gradually.

6. Beat until glossy and has stiff peaks (Dujardin describes it as "shaving cream"). If you are adding any food coloring, add it now.

7. Pour in the almond meal mixture. Fold to combine, stroking quickly at first.

8. Fold until smooth and the mixture flows in a thick ribbon (do not overmix! Macarons will be flat).

9. Pour into a gallon sized plastic bag and cut a small hole in one corner.

10. Pipe 1-inch circle onto prepared sheets.

11. Punch the bottoms of the sheets (or bang against the counter to look like less of a weirdo).

12. Let the macarons rest for about 40 minutes.

13. Preheat oven to 280° F.

14. Place baking sheets upon another baking sheet and place onto middle rack of oven.

15. Bake for about 15 minutes, or more, depending on size.

16. Remove from parchment when done (if you can pick up the macaron by placing your fingers around it and carefully peeling it up, it is done).

17. Fill with whatever you love, let rest in refrigerator for 2 days, and enjoy!

I also made some chocolate filling with leftover evaporated milk from the Nutella pinwheels I made. It was super rich and yummy!

Chocolate Filling/Frosting

(adapted from here)

Ingredients:

• 150 g semisweet baking chocolate
• 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. cornstarch
• 2/3 c. evaporated milk
• 320 g powdered sugar

Method:

1. In a double-boiler, melt the chocolate and butter.

2. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.

3. Beat until smooth and slightly thickened.

4. Let chill in refrigerator for around 20 minutes.

5. Stir, add in any additional powdered sugar until spreadable, as needed.

6. For filling macarons: Place about 2 rounded tsp. of filling onto one macaron shell and place another shell on top.

Ta-da!

You can kind of tell I undermixed my batter, and also, I'm terrible at piping. I found a lovely/nifty/awesome macaron template to use next time here. And maybe when I become good enough, I'll make macarons like these!

I was overly excited about my macarons matching my new owl mug. Haha! (ohh, and just to make me look like less of a fatty, I didn't eat ALL of those. Only like, 2. ;-) )

I want to get better and better at making macarons, so I decided that every month I will make some with a variation that goes with the month.

Happy macaron-ing!