Vegan chocolate macarons
As a baker, I got to do macarons quite a lot in my professional life. I love making them, it’s always a fun process to be able to play with the colors, the toppings, the flavors. Plus they are so pretty, and delicious!
Being a vegetarian, I’m always curious about the vegan diet. Trying new recipes, new ways of making a dish without using any animal products. I find it interesting to develop your creativity around that.
I eat chickpeas pretty often and therefore, I end up with some aquafaba – chickpea water – which I usually use to make a chocolate mousse, because it’s easy, fast and tastes good!
But this time I decided to try making vegan chocolate macarons, even though my oven at home is not the best, and I know how important it is to have perfect shells…
Every time I switched job, there’s always been some play around with the oven. Temperature too high or too low, too much humidity, fan too high, baking sheets not flat enough, too thin…
So I new the chances were high for it to fail! And it happened!
First batch, the macarons raised and cracked…
As you can see, the ones in the middle are not too bad. The oven was definitely too hot and my baking sheet too thin.
So I tried again, lowering down the temperature, and it got much better! But again, as you can see, the ones on the sides are a bit lopsided. I definitely advice you to double the baking sheets if you can.
I used the recipe of a french blogger, check it out, there is a great video!
Vegan chocolate macarons
Ingredients
Dark chocolate ganache
- 100 g dark chocolate I used 70% cocoa
- 100 g almond and coconut cream you can also use soy cream
Macaron shells
- 75 g aquafaba
- 90 g sugar
- 80 g almond flour
- 80 g icing sugar
- 10 g unsweetened cocoa powder
For the dark chocolate ganache
Start by chopping the chocolate if you’re using a bar. Put it in a bowl. Bring to a boil the cream and pour it on the chocolate as soon as it starts boiling. Let sit for about a minute to allow the chocolate to melt, then mix with a spatula until smooth. Place a saran wrap directly on top of the ganache and leave at room temperature.
For the shells
Preheat the oven at 280°F – or less if you know your oven is hotter than the usual.
Prepare the “tant pour tant” – equal amount of icing sugar and almond flour. I usually don’t sift it, unless the almond flour is very rough. I simply use my hands to sand it and mix it at the same time. Don’t forget to put the cocoa powder in there too, same, you can sand it along with the icing sugar and the almond flour.
Whip the aquafaba on high speed, and, when it starts rising, pour about one third of the sugar. Keep whipping on high speed and add another one third of the sugar after a couple of minutes. Add the last third of sugar after about 10 minutes of whipping to tighten the meringue. The meringue needs to be shiny and form medium peaks.
Add about half of the meringue in the “tant pour tant” and mix with a spatula.
Once it’s well mixed, incorporate the other half of the meringue, making a gentle up and down movement with the spatula. If the mix is too thick, beat it with the spatula, just a few times. You want to get a smooth and shiny ribbon.
Pipe the macarons on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I always pipe a bit of the mix on the corners of it before putting the parchment paper on so that it’s stays still. Also, be careful that your baking sheet is perfectly dry before putting the parchment paper. If not it’s going to wrinkle and your macarons are not going to be round.
Tap the tray on the table to flatten the macarons. Again, consistency is important here, I usually tap four times on each sides, trying to keep the tray as flat as possible.
Sprinkle a bit of cocoa powder on top and tap the tray again but more gently this time, with the palm of your hand. Just a couple of times is enough.
Put straight into the oven – unlike regular macarons that you need to let out at room temperature until they dry out before baking.
Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. The trick to see if macarons are baked is to be able to remove them from the tray without them sticking or breaking.
Allow to cool down before garnishing with the ganache and refrigerate for 24 hours before eating.
