Pierre Herme Chocolate French Macarons

It’s no secret, I love to make French Macarons.  If you’ve read my previous posts, you now know the only recipes I use come from the King of French pastry; Pierre Herme’s  fabulous cookbook MACARONS.  Pierre features two different recipes for Chocolate French Macarons; AZUR MACARON (page 120) and INFINITELY CHOCOLATE MACARON (page 62) .  Here’s how I made them.

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    FOR THE MACARON SHELLS

    (makes about 144 shells)
    300g ground almonds
    300g confectioner sugar
    115g “liquefied” egg whites (Using a scale, I weigh the eggwhites in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, poke several holes and allow to sit in the refrigerator 3-5 days)
    120g dark chocolate 100% cocoa solids

    +

    330g sugar
    75g water
    115g “liquefied” eggwhites
    3g red food coloring

    Sift together the confectioner sugar with the ground almonds (I use Bob’s ground almond flour) .  Melt the cocoa in a bowl over barely simmering simmering water.  Stir the food coloring into the first portion of egg whites.  Add them to the mixture of confectioner sugar and almonds but do not stir.

    Bring the water and sugar to a boil at 245 F.  When the syrup reaches about 200 degrees F, start whisking the second portion of egg whites to soft peaks.  Once you reach the 245 degrees F start carefully pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites.  Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down, then fold into the almond sugar mixture. * Fold in the melted chocolate.

    Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.  Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5 cm in diameter, spacing them 2 cm apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment.  Rap the trays on the surface to remove air.  Leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin.

    Preheat the oven (I use Tru-Confection for baking at 290 F) 320 F, then put the trays in the oven.  Bake for 12 – 15 minutes. Out of the oven, slide the shells on to the work surface.

    CHOCOLATE GANACHE

    300g Valrhona dark chocolate (I used both dark and semi-sweet of Scharffen Berger)
    300g whipping cream
    115g butter (I use Pulgra)
    65g yuzu juice or lime juice (I used 3 tablespoons orange juice)

    Bring the cream to a boil and then pour the cream over the chopped chocolate, stir and add the juice.  Gradually add the butter that has been cut into pieces – stir to obtain a smooth ganache. (the recipe calls to melt the chocolate first, I did not and it came out perfect).  Pour into a gratin dish, cover with plastic wrap – chill to thicken.

    Spoon ganache into a piping bag with a plain nozzle.  Pipe a generous mound on to half the shells and top with remaining shells.

    Store the macarons in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then bring them back out 2 hours before serving.  Believe me, they taste their best once they’ve been aged overnight.

    NOTE: In the AZUR recipe, there was nothing stating when to add the melted chocolate.  I found “when” to add the melted chocolate from the INFINITELY CHOCOLATE recipe.

    My version of Pierre Herme chocolate french macarons came out nice.  I, along with friends thought the chocolate ganache was outstanding.   I hope your version of this recipe is equally delicious.  Enjoy!