I compared three different macaron recipes – Pierre Herme’s Chocolate Macarons recipe from his book Chocolate Desserts, Dorie Greenspan’s Parisian Macaron recipe from Food 52, and Paul Hollywood’s Chocolate Macarons Recipe from his book Bake. Each recipe uses a different style of meringue – French, Italian and Swiss, respectively.
I used the same ganache and strawberry gelato filling for all three. My desire was to compare the cookies not the fillings. The fillings are easy to make but a cookie with a smooth top, crisp exterior and chewy interior is a lot more challenging.
All turned out delicious. Only Paul Hollywood’s recipe using a Swiss meringue had a beautifully smooth top. There are more egg whites in Paul Hollywood’s recipe and no water like in the Parisian Macaron recipe. I found that this allowed a crust to form more quickly. Note that in all macaron recipes after mixing the batter and piping the cookies, the cookies must rest at room temperature until a crust forms. This gives the cookies a slight domed shape and feet when they bake. The feet are the rough edge at the bottom of the cookie.
I prefer more chocolate and less sugar than in Paul Hollywood’s recipe. I find baking in a slightly warmer oven works well for me too. My adaptation can be found here.
I used Food and Wine’s Strawberry Gelato recipe with unsweetened coconut milk substituted for the half and half and this chocolate ganache recipe. I baked one pan of cookies at a time in a 340° F oven for 6 minutes before turning the pan and baking 9 minutes more.
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