Ingredients

130 grams almond flour

120 grams confectioners’ sugar

10 grams good quality unsweetened cocoa powder, dutch process or natural

100 grams egg whites at room temperature (around 3 large egg whites)

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

90 grams granulated sugar you can also use caster sugar

For the filling:

½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature

½ cup Nutella

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

pinch salt

For the topping

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips melted

crushed hazelnuts

Instructions

To make the macaron shells

In a bowl of food processor, combine the fine almond flour with powdered sugar, and cocoa powder. Blitz 16 times, then sift together into a bowl. Do not push down the coarse bits, just discard them. Set aside.

In a completely dry and grease-free glass mixing bowl combine the egg whites and cream of tartar, and use a hand mixer to beat on high speed until they start to get frothy (about 1 minute).

SLOWLY add in the granulated sugar and continue mixing at high speed just until you get stiff peaks. Do NOT overbeat. (Tip: when you stop the mixer you should be able to bring it straight up out of the meringue and the peaks stick straight up and not fold back over on itself).

Add half of the dry mixture into the meringue and fold by going around the outside of the bowl and cutting through the center, repeat until there are no dry spots.

Add the remaining dry mixture and repeat folding until you get a molten lava consistency. (Note: you should be able to draw a figure 8 with the batter without it breaking off, make sure you stop folding at this point and check your batter often to make sure you do not overmix). The batter should look smooth and uniform.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (I used a Wilton 2A tip) with the batter.

Pipe 1 ½-2 inch even circles onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. If you’re new to this, I recommend that you get a silicone mat with a macaron template like this one and it will help you get uniform circles.

Gently tap the bottom of the baking sheets on the counter 5-6 times and pop any large air bubbles that come to the surface by using a toothpick and moving in a circular motion. This is very important to do.

Let the macarons set for 45 minutes to 1 hour until they form a shell (this is very important). You can test to see if they are ready by gently touching the tops and if the tops are no longer sticky, feel firm and no batter comes off on your finger, they are ready to go in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C).

Bake the macarons for 15-17 minutes or until you can touch the tops of the cookies and they do not move around on the “feet”. Do one baking sheet at a time if you’re using more than one.

Remove from the oven and allow to completely cool before trying to remove them from the pan.

To decorate with the drizzle: Melt about ½ cup of chocolate chips, add to a Ziplock bag and cut off the corner, and drizzle the chocolate over half of the shells. You can also top with crushed hazelnuts if desired.

For the Nutella filling:

While the cookies are cooling, make your filling by mixing the softened butter and Nutella in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes or until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until just combined.

Add the heavy cream and slowly increase the speed to high and mix on high speed for 3-4 minutes or until you get a nice “whipped” consistency.

Add the buttercream to a pastry bag with a large circle tip (I used the 2A for the filling as well)Flip over half of the macaron shells and pipe a generous circle of buttercream on the center of each cookie. Top with the remaining chocolate drizzle shells.

Enjoy !!!