Dark Chocolate Macarons
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With Valentine’s Day approaching, I want to share the recipe for Dark Chocolate Macarons. Bright red macaron shells filled with rich dark chocolate ganaches. These macarons will be perfect not only for Valentine’s Day but all year around!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This is a basic dark chocolate ganache that can be adjusted to different flavors.
- Ganache is very stable and tastes delicious.
- Macarons filled with this ganache can be frozen, like my Passion Fruit Macarons.
Ingredients note
- Chocolate. Use good quality dark chocolate.
- Heavy cream. Do not substitute with milk or half and half.
- Butter. Unsalted butter at room temperature.
- Glucose syrup. It can be substituted with inverted sugar or honey.
- Pinch of salt. Increase the taste of the ganache.
How to make this recipe
- bake bright red macaron shells. I used my basic French Meringue recipe. I sprinkled macaron shells with white granulated sugar after piping. Do not worry, sugar will not melt!
- prepare dark chocolate ganache.
- fill macarons with ganache.
In a small saucepan add heavy cream and glucose syrup and bring to simmer. Do not boil! Pour over the chocolate and let it sit for 1-2 minutes. Emulsify with a hand blender. Add room-temperature unsalted butter and emulsify again. Transfer the ganache to a flat container and cover with plastic wrap “to contact”. Let set at room temperature. Please note that this ganache sets very fast and there is no need to place it into the fridge.
How to fill macarons with ganache
When you have macaron shells baked and stabilized dark chocolate ganache, you can assemble macarons. As I set before, this ganache sets very fast. You can check the ganache by pressing with your fingers. As soon as you have piping consistency, you can fill macarons. Place ganache into pipping bag with Wilton 1M piping tip. Pipe ganache on the flat side of macaron shells and sandwich with another shell. Place filled macarons into an air-tight container in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Macarons need to mature before you can enjoy them.
Expert Tips
- Use good quality chocolate.
- To make bright red macaron shells, I would recommend using powdered food coloring, not gel.
- Make sure food coloring is water-based, not oil-based.
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Recipe FAQs
Store Dark Chocolate Macarons in an air-tight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Freeze macarons in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
This happens if the batter is overmixed. Check the consistency of the batter every 2-3 folds. Overmixed batter will run off the spatula very fast.
There are many reasons for that. The most common are unstable meringue, incorrect folding technique, or wrong oven temperature.
Macaron shells did not rest enough before baking.
If you make these Dark Chocolate Macarons, please tag me on social media and make sure to leave a rating down below. I would love to see your creations!
Recipe
Dark Chocolate Macarons
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- 1 saucepan
- 1 immersion blender
- 1 pipping bag
- 1 Wilton 1M tip
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- 120 gr heavy cream 1/2 cup
- 10 gr glucose syrup 1 Tbsp
- 120 gr dark chocolate 2/3 cup
- 28 gr unsalted butter room temperature 2 Tbs p
- 5 gr salt 1/2 tsp
Macaron Shells
- 125 gr almond flour (1 cup)
- 150 gr powdered sugar (1 1/4 cup)
- 100 gr egg whites room temperature (from 3 large eggs)
- 100 gr white granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
Instructions
How to make Dark Chocolate Ganache
- In a small sauce pan add heavy cream and glucose syrup and bring to simmer. Do not boil!
- Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 1-2 minutes. Emulsify with hand blender.
- Add room temperature unsalted butter and emulsify again.
- Transfer ganache to flat container and cover with plastic wrap "to contact". Let set at room temperature. Please note that this ganache sets very fast and there is no need to place it into the fridge.
- Place ganache into pipping bag with Wilton 1M pipping tip. Pipe ganache on flat side of macaron shells and sandwich with another shell.
- Place filled macarons into air-tight container to the fridge for 12-24 hours. macarons needs to mature before you can enjoy them.
How to make Macaron Shells
- In the mixing bowl sift together almond flour and powdered sugar. Set aside.
- In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer add room-temperature egg whites and start whisking on low speed. Start adding sugar one tablespoon at a time. Add food coloring.
- Increase speed to medium-high and whip until glossy and medium peaks. This will take 10-15 minutes.
- Add dry ingredients into the meringue and start folding the butter. The batter is ready when you can make a figure 8 with a spatula or it flows “like lava”.
- Transfer macaronage into a pastry bag with a round tip.
- Pipe macaron shells on the baking mat. Sprinkle shelsl with white granulated sugar (optional).
- Top the baking sheet pan with pipped macaron shells a few times. Let shells rest on the countertop until no batter sticks to your finger when you touch it.
- Bake macaron shells in the preheated oven to 275oF (134oC) -300oF (150oC) for 12-14 minutes. Oven temperature and baking time may vary, depending on your oven.
- Remove baked macaron shells from the oven and let it cool on the baking mat with a baking sheet pan. When shells are cooled completely remove them from the baking mat and pair them with similar sizes.