The Daring Bakers: Spice Macarons with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

“In the United States, the term “macaroon” generally refers to a cookie made primarily of coconut. But European macaroons are based on either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites. The texture can run from chewy, crunchy or a combination of the two. Frequently, two macaroons are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam, which can cause the cookies to become more chewy. The flavor possibilities and combinations are nigh endless, allowing infinitely customizable permutations.

French macaroons are notorious for being difficult to master. Type in “macaroon,” “French macaroon” or “macaron” in your search engine of choice, and you will be inundated not only with bakeries offering these tasty little cookies, but scores and even hundreds of blogs all attempting to find the perfect recipe, the perfect technique. Which one is right? Which captures the perfect essence of macaroons? The answer is all of them and none of them. Macaroons are highly subjective, the subject of passionate, almost Talmudic study and debate. Chewy? Crisp? Age your egg whites? Ground the nuts or use nut meal or nut flour? Cooked sugar syrup, or confectioners’ sugar? In the words of a therapist, what do you think is the ideal macaroon? The answer lies within you.”

This month’s challenge was, well, a challenge for me to say the very least. I am, in no way, a master of any sort of macaron making, and I certainly approached this month’s challenge as no small task. The truth is, I have undoubtedly tried my hand at whipping up a batch of these dreamy little things more times than I would like to admit. Unfortunately, each time I would carefully peek into the oven, ready to collect my baked macaron shells, my small glimmer of hope would eventually come crashing down along with a baking sheet full of flat, no “feet,” sticky non-macarons.

I must admit, when I discovered this month’s challenge would be french macarons, I was quite excited. I thought, ” I’ll do it this time.” But after another failed attempt with Claudia Fleming’s recipe, I felt it was time for me to visit, Tartlette, the queen of macarons. Tartlette’s tutorial on “Demystifying Macarons,” from Desserts Magazine is a great instructional method for each step of macaron making. I’ve read through it a few times before, always with the thought that I would set aside some time and actually give it a go. Well, to make a long story short, I applied the techniques and tips from Tartlette’s tutorial to Claudia’s recipe and came up with what you see here. Although nowhere near perfect, I feel like I am getting closer to my desired result, many thanks to the tips and instruction in this tutorial.

For the purpose of the challenge, I settled on a simple flavor combination; spiced macarons filled with whipped bittersweet chocolate ganache. The spice combination for the macaron shells combines a tsp of cinnamon, a 1/4 tsp of allspice and a fresh grating of nutmeg. I whisked these spices into the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture. My chocolate ganache recipe is simple enough and is listed below the challenge recipe.

I’m now more excited about macarons and I can’t wait to whip up another batch. Although Claudia’s recipe did not work out for me, I think, with Tartlette’s tutorial and my newfound macaron motivation, I see a future full of puffy crisp macarons with happy smiling feet.

Claudia Fleming’s, The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern

Spice Macarons with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

5 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate ( or a mixture of bitter and semisweet)

1 cup of heavy cream

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat cream in saucepan until it comes to a simmer. Pour over chopped chocolate and stir until you get a nice glossy texture. Stir in butter. Once my chocolate came to room temperature, I refrigerated it for about 30 minutes. I finished by whipping the chocolate until it developed a thick creamy texture.

Tagged as: Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache, Daring Bakers Challenge, French Macarons, spice macarons