Chocolate Macaroons with Orange Cream

Makes 24 (12 when sandwiched)  -  Preparation time - 1 hour  -  Cooking time - 20 min 
 

Ingredients

Macaroon (a.k.a.Pâté à macaron)

• 200g Ground Almonds
• 200g Icing Sugar
• 60g Egg whites (approx 2 eggs)

Meringue

• 60g Egg whites (approx 2 eggs)
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 3 tbsp water

• 100g Dark 70% + cocoa Chocolate (You could also use 100% cocoa solid)

Cream filling

• 200ml  of Whipping Cream
• 50g White Chocolate
• Zest of 1 Orange
• 150g Icing sugar
• Orange food colouring (optional)

Preparation

Cut two sheets of greaseproof paper (baking parchment) to cover the surface of two baking trays. Leave to one side until needed later.

Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (Gas Mark 4), place the 2 baking trays in the oven and pre-heat those too.

Pâté  à macaron mixture

In a large bowl, blend together the ground almonds, icing sugar and 60g of your egg whites. Once combined leave to cool in the fridge while you prepare the meringue mixture.

Meringue mixture

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is melted. Bring up to the boil (You can use a thermometer if you want to get it completely accurate – aiming for 115ºC).

In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining egg whites until frothy. Slowly add the sugar syrup (Warning! Be careful pouring hot sugar syrup, do not whisk while pouring, it may splash and burn). Once the syrup is all added, continue to whisk until it reaches a smooth white texture, keep whisking until stiff, it should form peaks as you remove the whisk from the mixture.

Chocolate Flavouring

In a small saucepan add a small amount of water, place a heatproof (pyrex) bowl over the top and melt the chocolate.

Macaroon mixture (3 previous stages combined)

Fold in the meringue mixture to the pate de almond, pour in the melted chocolate, stir until the mixture becomes smooth and combined.

Pour the mixture into a piping bag.

Baking

Remove the trays from the oven (remember to use an oven glove!). Place the greaseproof sheets on top. You may need to dab a small amount of mixture onto the baking tray to prevent the paper from sliding around.

Pipe out the mixture in small 4cm circles onto the paper, holding the bag upright and piping vertically from the centre of each circle. Try to leave a sufficient gap between each circle as they will expand as they settle on the tray. You should fit 12 per sheet. Leave to one side for 10mins, the mixture should settle and form a skin.

(* Apologies… I didn’t take a photo during piping, my hands were rather full at the time!)

Bake in the hot oven 180ºC (Gas Mark 4) for 8-12minutes.

Remove and allow to cool for at least 20mins before removing from the paper. Allow to cool for longer before piping the cream inside.

Cream filling

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water (as before). Whisk the cream, while adding the icing sugar until it becomes stiff, add the zest of the orange, and a few drops of orange food colouring (optional).

Add the cream to a piping bag and pipe onto the base of each macaroon, then sandwich together another macaroon.

Finally dust with icing sugar and serve.

They are perfect served after dinner with coffee, or an afternoon teatime treat.

(* As you'll notice from the photos, for some added texture and flavour, I also crumbled some honeycomb over the cream filling before sandwiching together)