Mint Chocolate Chip Macarons

Here at Cambrea Bakes, we love creating unique macaron flavors like cookie dough macarons and blueberry macarons; I'm always dreaming up new flavor ideas that are different from the more classic macarons with chocolate.

Mint and chocolate is a classic flavor combination, which makes these mint chocolate chip macarons insanely delicious!

Before you start, preheat the oven to 300 F (every oven is different, but 275 F-325 F is a typical range for baking macarons). Line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper and set them aside.

Step 1: Sift the dry ingredients. Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar into a bowl and set it aside (image 1 below). If your almond meal is coarsely ground, you can pulse it in a food processor until finely ground.

Step 2: Cook the egg whites. In a stand mixing bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and egg whites together. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water and whisk occasionally, until the egg whites reach 120 F (image 2 below).

Step 3: Make the meringue. Add the cream of tartar. Whisk on low speed for 5 minutes, until the bowl feels cool. Continue whisking, increasing the speed slowly and gradually, not going faster than #6 on a Kitchenaid, until soft peaks form.

Then add the green food coloring. Keep mixing until stiff peaks form (image 3 below).

Step 4: Fold in the dry ingredients. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl of meringue. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold them into the meringue (image 4 above).

Step 5: Scrape the batter. Fold and scrape the batter against the sides of the bowl then back into the center (image 5 below). This is known as the macaronage.

Step 6: Test the batter. When the batter starts to look glossy, pick up the batter with the spatula and let it fall into the bowl. It should flow in slow ribbons. Set a timer for 30 seconds. If the edges of the fallen ribbons are very soft and mostly disappeared into the batter, it's ready (image 6 below).

Step 7: Pipe the macaron batter. Fill a piping bag with a small round tip with the batter. Pipe the batter onto the prepared baking trays into 1 ½-inch circles, spaced 2 inches apart. Tap the tray gently on your counter on all four sides, then pop any large bubbles with a toothpick.

Step 8: Bake! Sprinkle the tops with brown sprinkles (image 8 above). Keep the rest of the batter in the bag for now. This is a no-rest macaron recipe. Bake the first tray right away on the middle rack of the oven for 18-20 minutes. When the first tray is done baking, pipe the rest of the batter and bake the same way.

Step 9: Cool, then fill with buttercream. Match up like-sized shells, flipping one of each pair over so the flat bottom is exposed. Pipe a dollop of the mint chocolate chip buttercream in the center of each half, then sandwich it with the other shell (image 9 above).

Mature the macarons overnight in the fridge. Enjoy your mint chocolate chip macarons!

Store the filled macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can freeze them for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

If you want to make them ahead of time, you can freeze just the shells in an airtight container for up to 3 months. You can fill them with buttercream straight from the freezer!