French Macaroons - Hazelnut

A few weeks ago, I took a class with Helene from My Tartlette.  Her blog, her photos, her recipes are amazing and when I found out on Fuji Mama's blog that she was coming to town, I immediately signed up.  It wasn't so much the macaroon, it was the idea of meeting her, fellow blogger, lover of all things eatable!

I enlisted my friend Lisa, and we ventured out to an evening cooking class.  It was so fun. I really need to get out more.  Not only were we instructed and entertained by Helene, but Rachel and Jen (our hosts) were gracious and funny.  We all met at a new pastry school in Woodland Hills.  The space was perfect and the group of ladies were just an extra added bonus.

I have not attempted to make macaroons since our March 5th class, however the other day I motivated to age some egg whites.  Helene suggests the egg whites be aged, at room temp for 24 hours.  I then covered them and left them in the fridge for 72 hours( you can leave them for up to 5 days).  Today was the day for the big bake off.

Lisa and I were talking and she said she wanted to try to make them with hazelnuts rather than almonds (Lisa has probably turned out 15 dozen macaroons since the class...). That same day I happened to be at whole foods and found a bag of ground hazelnuts.  I threw them in my cart.

I made Helene's macaroon recipe:


 90 grams (3 large) egg whites 
200 grams powdered sugar
110 grams ground almonds ( I used the hazelnuts)
25-50 grams sugar ( used like 30 grams - didn't want them too sweet).


For directions, go to My Tartlette blog.  She explains it way better than I ever could!

macaroons resting  and waiting to bake

baked and resting

piped and ready to be paired with its mate

I paired the hazelnut macaroons with a Mocha Ganache.  Yum!


Mocha Ganache
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbls. heavy cream
3 Tbls. unsalted butter
1 tsp. ground espresso
9 oz. milk chocolate (imported) chopped
1 tsp. vanilla


Bring cream and butter to a simmer over medium heat.  Add instant coffee to dissolve.  Reduce heat to low and add chocolate until melted.  Mix in vanilla.  Pour into a bowl and chill until firm.  Stir occasionally.

Pipe onto macaroons.

place in fridge, covered, overnight to "age"

Eat and Devour!