Chocolate Hazelnut Macarons

A classic with a twist! This macaron shell is infused with a little bit of Dutch processed cocoa powder and topped with toasted hazelnuts , giving it that slightly chocolatey-nutty flavor that pairs beautifully with this atypically flavored macaron!

Nutty, chocolatey, and seriously delicious, these Nutella Macarons are filled with a Nutella Buttercream. The perfect treat!

Course: Baking, Dessert

Cuisine: French

Keyword: macarons, nutella, nutella buttercream, nutella macarons

Servings: 25 cookies

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Ingredients

Nutella Macarons

200 g Almond Flour

200 g Confectioners Sugar

20 g Dutch Press Cocoa

150 g Egg Whites, divided

190 g White Sugar

60 mL Water

Chocolate Nutella Buttercream

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

1 cup Confectioners Sugar

1/4 cup Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder, sifted

2/3 cup Nutella

1 tbsp Heavy Cream

Instructions

Dry Ingredients

Place almond flour, confectioners sugar, and cocoa into food processor, pulse about 20 times. Sift into a large bowl, discarding any large pieces. Do not push large pieces through sifter. Then add 75g of egg whites into the bowl. Thoroughly mix together to form a paste. Feel free to be aggressive with your mixing. When combined, cover and set aside.

Making the Meringue

Add remaining 75g of egg whites into a stand mixer, and set aside. Meanwhile, add white sugar and water into a small pot, and turn on medium-high. Once mixture heats to 110°C (230°F) turn on stand mixer to high and beat egg whites.

When sugar mixture reaches 118°C (244°F) and egg whites have reached stiff peaks (but not dry), slowly drizzle the sugar mixture into the beating egg whites, ensuring that the stream is slow and is drizzling down the side of the bowl first. Then continue to beat the meringue until it reaches the ‘bird beak’ stage. Add food coloring, if desired, at this point and quickly mix into meringue, without overmixing.

Macaronage

Add a large dollop of meringue (about 1/3) into the almond mixture paste. Work meringue dollop into paste to loosen up the paste to make it easier to work with. Do not be afraid of being aggressive at this point, we do not need to worry about knocking the air out of this small amount.

Add the rest of the meringue into the bowl, and fold it into the paste mixture to combine. Be gentle and careful not to overmix or over-deflate the meringue. The mixture is ready to be piped when it ribbons off your spatula. If it is coming off in large V shaped chunks it still needs to be folded further.

Piping and Drying the Macarons

Add mixture into a piping bag with medium to large sized round tip. Pipe small circles of batter onto a cookie sheet fitted with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Ensure piping bag is held straight up and perpendicular to baking sheet. Using a stencil or a macaron mat makes this process much easier and fool proof, I try to make my macarons around 1½” in diameter.

Tap the baking sheet multiple times against counter to remove any air bubble from the macarons. If some air bubbles still remain, use a tooth pick to gently poke them out.

Preheat oven to 300°F, or 275°F for convection mode.

While oven is preheating, allow the macarons to sit and form a skin. This skin will ensure the macarons bake up and not out, giving them those classic “feet”. This skin should form anywhere from 8 minutes to an hour. You know the macarons are ready to be baked when you can touch them lightly without having the batter stick to your finger. Keep checking them to see if they have formed a skin– overly dried macarons are just as much of a problem as under-dried macarons!

Baking

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Your bake time will depend on the size of your macarons. Check at 15 minutes, and if they are not ready then keep checking every minute. The macarons are ready when the tops are firm and do not move around their base at all.

Allow the macarons to cool completely before attempting to remove them from the sheets/mats/parchment. When cooled, find “perfect pairs” of macaron halves and set aside to be filled with buttercream.

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Chocolate Nutella Buttecream Filling

Add butter to a large mixing bowl and beat until softened. Sift in the confectioners sugar and cocoa powder, then beat until smooth and well-combined.

Add Nutella and cream and beat until smooth.

Add buttercream into piping bag and pipe onto ½ of “perfect pairs”. The amount of icing should be a 1:2 ratio, 1-part buttercream and 2-parts (2 halves) macarons. The other way to get a perfect icing amount is to pipe the same dollop of icing as you did with the macaron batter. Add tops to bottoms, and place into refrigerator to “mature” for 1-2 days.

Decorate with melted chocolate and crushed hazelnuts.
Download Recipe Here