Snickers Macarons
Let me start by saying these buggers have been taking up way too much of my time. But being slightly inclined towards obsessive behavior, I’ve been turning out one bake sheet after another tweaking and shortcutting techniques to see the results.
So what does this self-taught baker know about making a macaron? Um, I’m still asking myself that. Until I have that all sorted out, I’ll share what I have learned after trying several recipes and then developing and testing my own.
Whatever sound recipe you go with, it really comes down to one thing—it’s all in the macronage. That’s the process by which the dry ingredients are folded into the meringue.
Under fold and you will have uneven cracked macarons or macarons that may they look good on the outside but have a noticeable pocket of air from the middle to the top. Over fold and you will have feetless macarons that resemble cookies instead.
Here’s my advice: be patient. These cookies don’t require or warrant some of the fuss you may have read about. What they do require is some practice. If you aren’t one of the lucky few that nails it on the first run, you’ll get it—baking fails are great way to learn, so keep going. Along with that I approached my recipe with some fuss-free ingredients that you can easily find in a grocery store and I tried to provide enough visual cues for the key indications of step-by-step readiness.
If you haven’t guessed, I’m working my way up to writing a post with detailed pictures. Until then check out these well written posts on macaron basics before you get started: BraveTart, Macaron; Not So Humble Pie, Macaron 101: French Meringue; Sweet Tartlette, Demystifying Macarons
Snickers Macaron
Yield: Makes approximately 70 shells
Ingredients:
Chocolate macarons
- 135g egg whites
- 45g granulated sugar
- 215g powdered sugar
- 115g almond meal
- 25g cocoa powder
- 3 Snickers bars, regular size
Salted caramel filling (click here for recipe)
Directions:
Preparation
Heat oven to 330 degrees. Line bake sheet with parchment.
- Trace out 1 inch circles on parchment and set this aside as a "master copy". Reserve two extra sheets of parchment and set aside.
- Place egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer bowl and fit mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium low speed until egg whites start to form loose translucent bubbles. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until meringue turns foamy and white and starts to resemble well lathered shampoo, about 2 minutes. Increase mixer to high and beat until meringue holds glossy stiff peaks, about another 2-3 minutes. Turn off mixer.
- Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and process for two minutes and then push it through a fine mesh sieve. Return any large almond granules to food processor and process until fine. Add dry ingredients to meringue.
- Add dry ingredients to meringue. Using a sturdy spatula fold and smash dry mixture into meringue against the bowl for about 20-25 folds. Don’t worry about being gentle the idea is to knock the air out of it. The batter should hold its shape when spooned on itself and start to slowly flatten out after about 15-20 seconds. Start checking the batter after 20 folds for readiness. Transfer batter to pastry bag and let rest for 20 minutes before piping.
- Place master copy of drawn circles on a bake sheet and then place a second sheet of parchment on top. Fill a pastry bag with batter and pipe until batter reaches edge of circle. Remove master copy from underneath piped layer and place on second bake sheet and pipe remaining batter (remove master copy and save for future use).Take hold of each pan and give it quick hard tap against the counter, turn the pan 90 degrees and give it another quick hard tap. This will deflate any bubbles and prevent cracked shells.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Leave shells to cool completely in pan. Shells should cleanly peel away from parchment.
Assembly
- Slice Snickers into 1/8inch slices and then quarter each slice. Place quartered slices around perimeter onthe bottom of one shell. Pipe filling in the middle and place a second shell on top with bottom side down to create a sandwich effect
A few notes on the ingredients I used:
- Almond meal: I used Trader Joe's Almond Meal instead of making my own by processing fresh almonds.
- Cocoa powder: I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder.
- Eggs: I didn't age them. Which means I didn't separate my eggs and leave them on the counter for a few days. Mine went from refrigerator to bowl-cracked, separated and ready to go.
- Granulated Sugar: I used the most widely available sugar for where I am - C&H . I skipped using expensive bakers sugar which happens to be nothing more than ultra fine sugar that you can easily make by processing regular (by regular I mean widely available and not so expensive) granulated sugar in a food processor to make it finer. I skipped processing my sugar to a fine grain.
- Powdered Sugar: Again, I used the most widely available - C&H brand.
A few general notes:
- Most of my recipes are written with measured volume, but for this recipe I weighed everything, so yes, you will need a scale for this one.
- I took Brave Tart's suggestion and traced out circles so I could quickly pipe my shells to avoid worrying about uniformity, but instead of doing so on each sheet I created a master copy, since I'm impatient and drawings out a bunch of circles for each sheet is a pain.
You May Also Like...
-
Valentine’s Sugar Cookies with Poured Royal Icing
February 4, 2011 -
BaNilla Sandwich Cookies
October 11, 2011 -
German Chocolate Cake Cookies
October 21, 2010
Subscribe to the RSS feed in the reader of your choice.
You never cease to amaze me!
Reply
Looks amazing! Is the filling somewhere else on the blog?
Reply
Naomi replied: — October 3rd, 2012 @ 7:09 pm
Jessica – Thank you! I added a link within this recipe directin where the salted caramel filling can be found on my blog.
Reply
This is the most unique macaron I have ever seen! Looks delicious.
Reply
They’re gorgeous! I could go to town on these b/c I love Snickers and that filling just sounds so good! And thanks for the advice to just…be patient!
Reply
Macarons are on my bucket list! Yours are perfect and over the top awesome!
Reply
Wow these look amazing!
Carlee
Almost Endearing
Reply
It looks like the effort was well worth it! These look great!
Reply
So freakin’ beautiful, Naomi!!!! I die!!!!!
Reply
Oh my, they look soo amazing. I really want to bite into one like NOW!!!
Reply
I love macarons but these sound amazing on top of amazing.
Reply
Your macarons look beautiful! I wish I had the skill to make them.
Reply
Girl, these are just TOO beautiful!! Love it!
Reply
Shut the front door! Amazing.
http://www.shilohstaste.com
Reply
AAaahhh.. way too amazing to eat!!! Pinned :D
Reply
:O They look incredible!!
Reply
These look stunning! I look forward to reading your detailed macaron post soon. I’ve been trying to master the macaron for a while with varying results :-/ This looks like a recipe to try. I wonder if you could sub in some ground peanuts for almonds in these for a snickers flavour boost…
Reply
Naomi replied: — October 4th, 2012 @ 4:02 pm
Kat-Yes, you can. I haven’t posted that recipe yet,but I have several coming up that will highlight how to sub out the almond meal.
Reply
Ohhh my goodness, these look absolutely incredible! Snickers bar in the shell = GENIUS. I’ve been trying macarons recently (and seriously struggling), so it’s nice to be inspired again. Thanks!
Reply
These are so delightful & sexy all at the same time, Naomi! Macarons were already amazing when you went and made them crazy amazing. I really would love to give these a go! Gorgeous images, as always too. xo
Reply
These are seriously gorgeous macarons!
Reply
Thank you for de-mystifying the macaron!
Reply
These are absolutely, stunningly gorgeous, Naomi! Beautiful photos as always!
Reply
Wow, you are truly an artist! I have failed many times and only succeeded once at making macarons! I think I will give your recipe a try next!
Reply
Snickers in a mac, is such a genius idea! You’re amazing Naomi. I recently learnt how to bake macs and haven’t been practicing just yet. I am sure it will be a hit with my family. Gorgeous click as always ;). Have a great week ahead!
Reply
I’m grabbin’ a cuppa and falling on the floor! Holy wowzer!
Reply
WOW! That is the best word I can use to describe these beauties. Absolutely stunning!
Reply
How exciting.One of the most original macarons I’ve seen and I love snickers I’ll give these a go over the weekend! Thanks!
Reply
Oh my gosh these Macarons are incredible! Love them!
Reply
I love how obsessed you became with these macarons! You are my kind of person! They are truly original as well as stunning!!
Reply
This is a masterpiece. Love!
Reply
Lovely and gorgeous would be an understatement!
Reply
I love how much filling you’ve crammed into these macarons! America meets France in the best possible way :-)
Reply
Complete and utter indulgence. Just delicious. Your photos are so beautiful Naomi.
Reply