Becoming Betti Baker: Hazelnut Macarons with Nutella filling.

Hazelnut lovers unite, I have just had my first attempted at creating macarons with hazelnut meal instead of almond meal and the results were absolutely delicious. Now these little beauties definitely have a stronger flavour than macarons made with almonds meal so they won't be for everyone, but for the the folk that love some choc hazelnut action like myself they are fantastic.

What you need…

100 grams Hazelnut Meal
100 grams Icing Sugar
80 grams Egg White, split into two lots of 40 grams
100 grams Caster Sugar
40 mls Water

How you do it…

Tant pour tant

Sift together the halzelnut meal and icing sugar making your tant pour tant , I found the hazelnut meal to be quite chunky so you will find that you have to discard some of the meal that doesn't make it through the sift.
Put 40 grams of the egg whites into your mixmaster and start beating it on a slow to medium speed creating soft peaks.
In a small saucepan put the caster sugar and water over a medium heat, use a candy thermometer and bring the sugar syrup up to 105 degree C, once it had reached this temperature turn your mixmaster up to a high speed, let the sugar syrup reach between 115 degrees and 120 degrees C then remove from the heat.
As soon as you have taken the syrup off the heat pour it into the egg mixture while it is beating, making your Italian Meringue, continue to beat for about 10 minutes until cooled down.

hazelnut paste mixed with meringue
Add the left over 40 grams of egg white to the hazelnut tant pour tant and mix using a spatular to make a paste.
Once your Italian Meringue has cooled take 1/3 of the mix and add it to the hazelnut paste, once combined mix in the rest of the Meringue in.
Scoop your macaron mixture into a piping bag and pipe out small 20cm piece sized circles onto a flat baking tray lined with baking paper.
Let the macarons sit for at least 30 mins to develop their shell, once you can touch the macaron without it being sticky they are ready to bake.
Bake in an oven on a low heat of 140 degrees C for 12 minutes.
Once done and out of the oven place the tray onto a wet tea towel on your bench, then slide the baking paper onto the tea towel, this makes it easier to remove the macarons from the baking paper.
Let cool, and fill with your choice of filling, I was Lazy and used a scoop of Nutella to sandwich my macarons together, but they would be great with a Chocolate Ganache or a Chocolate buttercream.