Hazelnut Macarons

To continue on my macaron journey, let me tell you about the ones that I made last weekend. Finally, a batch that I am really proud of.

Batch 4: Hazelnut - half with hazelnut praline buttercream, and half with chocolate ganache

Fresh from the oven and oh so tempting

For this batch I replaced 20% of the almond meal with hazelnut meal, and added 3 drops (well, squirts actually) of brown gel food colouring (Not that you can tell, can you?) I think I managed to get the sizes a bit more uniform too, even though they turned out a little smaller than the last ones.

Toasted hazelnut topping and hazelnut praline buttercream

 I sprinkled half of the shells with toasted hazelnut meal (my second batch, since the first burnt - who would have thought that unattended hazelnut meal in a 200 degree oven would cook quickly?)

Topped with lustre dust and filled with chocolate ganache

And the other half of the shells with a champagne coloured lustre dust. Don't they look pretty? To finish them off, the first half I filled with hazelnut praline mixed into buttercream (all made ahead of time to make things go quicker), and the second half with leftover chocolate ganache from my chocolate macarons (I had it in the freezer, and boy does it taste good frozen!)

I did a bit of experimenting with putting the macarons on a hot tray to bake. Mainly because I only have one really heavy tray that won't buckle in the oven. So the first tray went in cold, and cooked really well, and the second tray were a little browner (the lustre dust tray). The third tray all came out just a bit too brown, and some shells were even hollow! I found that the "feet" came out a little more frilled when they went in on a hot tray.

Overall I'm really pleased with how these went, and I'm looking forward to telling you all about my next batch soon. Lemon!