Chocolate Blackberry Macarons Recipe - Harry & Lexy's Workshop

I guess that in the life of every confectioner comes a time, when they decide to try to make French macarons. This moment came for me as well, and if I’m honest, it scared me a bit as I know that most people have lots of (or at least one) unsuccessful attempts and making them is almost a question of luck.

It turns out it’s not luck but keeping the proportions until the last gram and carefully following the instructions. I admit, they don’t look absolutely perfect, but for my first attempt they look more than well. Perhaps everyone needs a few goes until they master the art of macaron making and until they learn what, where and how it can go wrong, and after that it will be as easy as pie.

Ingredients for the chocolate macarons:

68 g egg whites (2 eggs)
22 g sugar
108 g icing sugar
58 g finely ground almonds
12 g cocoa

Ingredients for the blackberry filling:

100 g blackberries, pureed
28 g sugar
28 ml water
1/2 gelatine pack

Preparation of the Chocolate Blackberry Macarons:

Preheat the oven to 165°C.
In a big bowl, mix together the egg whites and sugar until white thick peaks form. It takes a few minutes and the mixture needs to be very, very thick – it shouldn’t fall out of the bowl if you turn it over.
In a different bowl, sift the ground almonds, icing sugar and cocoa, and stir until combined well.
Add the dry ingredients to the egg white mixture and stir using a silicone spatula. Don’t be too gentle, the mixture won’t go down, the idea is to make all air bubbles go out.
Fold 20-25 times, then transfer a small amount of the macaron mixture into a piping pot. Pipe a small circle onto a baking sheet. The batter has to take its shape by itself in 15-20 seconds.
If the batter is ready, pipe the macaron shells onto a silicone macaron baking mat and leave them aside for 30 minutes so they begin forming a “crust”. Bake for 16 minutes.

Preparation of the macaron blackberry filling:

Heat up water in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add in the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Leave aside to cool.
When the water is cool, pour in the gelatine and leave it for 1-2 minutes to swell. Transfer the saucepan back onto the heat and stir well until thick. Don’t let it boil.
Remove from the heat and add it to the pureed blackberries. Stir until well combined and put it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to harden a bit. Transfer into a piping pot and pipe a small amount onto the centre of half of the macaron shells. Sandwich them with the rest of the shells.