As you’ve probably noticed, this blog hasn’t been chronicling my kitchen adventures at a very high rate recently. That’s because there haven’t been many kitchen adventures, which is hopefully understandable for those of you who read about what has been going on with my line of work in the past month or so. Though there’s still a good deal of work to do, the workload has become a bit more manageable, and I recently found myself contemplating another challenge.
Just contemplating. Until I saw that the MacTweets Mac Attack challenge theme for this month was decadently chocolate.
It was calling to me. It would be a tragedy to skip this one. And do you know what else was calling to me? The April “We Should Cocoa” Challenge, which was hosted by Chocolette and dared us to create something with marzipan.
Still being a woman short on time, I decided to conquer these challenges with one recipe. Yes. But how?
Answer: Triple chocolate macarons.
I happen to believe that “triple chocolate macarons” is the answer to more questions than most of us realize. If the answer isn’t Scharffen Berger cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate mixed with almonds, I may not even want to know what the question is.
Triple Chocolate Macarons – Shells (as adapted from Tartelette)
3 egg whites
50 grams sugar
185 grams powdered sugar
110 grams blanched almonds
15 grams cocoa powder (Scharffen Berger)
Blend the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and almonds in a food processor until very finely ground, set aside. Whip the egg whites until foamy, then continue whipping while slowly adding the granulated sugar. Whip until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold the meringues and almond-powdered sugar mixture in fewer than 50 strokes, taking care to scrape the bottom of the bowl on the strokes. Pipe the mixture in rounds about 1 ½” in diameter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Let the piped rounds sit for 30 minutes, then bake at 280° F, for 18 minutes.
Feet! Success! Nevermind that I actually threw out the first batch of shells because I drastically overbeat my meringue. You never fail until you fail to try, right?
Right.
Now along to incorporate marzipan. I felt like experimenting, so I decided to free-form a marzipan-based filling without a base recipe. Oh boy.
Chocolate Marzipan Filling
4 ounces marzipan
4 tablespoons butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (Scharffen Berger 99% cocoa), melted
Put all ingredients in a mini food processor.
Blend away, and hope that the product turns out.
And turn out it will. The unsweetened chocolate cuts back on the super-sweet character of marzipan that some criticize.
Silly people.
After allowing the chocolate marzipan to cool to room temperature, begin filling the macarons by placing a half-tablespoon of the marzipan on half of the shells.
Looks a little light on the filling, no? Luckily, we still have one form of chocolate to incorporate.
Chocolate Ganache Filling
3 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate (Scharffen Berger
1/3 cup heavy cream
Simply melt the above ingredients together, allow to cool slightly, and then drizzle around the marzipan filling.
Join up the macaron shells, and enjoy the beauty of your work.
You know what? I need more beauty in my life these days. Let’s see these from another angle.
Have you cooked with marzipan before?
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