French cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Macarons

Two smooth almond meringue shells with a ruffled foot, sandwiched together with dark chocolate ganache.

Ingredients · for 8 servings

• 150 g ground almonds
• 150 g icing sugar
• 110 g egg whites
• 150 g sugar
• 150 g dark chocolate
• 150 ml cream
• 20 g butter
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

1. Grind the ground almonds and icing sugar together briefly and pass through a fine sieve – this is the only way to get perfectly smooth shells later.
2. Stir half the egg whites into the almond mixture; cook the sugar and 40 ml water to a syrup at 118 °C and pour it, hot, into the remaining egg whites, whisked with the salt to soft peaks.
3. Whisk the meringue for 5 min until cold and glossy, fold into the almond mixture and beat down until the batter flows off the spatula in broad ribbons.
4. Pipe 40 circles of 3 cm diameter onto baking paper, tap the tray firmly twice and let the shells skin over for 30 min until the surface is no longer sticky.
5. Bake at 150 °C top/bottom heat for 13–15 min – the shells will form a ruffled foot and come away cleanly from the paper once cooled.
6. Bring the cream to the boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, stir in the butter and sandwich the cooled ganache between pairs of shells; let mature in the fridge overnight.