Triple Chocolate Macarons!
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These triple chocolate macarons are the ultimate indulgent treat, combining crisp chocolate milkshake-flavoured shells with a rich dark chocolate ganache and an elegant white chocolate drizzle. Prep takes 2 hours (including the essential resting window), they bake in just 16 minutes, and the recipe strips away the intimidation of French patisserie with clear, fail-proof steps.
Ingredients notes and tips
Making bakery-quality macarons requires patience and precision but all good macarons start with the right ingredients:
- Sugar – I use icing sugar to provide the right level of sweetness along with caster sugar which incorporates beautifully
- Cocoa powder – a high-quality cocoa power is the difference between a rich chocolatey taste or a dull under-powered flavour
- Almonds – I use ground almonds to provide that nutty flavour
- Eggs – I use the egg whites from 3 medium eggs
The science behind the perfect macaron shell
Achieving a mirror-smooth top on your macaron shells requires a bit of upfront precision. While it might seem slightly tedious to whiz your dry ingredients in a food processor and then sieve them, skip this step at your peril.
Ground almonds and icing sugar naturally clump together due to residual oils and ambient moisture. Processing them for 90 seconds breaks down any stubborn pieces, while passing them through a fine sieve removes larger almond fragments. This guarantees a perfectly smooth shell batter. For the deep chocolate elements, using a high-quality cocoa powder provides an intense colour and a rich flavour profile without altering the structural chemistry of the dry mix.
The foundation of the shell is a stable French meringue. You must whip your egg whites until they are thick and foamy before adding your caster sugar one teaspoon at a time. This gradual addition allows the sugar crystals to dissolve perfectly into the egg white proteins, building a glossy, rigid foam structure that will support the heavy almond blitz.
How to mix and pipe the meringues
The process of folding your dry ingredients into the whipped meringue is known as macaronage. This is the absolute make-or-break stage of the entire recipe:
- The technique: You want to fold the mixture gently, scraping around the sides of the bowl and cutting through the centre. The goal is to intentionally deflate just enough air from the meringue to create a smooth, flowing batter.
- The 20-fold guideline: Aim to bring the batter together in roughly 20 folds. Stop mixing the absolute second your batter reaches a “molten lava” or ribbon-like consistency. If you over-mix, the batter will turn completely runny, spreading out flat across your tray and losing its shape.
When it comes to lining your baking trays, high-quality baking parchment is highly recommended over thick silicone macaron mats. Silicone mats retain moisture and can often cause the delicate bases of the shells to stick and tear away upon removal.
The essential one hour rest
Once your macarons are piped onto your parchment paper, you must firmly tap the baking trays flat against your kitchen worktop several times. This forceful tapping shocks the batter, forcing any trapped air bubbles to rise to the surface and pop, which prevents the shells from hollows or cracking inside the oven.
As they sit out at room temperature, the moisture on the surface evaporates, forming a dull, completely matte, non-sticky “skin” over the top of each shell. When the macarons hit the heat of the oven, this dried top skin acts as a solid lid. Because the air inside the batter cannot expand upward through the skin, it is forced to push downward and escape out of the base, creating those beautiful, sought-after ruffled edges known as the macaron “feet”.
FAQs
Cracked tops happen when air bubbles are trapped inside the batter, or if the oven temperature is running too hot. Make sure to tap your trays firmly against the counter right after piping to release any hidden air, and consider using an independent oven thermometer to ensure your oven is running at a true 130°C.
Absolutely. If you prefer a lighter, sweeter centre, you can easily swap the ganache for a standard chocolate buttercream or even a vanilla bean frosting.
Over-shipping your meringue is the usual cause of a hollow centre. This introduces too many large air pockets, or by taking the macarons out of the oven a minute or two too early. The interiors need enough baking time to set structural walls.
No. Never use liquid food colouring in macarons, as the extra water content will completely ruin the delicate balance of the meringue, resulting in a runny, sticky batter that will crack or hollow. If you want to boost the colour, use a tiny speck of concentrated gel food colouring or powder.
Triple Chocolate Macarons
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
- 200 g icing sugar
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g egg whites (roughly 3 medium eggs)
- 75 g white caster sugar
Decoration
- 75 ml double cream
- 75 g dark chocolate
- 75 g white chocolate
Instructions
Macaron Shells
- Pulse the icing sugar, cocoa powder and ground almonds in a food processor for 90 seconds or so.
- Sieve the ingredients into a large bowl (maybe even twice if its still lumpy) and leave to one side. (Its VERY important to sieve them!)
- Using an electric whisk, whisk up the egg whites until they’re thick and foamy and starting to form soft peaks.
- Gradually add the white caster sugar 1 tsp at a time like you would a meringue, whisking in between each addition fully, until all of the white caster sugar is incorporated.
- Once incorporated continue to whisk for 5 minutes until its smooth and light!
- Once finished, fold the mixture into the sugar, cocoa and almond mix – try to be gentle and use as little mixing as possible – I do mine in about 20 folds!
- Using a piping bag and a 1cm round nozzle, pipe the Macarons either onto a Macaron mat using the guides, or a lined baking tray with parchment paper underneath! (The mixture is quite runny, so be careful that it doesn’t go everywhere or you make the shells too big!)
- Tap the trays onto the work surface several times so that you knock out the air bubbles and leave the Macarons on the side for ONE HOUR so that a skin is formed – this stage is important.
- Preheat the oven to 130ºC and bake the Macarons for 16-20 minutes until they have risen to have their “feet”, and are starting to peel away from the tray.
- Leave them to cool fully before trying to remove them!
Decoration
- Once the shells have cooled – remove carefully from your trays and line them up.
- Drizzle on some melted white chocolate. (I used a disposable piping bag with the end snipped off)
- Leave to dry.
- Once dry, in a heatproof bowl, microwave the double cream and dark chocolate in 20 second bursts until smooth.
- Pipe a small amount into the middle of a shell.
- Push another Macaroon on top of the on to form your classic filled Macaron!
Notes
- I sometimes find that ‘Macaron Mats’ are harder to use than just parchment paper as sometimes they can stick – so I would recommend using parchment paper – but you can buy some silicone sheets with macaron shapes drawn on them already – Like this Macaron Mat – or you can draw the circles yourself.
- The Macarons last for up to 7 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Storage and freezing
While it is incredibly tempting to devour these treats straight away, macarons actually undergo a magical transformation if you let them mature. Store your assembled macarons inside an airtight container in the refrigerator for 24 hours before eating. This resting phase allows the moisture from the rich ganache to seep back into the crisp shells, turning the interiors incredibly chewy while keeping the outside perfectly crisp. They will keep beautifully in the fridge for up to 7 days.
If you want to prepare these well in advance, the unfilled macaron shells freeze exceptionally well; simply layer the completely cooled shells between sheets of greaseproof paper inside a rigid plastic container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw them completely at room temperature for an hour before piping your fresh ganache filling inside.
Related recipes
You guys always seem to love my Macaron recipes – my Salted Caramel Macarons, Halloween Macarons, Valentines Macarons and my Neapolitan Macarons – they have always been popular on my blog as my readers have commented that my recipe and method are easy to follow, and they always lead to success.
Hi Jane I made these today they have amazing smooth tops but the feet have kind of spilled sideways and are quite chewy..
my mix wasn’t runny as the egg white went like a meringue (I could hold it upside down) is this right? Apart from that the rest of them are perfect! The inside is nice and soft etc!
Have you checked the fat content of your cocoa powder? Fat can affect your meringue.
Hello, is it possible to freeze these please?
Yes, it is!
Hi Jane! Have you managed to film a video on how to make Macarons yet? Pleaseee can you upload one soon?
A great macaron recipe that my family and I have enjoyed. Just a few things for people making them. First, to get smooth tops, more folding is necessary but still not too much. Finally, if you use more than one tray, put them in separately because the tray under the top one will crack and have less feet. But great recipe and I recommend JanesPatisserie.
Oh how strange, I have never had to put trays in separately – that may be the type of oven you have? Glad you liked the recipe!
Hey!!
Just tried making these twice and both went wrong.. not rising enough! What part of it am I doing wrong? x
Hey! It’s very very hard to say as they are a harder bake than most – I am doing a youtube video of them soon though which will be able to help!
when you say 25 macarons….does that mean 25 filled or 25 unfilled? im presuming its 25 filled or else you would have one left over…?
this recipe looks delicious..can’t wait to try 🙂
Filled 👍
Hi Jane, sorry to bother you. I don’t have a food processor, will this work without doing the “pulsing” bit? Many thanks and sorry again
HIya! You would have to sieve the mixture about 4 times to be sure to get rid of any lumps! Hope this helps! x
Would it work with chocolate orange flavoured icing sugar?
Ooh yes!
I’m really excited to make these macaron’s. I trust all of your recipe’s, they’ve never gone wrong 🙂
can you please upload the recipe to raspberry macarons next? I’d love to see what your recipe and filling combo is. Would you use the ‘sugar and crumbs’ raspberry icing sugar? xxx
This specific post was featured on WordPress Discover and I’m glad it was. I scrolled and scrolled until I found it here. Everything looked so delicious, and that’s not an understatement, literally everything looked “wow”. I’ve never had a macaroon before. These look spectacular, hope to try and possibly make some that look at much of a delight at yours.
Oh thank you so much!! I love Macarons – they’re so so yummy!