The October Daring Bakers’ challenge is the most temperamental cookies of all – French macarons. I stopped making these about three years ago, as my little son developed a severe nut allergy. Grinding the nuts, then multiple sifting seemed extremely hazardous and life threatening. I loved the cookies, but mother’s love was stronger, so I gave up on them. I didn’t have my baking blog back then, so this is my first macaron post. Somehow, it hasn’t occurred to me before to look for nut flour substitutes. But it is actually possible. Finely ground coconut, along, or in combination with black sesame seeds produced familiar, very French result. The shape, the texture (thin crackly crust and moist interior) were just as they were supposed to be. I made two kinds:
- Coconut black sesame macarons filled with wasabi bittersweet ganache (totally awesome filling)
- Chocolate coconut macarons filled with white chocolate and mango ganache
This month’s challenge was hosted by Ami S., who chose the macarons recipe from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern, which worked for me with some minor baking time adjustments.
I would advise not to get discouraged by some intimidating information on the net concerning the macaron making. It’s definitely not a rocket science. I never had any problem myself; approached them knowing no fear and succeeded on the first attempt (unfortunately, I also didn’t know then that I accomplished quite a feat :)
Makes about 4 dozen sandwiches
For the macarons:
- 2 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar (225g)
- 2 cups almond flour (190 g) (I used 50/50 ground coconut and black sesame seeds)
- 5 egg whites, at room temperature
- 2 tbsp (25g) fine granulated sugar
For the wasabi ganache filling:
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 20 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup whipping cream
- 2 tsp corn syrup
- 1 ½ tsp wasabi powder
For the white chocolate mango ganache: follow this recipe, using mango puree (make sure fruit is ripe and flavorful) and mango liqueur or white rum
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
Cool on a rack before filling.
July 25, 2016 at 6:14 pm
So I just finished making these using 100% coconut flour, and was left with a thick dense mixture… what the heck…. i call shenanigans on this recipe. thanks for making me waste $$ …
May 17, 2015 at 8:11 am
thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve wanted to try making these forever, but am very allergic to almonds …all other nuts are safe though. Yay!
November 27, 2013 at 12:19 pm
So I love this but i have no black sesame and I need to make them today so i was wondering if I just wanted to use coconut flour alone do i just substitute it 100% or should i use a lesser amount?
October 17, 2013 at 6:32 pm
While I agree the photos in conjunction with the recipe are beautiful it is hard for me to believe you got the results in those pictures from the recipe provided. I am a Chef/Baker and have with the ease you have expressed made beautiful macaroons with almond flour. Using the 50/50 coconut flour and sesame flour through weight measurements the cookie of the macaroon turned out dense like shortbread. I followed your recipe with extreme precisn. On reading through the responses it seems one person actually made these and they too had the same result I did, a dense cookie. Your recipe says coconut flour so I used store bought coconut flour by Red Mills.In reading your response to the other baker who encountered difficulty I see that you did not use coconut flour but made your own starting with unsweetened dehydrated coconut and a process you described. I am going to retry this with that new detail and see if the results improve. Are there any other tricks or details you feel are left put of your original recipe in addition to the “coconut flour” preparation that mighthelp with a successful macaroon? Also what are the proportions of cocoa that you added to the chocolate macaroon? That was left out of your instructions as well. Thank you for your time.
August 24, 2012 at 6:29 am
The coconut, can I use coconut powder?
March 13, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Actually, it is very common to be allergic to coconut if you have a nut allergy (I am). The FDA actually recognizes it as a tree nut, so I would be careful before serving it to people with tree nut allergies. Regardless, the wasabi filling sounds so interesting!
February 25, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Sophie, what do you mean? The original recipe calls for almond flour, but I used ground seeds and coconut instead (it’s written in brackets).
February 25, 2012 at 4:39 pm
THERE ARE STILL NUTS IN ALL OF THESE RECIPES!????
February 23, 2012 at 12:08 am
This is what I need. Thanks!
July 29, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Jo, to be honest, this particular macaron formula isn’t the best. It worked for me, but I knew exactly what to expect, knew the consistency of the batter. It was a daring bakers challenge, so we had to make this exact recipe, I just replaced the nuts with the seeds and coconut. If you tried any other macaron recipe before and it worked fine, stick to it, but use the seeds-coconut instead. Make sure they are very finely ground (it could have affected the color also). If you scale the recipe down carefully, it shouldn’t affect the result; I do it all the time.
July 27, 2011 at 11:25 pm
I tried the recipe on saturday with the 50/50 sesame and coconut flour, didn’t work. I am kinda frustrate. My daughter is allergic to nuts, so I thought to give this recipe a go, but with no success. My shells were not that light grey color at all, it was a lot darker. And it tasted more like cookies than Macaron. I cut the recipe in half, I wonder if that affect the result? Please help.
July 27, 2011 at 9:07 am
wonderful and yours pictures are very beautiful.
Vive les macarons français ;-)