BEARarons?

TGIF!
i am a bit mac mad lately. have been caught up with for the past few days with macaronic fever. not that we have overly-sweet tooth for these gems but i was just simply hooked in making them. addictive! they can be fun to make albeit the many failures i encountered.
hence after many rounds of playing with it, i can finally call it ENOUGH! 
so today im going to use the yolks to bake cake lapis which i have been craving for it since i dont usually bake it other than CNY. 

I think it makes great gifts too!

Chocolate Macaroons

Recipe adapted from: Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

Reference: Yochana's Cake Delight

 Ingredients:

140g  finely ground almond
250g  icing sugar
25g  cocoa powder
100g egg white (room temperature)

Method:

1. Blend ground almond, cocoa powder and icing sugar in a food processor till fine. Give it a few pulse.

2. Whisk egg white until foamy and slowly increase speed to high to whip until firm. It should look glossy at this stage. Try lifting up the whisk, the whites should form a peak that droops just a little. Use a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients gently into the whites in three or four additions.  When all the dry ingredients are incorporated with the whites, the mixture will look very much like cake batter, if you lift with your finger, it should form a gentle, quickly falling peak.
3. Transfer mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe into small rounds about 1" in diameter onto parchment paper, leaving about an inch between each round. Rest macaroons for about 20 mins.
4. Bake at 180C for about 10 to 12 minutes.
5. Remove macaroons from the parchment and place them on a cooling rack.
6. Sandwich them with chocolate ganache or your favourite butter cream.

* to pipe the teddy shape, i did the usual rounds for the shell. Just add two dollop on top of the rounds to make the ears. It takes some practise but hey, its fun!

My lapis ingredients are calling out for me in my kitchen. Till then, have fun!