Chocolate coffee macarons

Happy Valentine’s Day my loves!

I hope you are enjoying your day in any way possible! To make this day even more special I decided to share with you a new macaron recipe. As you might have noticed, I have a slight obsession with macarons, since I first tried one in Montreal, three years ago. I went to the francophone part of Canada with four other friends for one of my best friend’s 21st birthday celebration. We had so much fun although the ride there was a bit of an adventure since my friend’s car broke down and we had to wait to get back on the road for a little while, but that’s another story!

Going back to the macaron part of the story, I noticed a lot of pictures on Instagram of these coloured, little, round sweets and I always wanted to try one, so when we saw this macaron little store, we decided to stop and we basically took every single kind of flavour they had. It was the best damn thing we had ever eaten! Well, at least in my opinion. From that moment, my friend D and I, have been going on walks and when we spot a macaron shop, we stop to try them, because hey, macarons are the best damn thing!

I adapted this recipe from the blog Handle the Heat. It’s my second attempt at making macarons, you can see how the turned out the first time here.

But let’s now go to the recipe and start baking!

Ingredients for macarons:

1/2 cup almond flour          2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder          2 egg whites

1 cup powdered sugar         1/4 teaspoon fine salt                                                5 tablespoons granulated sugar

For macaron filling:

2 ounces (50 grams) dark chocolate           1/4 heavy cream

1 teaspoon espresso powder                          1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions: 

Combine almond flour, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a food processor. Mix the ingredients together for about 1-2 minutes then sift with a strainer in a bowl.

Place the egg white in a bowl and beat until fluffy for about 1-2 minutes, then add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and mix for another 1-2 minutes or until stiff.

Fold the dry ingredient into the egg mixture until there are no more lumps.

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Place the batter into a pastry bag and create 1 1/4  inch round circles on the sheet. Let them sit for about 30 minutes. Turn the oven on at 35o F or 180 C.

Bake for about 14 minutes or until the macarons look smooth, then transfer the macarons onto a cooling rack. Let them sit.

For the filling, place the chocolate and espresso powder into a bowl. Add cream into a pot and bring it to a boil. Then add the cream to the chocolate and espresso powder with the butter and mix it all together. Let it sit and when it becomes dense, place it in a bag, spread it over the bottom of one macaron and match it to the bottom of another macaron of the same size.