Luscious Chocolate Macarons

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Poultry Association but all opinions are my own.

Enjoy these Luscious Chocolate Macarons that are perfect for gift giving or eating!

These Chocolate Macarons are perfect for chocolate lovers!

I must be honest, I hate making macarons. In fact, I love to hate making macarons. I know that isn’t much of a great introduction that will motivate you to make these Chocolate Macarons, but you should know that it may take you a few tries to get these just right. The first time I made macarons were these Vanilla Bean Macarons with Vanilla Bean Buttercream filling and it took me a few times to get these just right. Although macarons are easy, what makes them difficult is the slightest mess up in the instructions will destroy the entire batch. I mean if you over whip the eggs they will be destroyed; if your egg whites aren’t stiff when you fold in the dry ingredients the macarons may not set up correctly, and if you don’t sift the dry ingredients well enough there will be big clumps and an unsmooth macaron. So you have measure everything just right and remember, practice makes perfect. But once you have made the macarons enough, you will want to continue to make them over and over again! Why?! Because they are so delicious!!!!!

You know what else is magical about macarons? The fact that they are made of ground almonds and egg whites. I swear I think egg whites are magic! I mean think about everything that is made delicious because of egg whites! There is meringue for pies, Meringue Cookies, Angel Food Cake, Pavlovas, and omelets. You can also add egg whites to batters to make things light and fluffy or for added support of whatever you are making. I mean, eggs are seriously great! Not to mention healthy. For instance, did you know that eggs are great for pregnant women, young children, dieting, and older individuals particularly. For this reason, eggs help provide focus to young children so they can focus in school; eggs are a perfect source of protein for pregnant women; they are great for dieters as they are great sources of energy; and for older individuals, eggs are great muscle structure. You can find all of this information about eggs and more on the OhioEggs.com website. It’s like I said in my first post about macarons, these cookies are full of protein! Again, macarons are made of egg whites and almonds. I am sure there are ways to make macarons sugar-free but today is not the day to try to figure that out.

To help you learn more about the importance of eggs when baking, here are a few fun tips that you may not have known about baking with eggs:

• Eggs help to add richness and density to your baked goods.
• Eggs can also serve the purpose of leavening agents. For instance, when making flourless baked good, eggs are often used as the leavening agent to add balance to your baked good.
• Eggs help to set your baked goods by adding structure and stabilization. This can be seen in baked good such as custards, cookies, cakes, and cheesecakes.
• Eggs also help to make baked good look pretty by brushing the exterior provides that pretty golden color to baked good such as croissants, puff pastry danishes, bread, pretzels, and pie crust. To learn more about resourceful eggs are in the kitchen, visit OhioEggs.com.

Macarons are great to give as gifts and make for awesome stocking stuffers. Also, you can get as creative as you want when it comes to macarons. There are several ways you can decorate macarons to make them look pretty and festive. In fact, some of the prettiest macarons I’ve seen were by my food blogger friend Amanda of, Kevin and Amanda. She provided some awesome tips on how to make macarons look pretty that is suitable for the Christmas holiday. You will love this tutorial! I really hope you enjoy these Chocolate Macarons. You can decorate them with crushed peppermint and Christmas sprinkles if you are looking for an easy way to add some Christmas flare.

Recipe adapted from Chowhound