How Exciting! I am attending my first Virtual Party. The girls at A Common Thread are celebrating their new blog with a beautiful gathering. It looks like such a elegant affair, and of course I couldn't attend empty handed, so I thought I would just pop over to Paris and pick up my favourite Laduree macarons!

Nothing is as beautiful as these delicate french treasures. I think I enjoy looking at them nearly as much as I enjoy eating them,and to me they are more colourful than a bouquet of flowers! I am planning a trip to Paris in six months time and can't wait to eat a real one.I have tried somewhat unsuccessfully over the years to make my own, with little success, but the following receipe has been recommended to me if you want to give it a try!

Thank you girls for hosting such a lovely party, I look forward to many interesting trips to A Common Thread!


Chocolate Macarons Recipe ( 50 sandwiched macarons)




Ingredients



150g Almond Powder (finely ground)

150g Confectioner’s Sugar

60g Egg Whites


50g Unsweetened Chocolate (The more bitter the better!)

6g Cocoa Powder


60g Egg Whites

150g Granulated Sugar

30g Water



3g Carmine Red Food Coloring (will provide a nice reddish brown color.)



Instructions



1. Preheat convection oven to 160 degrees Celsius or 170 degrees Celsius in a conventional oven



Almond Powder/Confectioner’s Sugar Paste.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the almond powder, confectioner’s sugar and 60g egg whites together until you form a wet paste. Set aside.



Chocolate Mixture

3. In a separate bowl, melt chocolate in a bain marie or microwave and mix cocoa powder into the warm melted chocolate. Set aside.



Italian Meringue

4. In a small pot, add water and granulated sugar. Put pot on stove over a medium fire and cook the sugar mixture. With a digital thermometer, measure the temperature of the mixture. When the temperature reaches 115 degrees Celsius, immediately start mixing the egg whites with the mixer at medium speed. Continue to cook and monitor the sugar mixture and when it reaches a temperature of 121 degrees Celsius, turn off the fire, immediately pull the pot from the stove and pour the sugar syrup down the side of the mixing bowl. Ensure you do not pour the mixture onto the whisk in the mixture. The sugar syrup should slide down the side of the mixing bowl into the whipped egg whites.

5. You will see the volume of the whipped egg whites visibly increase. Continue to mix at medium speed until the mixing bowl is slight warm or cool to the touch. The Italian meringue will thicken as it cools down.



Final Mixture

6. While the Italian meringue has cooled, add the chocolate mixture to the Italian meringue. Ensure the chocolate is fully mixed with the Italian meringue. Add red food coloring (optional) and mix thoroughly.

7. Stop the mixer and fold in the Italian meringue/chocolate mixture into the Almond powder/confectioner’s sugar paste. Once folded, you should obtain a thick flowing batter similar to “magma”. The batter is now ready for piping.



Piping

8. Put two baking sheets together (both baking sheets should touch without a gap in between and should be one top of one another). Lay a piece of parchment or silpat on the doubled baking sheet.

9. Put batter into a piping bag with a 1cm round piping tip.

10. Pipe batter into 2.5cm rounds across the silpat or parchment paper. The rounds will spread somewhat. That’s normal.

11. When completed piping, bang the baking sheets twice against the table to remove any residual air bubbles in the piped rounds. Let the piped batter rest for 15-30 minutes.



Baking

12. Bake macarons for approximately 14min – 17min depending on oven type (Convection oven = less time / Conventional oven = more time). Every oven is different so it’s important to keep watch of the baking progress during the tail end of the prescribed time. Adjust timing where necessary.

13. Once done, pull tray from oven and leave macarons to cool down before peeling off.



Filling

14. Fill macaron with filling of your choice. Typical choices include dark chocolate ganache or salted caramel ganache