I’m celebrating National Cookie Day today with these adorable little sweet treats! All year I’ve been celebrating a national food day each month with my blogging friends. In January I made my Copycat Jamba Juice Chocolate Peanut Butter Moo’d Smoothie for National Peanut Butter Day, In February I made my Mint Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for National Chocolate Mint Day, in March I made my Gluten Free Banana Nut Waffles for National Waffle Day, in April I made my Nutty Salted Caramel Coconut Ice Cream for National Caramel Day, in May I made my Gluten Free Cookie Dough Blizzard for National Chocolate Chip Day, in June I made my Baked Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Doughnuts for National Donut Day, in July I made my No Churn Neapolitan Ice Cream for National Ice Cream Day, in September I made my Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffles for National Breakfast Month, in October I made my Pumpkin Pasta Alfredo for National Pumpkin Day, and last month in November I made my Mama’s 7-Up Pound Cake for National Bundt Cake Day!
Looking back at the last year this has been a lot of fun ‘celebrating food’. I decided to end the year with a bang and these cookies were the perfect way to celebrate. All of my recipes this year for each food holiday have been healthy recipes – and while I wanted to do a 100% healthy recipe for today, I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make french macarons. So, what I did was made a healthier center and that helped me to feel better about the 1 1/2 c. of powdered sugar in the cookie! Did you see my Three-Ingredient Nutella that I posted at the beginning of the week? I originally had wanted to use that for my center but the filling was too running (even after sitting for a day) so I went back to the drawing board and found another recipe I liked as well. The result? The perfect consistency and tastes JUST like Nutella too – so now I have TWO great recipes! I adapted todays recipe from Deliciously Ella here. Best part about it is that my cookies are gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan! I’ll take it.
Items Used In This Post:
Classic French Macarons with Homemade Nutella Filling
These tasty Classic French Macarons are made ever so slightly healthier with a homemade Nutella center. Crispy. Dainty. Delicious
Ingredients
For the macarons
- 2/3 c. almond flour
- 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- 3 large egg whites room temperature
- 5 tbsp. granulated organic sugar
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- pinch of salt
For the Homemade Nutella filling
- 1 c. hazelnuts skinned and roasted
- 3 tbsp. pure maple syrup
- 1 1/2 tbsp. raw cacao powder
Instructions
For the macarons
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Preheat oven to 300F degrees.
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Sift together almond flour and powdered sugar; removing the larger lumps of almond pieces. Discard those, you want a really fine powder mixture to create a smooth and pretty on top to your cookie.
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Beat egg whites until foamy, then add salt, cream of tartar and white sugar for 6-10 mins. Whip until peaks form that stands upright.
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Fold flour/powdered sugar mixture into the egg white mixture. Be careful, if you under mix your macarons they will be lumpy and cracked when they bake and they won’t have feet. If you over mix, your macarons will be flat and won’t have feet (the mark of a well-made macaron). A good measure is 65-75 turns of your spatula when folding.
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Transfer batter to a pastry bag. Pipe out 1 inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tap the pan hard at least 2-3 times to release the air bubbles. This will prevent the tops of your macarons from cracking.
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Let them sit out for 20-30 mins, or even up to an hour if you want. This will allow them time to dry out a bit. They should be “tacky” to the touch, but not stick to your fingertips. This is another important step to assuring your macarons develop feet! When they dry out they can’t spread out in the oven, and are forced to rise up, which is what creates the feet.
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Bake for 20 mins. Meanwhile mix the filling.
For the Homemade Nutella Filling
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In a food processor, blend hazelnuts until creamy.
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Then add the maple syrup and cacao and blend again.
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Transfer to a pastry bag, fitted with a small tip (about ¼ ” in diameter) Reverse cookie shells on their backs, and pipe a small mound of filling on one of them.
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Top with the other shell and you have your French Macaron!
Recipe Notes
Whatever you do: DO NOT UNDER BAKE, even if they look done! Otherwise they will stick to your tray. You will also want to avoid opening the oven door while baking.
Adapted from Hot Chocolate French Macarons
But wait! There’s more! Check out my friends that also have wonderful cookie recipes for you to help celebrate!
Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies // Cupcake Diaries
Lemon Swig Style Sugar Cookies // Tried & Tasty
Chocolate Mint Cookies // Butter with a Side of Bread
Hot Chocolate French Macarons // Tried & Tasty
Strawberry White Chocolate Cookies // Creations by Kara
Soft Frosted Ginger Spice Cookies // Jamie Cooks it Up
Cake Batter Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Vanilla Bean Butter Cookies // Ashlee Marie
Giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Rolo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies // Like Mother Like Daughter
Crunchy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Chalkboard Cookies | Ashlee Marie
Flourless Triple Chocolate Cookies // Happy Food Healthy Life
Christmas Tree Sugar Cookie Bars on Cupcake Diaries
Chocolate Chip Coconut Pecan Cookies // Tried and Tasty
No Bake Dark Chocolate and Orange Protein Cookies on Happy Food Healthy Life
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Dipped Chocolate Chip Pizzelle Cookies on Summer Scraps
Peanut Butter Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Dipped Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies // Creations by Kara
No Bake Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Triangles on Real Mom Kitchen
Rolo Cookies // Tried and Tasty
Cookies & Cream Cookies // Butter with a Side of Bread
Candy Cane Peppermint Kiss Cookies // Creations by Kara
so glad I got to try these! they were delicious!
Yvonne
I’m glad you liked them!
I love anything that includes nutella!
Yvonne
You and me both!