Macarons. These classic French cookies are everywhere! Nobody does them quite like our girl Mindy. Introducing Gourmet French Macarons! Want to win a copy? Keep reading for giveaway details….

Written and photographed by Mindy Cone of Creative Juice, this book highlights unique and creative spins on a classic French cookie, the Macaron. It includes recipes, techniques, styling ideas, templates, and decorating tips that give the popular classic French macaron sandwich cookie a modern and whimsical makeover. Mindy includes over 75 unique and creative designs to make your French macarons delicious AND adorable for any holiday, season, or life celebration. Enjoy over 75 flavorful filling recipes! A CD is included with the book that has printable templates to make piping circles or unique shapes so much easier. Using this book you are no longer confined to the conventional circular shape! You can make apples, pumpkins, ghosts, trees, flowers, animals, cupcakes, and many other shapes to fit each season, holiday, or life celebration.

You can usually find Mindy (entertaining, food, and party stylist on the blog, Creative Juice), writing about how to entertain party guests with style and creativity. She shares diy tutorials, recipes, tips, tricks, and ideas to make your next event detailed, personalized, and of course creative!

Want to try your hand at one of Mindy’s favorite recipes? You can’t go wrong with chocolate!

Chocolate French Macarons
100g of egg whites aged at room temperature
Pinch of Cream of tartar
35g of superfine sugar
110g of Almond flour
200g of Powdered Sugar
10g cocoa powder

1. Measure out all ingredients using a gram scale
2. Prepare the baking sheets by lining them with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Slide a printed 1 ½ inch template sheet underneath and set aside. Prepare piping bag to be filled and set aside.
3. Sift powdered sugar, almond mixture, and cocoa powder together two or three times through a sieve and set aside.
4. Place the egg whites in a large bowl or in stand mixer with wire whisk attachment. Whisk on low until egg whites become foamy. Add the pinch of cream of tartar. Continue to whisk until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the superfine sugar. Once all of the sugar is incorporated, scrape down the sides with a spatula.
5. Turn your mixer on medium-high and continue to whisk until you reach a stiff meringue. If adding liquid or gel food dye, do so toward the end of whisking.
6. Sift 1/3 of the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder mixture through the sieve and into the meringue. Fold the dry mixture into the meringue. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Once all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, the batter will be thick and have a dull shine. Continue to fold. As you do so, the batter will loosen. Stop folding when the batter has a glossy sheen, a “lava-like” consistency, and falls in a ribbon like manner off the spatula.
7. Transfer the batter into a large pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe 1½ inch rounds on the parchment paper following this template.
8. When all of the rounds are piped on the parchment, rap the sheet pans evenly on work surface a few times. Remove templates from below your parchment paper carefully. Let the batter rest at room temperature for 20-40 minutes.
9. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and bake one sheet at a time for 12 minutes rotating the pan half way through.
10.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.
11.  Match up similar size shells into pairs and sandwich with filling.

MAKES:
About 4 dozen 1.5 in shells (two dozen sandwiched macaron cookies)

Chocolate Ganache Filling
100 g (3.5 oz) chocolate*
1½ Tbsp. heavy cream
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Boil cream and pour over chocolate.
Stir until all the chocolate has melted and texture is smooth**
When warm, pipe onto macaron shells.

* I prefer to use the mini chocolate chips when possible to speed up the process.
** If the cream is not able to melt all the chocolate, place bowl in microwave. Heat for 20 seconds on low power. Remove and stir. Repeat until chocolate is fully melted.

Now, I could go on and on about Mindy and her book, but, isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? Does that make a video worth ten thousand words?

Gourmet French Macarons from TK Productions on Vimeo.

Okay okay! I’m done talking. Now for the moment you’ve waited so patiently for! Get your own copy of Gourmet French Macarons – just enter using the rafflecopter widget below (open to us residents only). Good luck!!

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