Chilli Chocolate Valentines Macarons

Chilli Chocolate Valentines Macarons Ingredients

For the macarons (makes approx 15)* 4 Egg Whites* 230g Icing Sugar* 115g Ground Almonds* 70g Caster Sugar* 1 Tsp Salt* Red gel food colouring (replace with cocoa powder for choc ones)For the chilli chocolate ganache* 100g Dark Chocolate* 50ml Water* 1 Tbsp Chilli Powder (omit for choc ones) plus a dash of cinnamon

Steps

1) Preheat oven to 145C and line two baking trays with parchment2) To make macarons, put egg whites & caster sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk on medium electric whisk for 3 mins then increase setting to high and whisk for further 3 mins.3) Add red food colouring & whisk for another 1 min. The meringue should be very stiff.4) Sift ground almonds icing sugar into the mixing bowl and fold in with a rubber spatula gently. Repeat until all ingredients incorporated and, if you drop a bit of the mixture onto the top of the rest of it, the drop merges back into the mixture within 20 seconds.5) Using piping bag, pipe 3cm round macaron mixture on parchment (will spread a little)6) Tap each baking tray on the work surface. This ensures that any air bubbles rise to the top & leave to dry for 10 mins7) Put macarons in the oven for 20 mins, turning the baking tray around half way through. After this time, try peeling a macaron from the baking parchment & if the macaron does not come away cleanly, they are not done so put them back in the oven for another 3-6 mins, or until they do come away from the parchment paper without leaving anything behind. Leave to cool8) For ganache place all of the ingredients into a heavy-based saucepan and place over a low heat until water starts to steam. Remove from the heat and leave until the chocolate is melted before stirring until smooth. Leave to cool and thicken.9)When ganache is thick, pipe it onto half of the macarons (the flat side) and sandwich them together with the other half of the macarons. Enjoy !