Vanilla and Chocolate Ganache Macarons

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I’m looking at you, macarons. I OWNED YOU this challenge.

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.

Even though you’re not supposed to tell others what the DB challenge is for the month, I may or may not have whispered to my friend Rachelle that I was going to try making macarons this month, and she (may or may not have) offered to help me try and make them the first time. For our first batch, we tried making pistachio macarons, but for some reason they turned out flat and sticky. For the second batch, we made the vanilla macarons pictured above, and we lengthened the baking time by 2 minutes. We still didn’t get any “feet,” but I considered that a small price to pay. I’ve done some investigation as to how you can get better feet at high altitudes; we are baking at 5280 feet above sea level, and me thinks that might have made a difference in how the cookies “rose.” The vanilla cookies were good, but the pistachio cookies had much better flavor. When I make them again, I plan to make pistachio ones.

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David Lebowitz - Good Feet

Um, yeah. Not my macarons. But see the little area around the filling that’s all crinkly? Those are “feet.” Although my macarons are feet-less, they were still a huge feat for me. hahaha See what I did there???

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These cookies are way easier than I thought to make. There seem to be an unending wealth of information out there on how to make your macarons better; how to make the egg whites more stable, how to make sure that the feet rise high enough. And yes, if you’re concerned about these delicate details, then these tips are invaluable. However, if you’re just happy that your macarons were tasty, then you can overlook those details until you’re preparing for Iron Chef Battle Macaron. These cookies are definitely going on the list of “Foods that I Effed up the First Time but I Actually Have the Courage to Try Making Again.”

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Vanilla and Chocolate Ganache Macarons

Adapted from The Daring Kitchen 

Makes 2 dozen sandwich cookies

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Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups (225 grams) confectioner’s sugar
2 cups (190 grams) almond flour (i.e. almond meal)
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg whites, room temperature

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Making the macarons:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 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.

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.

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.

Spoon the mixture into 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.

Pipe one-inch-sized mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper). 

Bake the macarons for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375 degrees. 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. 

Cool on a rack before filling. To make sandwich cookies, fill with the chocolate ganache, recipe follows.

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Chocolate Ganache

Yields 2 cups

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Ingredients:
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate 
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

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Directions:
Fill a saucepan with 1 inch of water and bring to a simmer. Place a heatproof bowl on the saucepan, and add the chocolate and cream to the bowl. Heat over the simmering water until the chocolate melts. Stir while over heat to ensure that the chocolate  melts evenly.

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Now Playing in the Kitchenette: Ray Lamontagne / A Falling Through – I love me some Ray Lamontagne. His voice sounds like love.

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