Game. Over.
Seriously.
If I could eat one thing for the rest of my life, it might be these. Hazelnut, dark chocolate and blood orange make for quite the stellar combination.
It’s no secret that I like to make macarons. Even with the many struggles I’ve encountered with them, they are one of my favourite treats to make. And eat.
The flavour combinations for these little guys are endless. I talked to my physical therapist last week about wanting to make something with hazelnuts and after thinking it over for a couple of days, I decided on a hazelnut/chocolate/orange combination.
Normally macarons are made with almond flour. I decided to switch it up for these and made them with hazelnut flour instead. Hazelnut flour is a little denser than almond flour and I couldn’t get it ground up quite as fine as I would have liked, so the shells on these guys aren’t as smooth but they taste just as good, if not better.
The best part of these, though, might be the ganache.
It’s dip your finger in the bowl and lick it off kind of good. I did that. No shame. In fact, I encourage it.
It is absolutely the perfect combination of dark, bittersweet chocolate and beautiful blood oranges.
I mean, look how pretty these guys are!
Because of how much success I had with Ladurée’s recipe with my chocolate strawberry macarons, I used it again for these, switching the almond flour to hazelnut flour.
I’m going to have to catch a flight to Paris to try a real Ladurée macaron.
Hazelnut Macarons with Blood Orange Ganache
Ingredients
- Macaron Shells:
- 275g hazelnut flour
- 250g powdered sugar
- 210g (6-7) egg whites
- 210g sugar
- Blood Orange Ganache:
- 1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
- Zest of 1 blood orange
- Juice of 1/2 blood orange
- 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
Directions
- Step 1 Shells:
- Step 2 Combine hazelnut flour and powdered sugar in a food processor and blend thoroughly. Sift to remove any lumps.
- Step 3 In a large, clean, dry mixing bowl, beat your egg whites until foamy and then slowly add sugar, beating on medium speed. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase speed to medium high and beat until a thick glossy meringue forms.
- Step 4 With a large, flat rubber spatula, fold 1/3 of hazelnut flour/powdered sugar mixture into egg whites until combined. Repeat until all of the hazelnut mixture has been added. Fold to combine until you see no streaks of hazelnut flour in the batter.
- Step 5 Pipe cookies onto parchment or silicone lined baking sheets and allow to sit 10-15 minutes before baking.
- Step 6 While sitting, preheat oven to 300°F with a rack placed in the lower third of your oven. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15-17 minutes (I had to do 17 minutes). Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet.
- Step 7 Once cool, pair up shells and fill with ganache. Sandwich together.
- Step 8 Blood Orange Ganache:
- Step 9 Combine heavy whipping cream, zest and juice in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Step 10 Once simmering, remove from heat and pour over chocolate chips. Stir to form an emulsion and once the chocolate has melted, add the butter. Mix again until the butter has melted and set aside until thick enough to pipe onto shells. Fill piping bag with ganache and pipe onto one half of each shell.
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