Chocolate Macarons (Nicolas Buchy)

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Recipe's preparation

Macaron Shells

Line two baking trays with baking paper and place each tray on top of another baking tray (the double baking method contributes to the macaron "feet"). Make a template by marking onto cardboard, tracing paper or baking paper 25mm circles 55mm apart. Place under baking paper when piping.

Place sugar into mixing bowl and mill 15 sec/speed 9 to make icing sugar.

If  you wish to make almond meal from almonds rather than purchased almond meal: Place almonds with 2-3 tablespoons icing sugar into the TM & mix 5 sec / speed 10, till a fine powder. Don't let them go too long or they can become oily. Sift a few tablespoons at a time through a medium mesh sieve into a large bowl. Do not force bigger pieces, grind them again 5sec/speed 10. 

Place almond meal (or sifted nuts), cornflour, cocoa, and icing sugar into TM bowl.  Mix 5sec/speed 10. Siftinto a large bowl and set aside. Clean and dry mixing bowl thoroughly, making sure it is completely free of any fat, oil or moisture.

Insert butterfly. Place room temperature egg whites into the TM bowl and, with measuring cup removed, whip 2-3  min/37 C/speed 3.5 or until stiff. Remove butterfly.

Using a spatula, carefully fold the egg whites into the bowl of reserved almond mixture without knocking air out of egg whites by creating a large wheel motion around outside of mixing bowl, folding into the centre. The mixture should be smooth, glossy & creamy, and still have volume at the end of this step. Do not overmix ot will become too liquidated & they macarons will not hold shape well. Test by placing  a teaspoon of the batter on a plate, if correct, the tip should slowly disappear, sinking into the rest of the batter. 

Preheat oven to 160ºC.

Place the icing bag inside a glass jar & fold the edges over. Spoon the macaron batter into the piping bag. Remove the piping bag from the supporting jar, tie the open end with a clip or rubber band. Cut a 1 cm opening off the tip of the bag (or insert a 10mm nozzle PRIOR to filling the bag). Holding the bag at 45 degrees, place it at the edge of a circle on the baking paper on top of the macaron template. Pipe the mixture constantly without moving the bag until the circle is filled.

Lightly tap the tray onto a flat surface until discs spread to approx. 5 cm wide. Leave to stand for 30 to 90 minutes or until discs feel slightly firmed & are not sticky to touch.

Slide the sheet of macarons on to the double  baking trays into lower part of the oven and bake for 12-16  minutes (160C).

Remove from oven. Set aside on benchtop to cool before separating the macarons from the paper. If they are sticking & hard to peel from the paper, you can bake them a little longer, or put them in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Making the Ganache

Place chocolate into mixing bowl and chop 15 sec/speed 10. Scrape down the sides. 

Add cream and cook 4 min/50 C/speed 1.

Add butter and emulsify 15 sec/speed 4.  Place ganache into a bowl and leave to cool and set.

Assembling the Macarons

Once shells and ganache have completely cooled and ganache has set, spoon, spread or pipe approximately one teaspoon of ganache onto one shell and very gently sandwich another matching sized shell on top.

Repeat process until all shells have been used.

Store fresh macarons for 24 hours in an airtight container in the fridge to soften them before serving.  When the Filled macarons are filled can be frozen for several weeks. Defrost them at room temperature for half to one hour before serving