Macaroon or Macaron.....?

........ Well they don't look like  macarons so I think these must be macaroons!!

 I have wanted to make these for ages, I didn't realise that there were two different types! Supposedly if they are chewy they are a macaroon ( English) and if they are crispy they are a Macaron (French).

I have never had either in my 35 years, so these were my first attempt... as unattractive as they may look unbaked ( no comments on what they look like please) they tasted, well.... rather tasty.

Before they went into the oven.

Once they had been baked....all soft and chewy.

Once they were filled with a chocolate cream cheese filling.

They didn't last long...I was good and only had two out of the 20!!

I found the recipe on bbcgoodfood, which was very simple to make, however I did change the recipe for the frosting to a cream cheese frosting from another recipe. However this was too savoury for the macaroon, so I added some icing sugar and hay presto a perfect combo.

The recipe is as follows:

125g Icing sugar, sifted

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder, Sifted

100g Ground almonds

2 Medium egg whites

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas  and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Place sifted icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl and then stir in the ground almonds ( I also sifted this).

3. In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they are stiff and then fold them into your dry ingredients.

4. Fill an icing bag fitted with a plain 1cm nozzle with your mixture.

5. Pipe 24 small blobs, about 3cm across, onto your baking sheet, making sure you leave space in between to allow the mixture to spread.

6. Smooth the surface with a wet finger, if your finger is dry is will stick to the mixture.

7. Leave the blobs to stand for 15 minutes, this allows a skin to form....very important I have read!!

8. I baked them in a fan assisted oven for about 15 minutes, until they felt firm to touch.... it's difficult to know on a first try, you can always put them back in the oven, however you can't scrape off the burned bits!!

9. Once baked, see if you can peel them away from the paper before they cool as once cooled mine were hard to take off of the paper! They can be left on the paper to cool.

Filling ingredients:

100g Soft cheese

25g dark chocolate...I used Lindt 70% cocoa

Icing sugar to sweeten

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl over a simmering pan of water... making sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.

2. Allow the chocolate to cool a little before adding to the cream cheese.

3. Mix well then once combined add a teaspoon of sifted icing sugar at a time and taste until sweet enough.

4.Sandwich macaroons together with the filling.

If you want them to be extra chewy and yummy store them in the fridge and they will go even softer!!  That's if you haven't eaten them that night!

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