Aquafaba Macarons
For the macaron shells, I adapted this incredible recipe by Baked by Clo. Be sure to measure out your ingredients using a kitchen scale! (I didn’t do this, even though the recipe told me to, and my macarons’ consistency was a little off. Accuracy is super important!)
Ingredients
For the macaron shells:
Liquid from 2 x 400g cans of supermarket chickpeas
¼ Teaspoon Cream of tartar
100 g Caster sugar (superfine sugar)
100 g almond flour
100 g Icing sugar
Reduce the aquafaba: (Make sure to do this ahead of time; Baked by Clo suggests at least 12 hours in advance. I’m not good at budgeting my time so I only did it ~8 hours in advance, and it worked just fine!):
Empty the liquid from the 2 cans of chickpeas and place it in a medium-sized pot. Simmer until it reduces by half. (I just eyeballed it, but for accuracy it’s best to weigh the aquafaba before you start simmering, and periodically while you’re reducing it to get the right amount!)
Let the reduced aquafaba cool, and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. (Or until you panic and realize you’ve got to start making your macarons NOW or else you’ll be late to the recording session for your podcast.)
Make the macaron shells!
Preheat your oven to 300°F
Before you start, make sure whatever bowls you’ll be using are CLEAN! Macarons are temperamental little things, so make sure your bowl is thoroughly washed and dried. Place 100g of your reduced aquafaba into your very clean bowl and add the cream of tartar.
Whisk the aquafaba and cream of tartar on high using (again, a super duper clean) electric mixer/stand mixer. The mixture should become frothy and lighten in color.
Per Baked by Clo: “With the mixer still going, start adding your caster sugar a little at a time. Keep whisking until the mixture becomes white and glossy and forms stiff peaks, until you can tip the bowl upside-down without it moving. This takes a lot longer than it would with egg whites so be patient and keep whisking!”
Meanwhile, grab a sieve and sift your almond flour and powdered sugar. Yes, it is annoying–but yes, it does actually make a difference in the texture.
When your aquafaba meringue has those stiff peaks, add about half of your almond/sugar mixture in. Gently fold them in using your favorite spatula. When they look mostly combined, add the remaining almonds/sugar and continue to fold. Be gentle–you don’t want to deflate your meringue too much!
“Keep folding gently until the mixture begins to get a little softer, but be careful not to over-mix. You'll know you're done mixing when you can place a spoonful of the mixture on a flat surface and it slowly flattens out without any lumps or bumps on top. Another way to test is by lifting up a bit of the mixture and drawing a figure of 8 with it. It's ready when you can do this without it breaking.” (Again, per the fabulous Baked by Clo.)
*Optional: If you want to add in any sort of food coloring, now’s the time to do it. I used blue, because I’d previously used up all my red food coloring making fake blood. Ah, the joys of co-hosting a horror podcast.Line a cookie sheet (or two) with parchment paper. Add your macaron batter to a piping bag, and pipe them into approximately 2-inch cookies.
Get mad. I’m not kidding; get really, irrationally angry. Think back to that dumb thing that bully Billy said to you in fourth grade. Harness this rage, and slam your cookie trays onto the counter/table/ground/flat work surface to get rid of any air bubbles. (I live in a small apartment, so shoutout to my neighbors who probably thought I was deranged.)
Let the macarons sit out at room temperature for… It depends. You’ll want to wait long enough until the cookies form a small film, and you can gently touch the top of the cookie without getting batter stuck to your fingers. Baked by Clo recommends 20-30 minutes, but I ended up waiting closer to 45.
Time to bake! Pop ‘em in the oven and bake for around 16-20 minutes. You’ll know you’ve gotten the batter consistency correct if your macarons form “feet.” (This is that little curmbly ridge at the bottom of the cookie, while the middle rises up a smidge.) If you’re not sure if they’re done, Baked by Clo suggests the following: “You can check they're ready by wiggling the top of one with your finger. If it moves out of place, it needs to be baked a little longer. I recommend that you only bake one tray at a time unless you can fit the trays on the same shelf.”
Remove the macarons from the oven and let them cool. You should be able to gently pull them off of the parchment paper. If they stick, they’re probably a touch underbaked and/or the batter consistency was a little off. This happened to me, but the cookies themselves still tasted good, at least! Making macarons takes some practice, so don’t be discouraged if they aren’t perfect the first time! It just gives you an excuse to try again (and to eat more macarons).
Play matchmaker and help each cookie find their soulmate. Match each cookie with another of similar size, and fill them with your desired filling!
Hot Cocoa Ganache:
This was by far the favorite filling of them all, and it’s pretty easy to make! You can easily scale the recipe up/down depending on the amount of ganache you need.
Ingredients:
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
8 oz. of your favorite chocolate. (I used a combination of ~5oz. 70% dark chocolate and 3 oz. semi-sweet.)
Approx. 2 tablespoons of hot chocolate mix. (I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t actually measure it out, I just sort of threw it in. I also used a french vanilla flavored cocoa mix, to give it some depth and also because it’s my favorite.)
Using your favorite comically large knife, finely chop up your chocolate so that it will melt easier. Place your chopped chocolate into a bowl, and set aside for later.
Place the whipping cream in a saucepan, and begin heating over medium heat. When it starts to get warm, but isn’t quite yet at a simmer, add in your hot cocoa mix and gently stir it in until the mix dissolves into the cream. (Try not to overmix, though–we don’t want to make whipped cream!)
When the whipping cream reaches a high simmer, immediately pour it over your chopped chocolate. Let the cream sit over the chocolate for one minute so that the chocolate melts. Then, whisk the chocolate and cream (slowly at first, but be thorough) together until it forms a ganache.
Let your ganache fully cool. It will thicken up as it cools, and you’re ready to pipe it onto your macaron shells! (You can also whisk the heck out of your cooled ganache with a stand mixer if you’d like it to be a little more fluffy in texture.)