Chocolate Macarons with Peanut Butter
Light and fluffy, rich and fancy, these Reese’s inspired chocolate macarons with peanut butter filling are so good you can always eat just one more! Macarons can seem daunting to make, but rest assured they are not as difficult as you might expect. By paying attention to the basics you’ll easily create the perfect macaron.
Tips for Making the Perfect Macaron
I spent far too long gazing at Instagram worthy macarons I thought I’d never be able to make. They seem like an advanced level skill I wasn’t ready to embark on, until I did. I was so surprised how easy they were when you just stick to these rules:
- Keep the bowl and instruments clean. Macarons are essentially meringue with a little almond flour added to give a little more substance. This means the same rules apply. Make sure your bowl, mixing instruments and anything else that touches the mix clean. Impurities of any kind are not your friend.
- Make sure no yolk ends up in your egg white. As with meringue, egg yolk if going to ruin the fluffiness of your macaron.
- Use room temperature egg whites. Some bakers suggest ‘maturing’ the egg white for 24 hours before using but I haven’t yet tried this. Seems a little creepy to me but I’m told it gives amazing texture! Either way, you do not want to be using cold white straight out of the fridge.
- Use a silicon mat. I’ve tried making macarons with an without the mat, and honestly, it’s worth the purchase. I have a De Buyer macaron mat but there are cheaper alternatives. Just check the reviews because some report to stick.
When using a silicon mat, pipe to the inner circle and the mix will naturally flatten out to the outer circle. This will give you perfectly uniform, classically sized macarons.
Chocolate Macarons with Peanut Butter Filling
Ingredients
- For Outer:
- 2/3 cup almond flour
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 eggs (room temp)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- For Filling:
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 3 Tbs unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 Tbs milk
Instructions
- Sift together almond flour, confectioners sugar and cocoa powder in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Whisk egg whites in a clean bowl with a hand mixer (or standing mixer) until soft peaks form. Slowly add the granulated sugar and vanilla extract while continuing to whisk until reaching stiff peaks.
- Fold in the almond flour mixture to the egg white mixture by hand until smooth.
- Using a pastry bag and a tip with a wide circular opening (eg #806), pipe the macaron mix onto a silicon baking mat (or parchment paper). Pipe 2/3″ circles (inner circle on silicon mat) which naturally spread as they settle to 1.5″ circles (outer circle on silicon mat). After piping leave the tray with the macaron circles out at room temperature for 1 hour before baking. After about half an hour tap the tray a few times on the countertop to release any bubbles from the macarons.
- Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Bake macarons for 15-17 minutes and leave to cool on the tray before removing.
- Using a hand or standing mixer, cream the peanut butter and butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine.
- Reduce mixer speed and slowly add the confectioners sugar until fully combined. Add a little milk as required to bring to a good piping consistency.
- Pipe the peanut butter buttercream using a tip with a wide circular opening (eg #806) onto the flat side of half the macaron shells. Use the empty macaron halves to sandwich together.
Storing Macarons after Baking
I was nervous to store my macarons in the fridge after baking because meringue does not do well in this environment. However, macarons do store well in both the fridge and freezer. In the fridge they’ll only keep their yummy texture for 2-3days but the freezer can buy you a few months. Personally mine didn’t last long so 2-3days is plenty!
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