Chocolate Peanut Butter Macarons

If you like peanut butter and chocolate desserts, you'll adore these. They will remind you of a chewy brownie with a creamy peanut butter frosting. Macarons may be tricky to make, but they are worth the effort!

Prepare: 20

Bake: 20

Rest Time: 1

Servings: 12 macarons

Equipment

Digital Scale
Piping bag
Parchment paper or silicone mat
1/4" (6mm) round piping nozzle

Ingredients

French Macarons

¾ cup (90g) powdered sugar
2 large (60g) egg whites
½ cup (50g) almond flour
⅛ cup (30g) granulated sugar
2 tbs (10g) cocoa powder

Peanut Butter Buttercream

¾ cup (100g) powdered sugar
¼ cup (66g) peanut butter
¼ cup (56g) softened butter
½ tsp (2.5mL) vanilla
1 - 2 tsp (10mL) milk

Instructions

Sift together powdered sugar, cocoa, and almonds. Set aside.
In a 2 quart bowl or larger, use a hand mixer and beat eggs for 30 seconds, add sugar. Continue beating until soft peaks form.
Add the dry ingredients into the meringue. Using a spatula, gently fold in the ingredients until batter becomes shiny and drips smoothly off the spatula. It should ribbon off and sink back into the batter within 30 seconds. If it doesn’t do this, fold until you see the change. Do not over mix or you will have flat cookies.
Place in a piping bag with a 1/4" (6mm) tip. Squeeze onto parchment paper or a silicone mat until 1 1/2″ (3.8cm) circles form, spacing 2″ (5cm) apart.
Let sit until a skin develops. This step will depend on the humidity in your environment. On dry days, it can take as little as 15 minutes. When it hits above 75% humidity, expect it to take 2 – 3 hours. Failure to dry the cookies will often result in cracks and cookies without feet. (Feet are the little ruffles that develop at the bottom of your cookies.)
Once the skin forms, preheat the oven to 300F (150C.) Bake 18 – 20 minutes.
Let rest 5 minutes and remove to a rack to cool completely before filling.

Buttercream Instructions

Beat butter on low speed until smooth. Mix in peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar. Add in milk, one teaspoon at a time for a softer buttercream.
Pipe or spread on the interior of one shell, gently place second shell on top.

Notes

Cost savings tip: Want to learn how to make macarons and not waste expensive almond flour? You can substitute the almonds with regular flour. They will taste absolutely bland, but will let you learn how the process of macaronage cheaply.

If you do not have a piping bag, you can use a plastic sandwich bag and snip off an end about 1/3″ (1 cm) wide.

The peaks should be firm enough that the bowl can be tipped upside down without falling out. If they start to slide out of the bowl, continue beating. Do not over mix as you will get hollow cookies.

When resting macaron shells, please be aware of egg safety guidelines and do not set out longer than their recommendations.

Nutrition