Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day better than homemade Nutella Macarons! I made these Nutella macarons for the very first time last year and I have to say — they’re amazing. And surprisingly enough, they’re super easy to make albeit a little time consuming!
I must make a confession: I’ve never bought Nutella from the store. I made the mistake of reading the ingredients on the back of the jar one day and decided this could be made at home with nothing artificial and no preservatives.
When you see just how easy it is to make Nutella at home, I’m sure you’ll keep a jar on standby at all times! Because who doesn’t love a chocolatey hazelnut spread that can be put on absolutely anything?! YUM!
The sky’s the limit on all the flavors you could use to make these macarons. But in the spirit of Valentine’s day, I wanted to keep mine pink and chocolatey. I used this food dye to give mine a pinkish color. It’s an all natural dye made from vegetables so you don’t have to worry about anything artificial.
Now, you do need a scale to weigh out the macaron ingredients. Sometimes in baking, weighing the ingredients helps baked goods turn out a lot better than just measuring them. This is one of those times!
And there is an hour of time where you have to let the macarons dry out before baking. Don’t skip this part! Your macarons will not turn out right if you skip this step. You’ve been warned! 😉
I love making homemade foods to give to people I love for any occasion. In my opinion, nothing says I LOVE YOU like Homemade Nutella Macarons! Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!
-Whitney
- 2/3 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
- 1 cup hazelnut meal (this is what I used)
- 6 tbsp almond milk
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 4 tbsp cacao powder (cocoa will work fine, too)
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- Ingredients for the Macarons: (You have to weigh out the ingredients for this part.)
- 60 g room temp egg whites
- 65 g cane sugar
- 75 g almond flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
- 55 g powdered sugar
- red food coloring (I used the gel kind)
- Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave. Once melted, let it cool for about 5-10 minutes.
- Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
- Add the Nutella to a jar with a lid. Set aside for a few minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.
- Place the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor and blend together until it begins to clump together.
- Sift the almond flour/powdered sugar together and discard any parts that won’t pass through the sifter. Set aside.
- Whip the egg whites until the consistency is like a loose foam. While the mixer is still running, slowly add the sugar and continue whipping to a stiff meringue.
- Fold the almond flour mixture into the meringue and add the colored gel at this point.
- Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 2A tip.
- Pipe the macarons onto the baking sheet.
- Whack the baking sheet on the counter 3 or 4 times to get the air bubbles out.
- Let the macarons dry at room temp for 1 hour. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
- Bake the macarons for 15 – 20 minutes. They’ll start to stick to the silpat – this is okay.
- Cool completely on the sheet pan before removing them.
- Add as much or as little of the Nutella spread to the middle of each cookie. I used a paring knife to do this and make it smooth.
- Sandwich the cookies together and EAT!!!
- Store the Nutella in the fridge. It will harden, but all you have to do to make it spreadable again is to set the jar in a bowl of hot water. Give it a good stir and you should be good to go!
