Chocolate Macaroons

My first attempt at making French macarons has met with success “ sort of ;)! They had a crispy outer shell, a chewy interior and were filled with a rich, bittersweet chocolate ganache. They were delicious.

I followed the general method on page 246, which was quite easy, but how far to take the beaten meringue wasn’t very clear. I took "thick, aerated…firm but not too dry” to mean stiff, glossy peaks. The biggest challenge was piping the batter out evenly as it was much runnier than I expected and it took quite a few attempts before I was able to regulate the amount per cookie.

I baked the first pan of cookies as per the instructions. They seemed done after 12 minutes but there was a hollow beneath the shell and the interior wasn’t quite cooked. I baked the second sheet, which by this time had sat for ~40 minutes, at 150C for 14 minutes. These cookies rose higher than the first batch and they were properly cooked inside and out.

Now that I’ve figured out what works best in my oven, I can’t wait to try more flavours!