Mint Chocolate Macarons For The Win!

When your little sister asks you to bake something, you bake it. She wanted something chocolatey and I happened to have some dark chocolate lying around. I also had mint extract from baking over the holidays. That's where this recipe came about, yummy macarons with a mint chocolate ganache. I also wanted to play around with some gold and silver dust that I bought. I ended up painting on the baked shells and I think they turned out beautiful, and delicious. As far as pictures, you should refer to the past macaron recipes I've posted. I only really took pictures of the ganache process and the finished cookies.

Mint Chocolate Macarons

Here's what you will need

Macaron Shell

• 60g of almond meal
• 110g of powdered sugar
• 60g of room temperature egg whites
• 40g of granulated sugar

Mint Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup dark chocolate or milk chocolate
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon of mint extract (you can adjust this if you want it more minty)

First you need to sift the almond meal and powdered sugar together in a large bowl and set aside

Take your room temperature egg whites and beat them on a low speed until they become white and frothy (about 2 minutes)

Turn up your speed to medium for 2 minutes. Your egg whites will start to form soft peaks, gradually add in your granulated sugar.

Turn your speed up to high for 2 minutes and beat your eggs until stiff peaks form. This is also a great time to add any gel food coloring. Since these are for the mint chocolate macarons I added about 2 drops of mint green + 1 drop of a forest green. Stop mixing once stiff peaks form.

Now add in your dry ingredients and carefully fold ingredients together (about 50 folds if you are counting) stop when you reach a lava like consistency or when it ribbons off of your spatula

Place your mixture in a piping bag and pipe out 1.5 inch circles on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Preheat your oven to 300F.

Bang your tray against the counter to release those hidden air bubbles and let these macarons dry on the counter for about 30 minutes. Gently tap the side of a macaron to see if a shell has formed, they are ready to go in the oven when they are dry to the touch.

While you are waiting for those to dry lets make the filling.

Place your cup of heavy cream in a saucepan set to medium heat. When your cream is coming to a boil take it off of the heat and pour it over your chocolate.

Let that sit for a minute, then give it a stir. Now add the 1/2 teaspoon of mint extract and stir again. Give this a taste and see if it's as minty as you would like. I always start small with minty extracts because too much and it will taste like mouthwash. Let your ganache sit on your counter to cool down. It will thicken up. This is where I put it in a piping bag and place a rubber band around the top of the piping bag and place the whole thing in the freezer to firm up faster. You can also make this ganache earlier in the day or a few days before.

Now bake those macarons on 300F for about 16 minutes. Everyone's oven is different so just keep an eye on them, when they start to peel off of the parchment paper they are done. I then leave them on the hot baking tray for 1 minute and then slide the macarons on the counter, still attached to the parchment paper, for about 2-3 more minutes.

This is where I painted the tops with a brush dipped in a mixture or gold+silver luster dust that had been mixed with almond extract (the only clear high alcohol content that I had) They turned out wonderful. I then let them sit out to dry completely for about 15 minutes.

Now take out your ganache, make sure it's not frozen. If it is leave it on the counter or massage with your warm hands. Pipe the chocolate on one side of the macaron and sandwich another macaron on top. Voilá you have a mint chocolate macaron. I then place all my assembled macarons on a tray and place in the fridge for 24-48 hours then let them come up to room temperature. They taste so much better then.