Here Emilie Thyebaut, Founder of France Just For You, shares her favorite recipe for making Chocolate Macarons! These normally turn out better if you're baking them on a dry day rather than on a rainy day.

Chocolate french macarons

Homemade chocolate French macarons (Photo©: France Just For You)

 

Ingredients

For about 20-25 macarons

Biscuit:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 200g powered sugar
  • 125g almond powder (grounded very thin)
  • 30g sugar
  • 15g bitter cacao (French brand Van Houten)
  • 20 drops of red food coloring

Ganache filling:

  • 120g baking chocolate
  • 80g butter
  • 30g thick crème fraiche



How to make macaron biscuits: 

  1. Mix the bitter cacao, powered sugar, and almond powder together until you have a very fine powder.

     
  2. Whip up the egg whites (very hard) and the fine caster sugar, and add the food coloring at the end so that it mixes with the rest.

     
  3. Sieve the powder from  step 1 and add it to the whipped egg whites from step 2.

     
  4. With a piping bag, squeeze small domes of the mixture, about 3cm in size, onto silicone baking paper. When you make them, the tip of the pastry bag must touch the plate.

     
  5. Let it rest for about 30 minutes (very important: during wet weather, have them rest near a warm radiator).

     
  6. Cook them in the oven for 12 to 13 minutes at 175°C. The biscuits must unstick from the paper easily.

 

Making French chocolate macarons

Guillaume and Jeanne sticking the biscuits together with the chocolate ganache (Photo©: France Just For You)

 

HOW TO MAKE MACARON GANACHE:

  1. Melt the chocolate, butter and crème on a low heat.

     
  2. Let it cool in the fridge until it’s hard.

     
  3. When the biscuits are cool, stick two of them together with some ganache cream in the middle.

     

 Et voilà! You should be left with 20-25 perfectly delicious chocolate French macarons! 

Keep the macarons in a cool, dry place and you can quick-freeze them… if you don't eat them all in one go!

TIP: you will know that the macaron biscuit is well-cooked and that you made a nice paste when you see the ring forming around the edge of the biscuit while they cook. This is called the “collerette” in French. If you're buying macarons, make sure that they have the collarette. This is how you know that they won’t stick to your teeth and that they've been cooked well. But don't worry if you don't get it right the first time; this is the most difficult part of making macarons!

 

Jeanne and Pauline enjoying French chocolate macarons

Jeanne and Pauline enjoying their homemade French macarons! (Photo©: France Just For You)

France Just For You

Experts in self-drive tours in France

Travelers Reviews

5.0
David
Emilie was a joy to work with - we were completely pleased with our experience! Do not hesitate to use her services - she will do everything to make your trip perfect. We don't care for group/bus "one-size-fits-all" type of tours - but I didn't feel confident enough with my grasp of French to go it alone. France Just For You is the perfect solution …
Judy
I can echo everything that has been said in the previous three reviews. The personalization of this entire trip was incredible and Emilie communicated quickly and completely, both in the planning of the trip and after we were in France. My husband and I were spending four weeks in France in celebration of our 50th anniversary. We were a little …
Martina & Simon from the UK
A fantastic well-planned self-drive tour We had the most amazing time on our 6 week self-drive tour designed by Laura, travelling through Brittany, Loire, Dordogne, Medoc, Basque France, Languedoc, Provence, the Alps, Alsace and Champagne. This was a big trip for us and it was everything I’d hoped and dreamed and even more besides. All our …
Mary & Dan
Emilie, Our trip has been fantastic! We appreciate all that you did to make it so wonderful. Many, many thanks! The itineraries, special experiences--- like the 4x4 wine tour, wine picnic, and cooking with Catherine---and the unique accommodations made our vacation very very special. We start toward home tomorrow, leaving your beautiful country but …
Teresa & Garry
Laura and Emilie started working with us to develop a trip in July of 2020, but the trip had to be postponed because of COVID. Nonetheless they kept everything in place and made some modifications so that the trip could take place this October and November. They were always responsive and helpful with our questions and concerns. All of the …
Susan
This was a wonderful way to travel in France! Our tours were wonderful and the guidebook was very helpful. Each day we had suggestions of things to do and we loved every suggestion! Our car and our accommodations were first class. Having the french phone made travel easy since we could use Waze and Google Maps. If we return to France, we will …