Gloverly Cupcakes

I remember looking around my house before I bought it and thinking that the oven was probably rubbish – it looked as old as me. However, after four and half years of baking in it, I can honestly say I wouldn’t change it… even if somebody offered me a brand new top of the range oven. After all the hard work it’s done for me over the last four and half years, I decided it was time to give it a really good clean. And by that, I mean going as far as taking the glass out the door and leaving it to soak so I could get every last little mark off it. After about 2 and a half hours it looked almost as good as new – or as close as I could get – so I decided that I would test out the “new” oven and bake some macarons.

One of the things I love about my oven is the fact it bakes things really well at low temperatures. Macarons are one of those things that need to be baked at a low temperature so it seemed fitting to make some. I’ve only made macarons once in my oven before, but it seemed like a good idea to make up a recipe….

I decided that I wanted to try making Nutella macarons. So rather than using ground almonds I thought I’d try blitzing some hazelnuts. I blitzed them several times and passed them through a sieve to make sure that they were really fine. I also decided to leave the skins on for some added colour and flavour. Last time I made them I followed the instructions from the Brave Tart – I would definitely recommend reading this if you’ve never made macarons before. But this time, other than using the timings suggested for whisking, I came up with my own recipe. Macarons I’ve eaten in the past tend to be really sweet so for the filling, rather than just a buttercream, I made a Nutella cream cheese frosting.So now for the recipe…

Hazelnut Macarons (a Gloverly Cupcakes creation)

Makes 30 – 40 (depending on how large you make them)
120g ground hazelnuts – I used 150g of hazelnuts with skins on, blitzed them and sieved them several times. They didn’t all get fine enough so I just used 120g of them.
200g icing sugar
100g egg whites (at room temperature)
50g caster sugar
pinch of salt

Sift the icing sugar and ground hazelnuts together into a bowl.

Place 3 silicon sheets/sheets of baking parchment into 3 baking trays.

Put the egg whites and caster sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment (or in a bowl and use a hand whisk) and whisk on slow-medium (4 on a KitchenAid) for 3 minutes – it won’t look like much has happened to them. Increase the speed to medium-high (7 on a KitchenAid) for another 3 minutes. Finally, increase the speed one notch (up to 8) for another 4 minutes.

Tip the icing sugar and ground hazelnuts into the egg white mixture and stir in – there’s no need to be gentle to start with. After it looks combined, start folding the mixture one stroke at a time. Keep testing the mixture to check it’s the right consistency – it should take about 20 seconds for a ribbon of mixture dropped from the spoon to disappear back into the mixture.

Put the mixture into a piping bag with a small plain nozzle attached. Pipe small circles of the mixture onto the baking sheets, about 1-2cm apart. Leave the macarons to form a film for about 45 mins – 1 hour. When you touch them they shouldn’t stick to your finger. Heat the oven to gas mark 1 (130 C/265 F). Once the oven has reached the right temperature place the macarons in the oven for 15 minutes. Turn them around and bake for another 5 minutes. Keep checking every 5 minutes – they should come off the baking sheet cleanly. Mine took about 30 minutes in total, but as I mentioned earlier my oven bakes things slowly!

Once done, take them out the oven, and leave to cool for a few minutes before taking them off the baking sheets and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack. While they’re cooling, make the filling…

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting (a Gloverly Cupcakes creation)

300g icing sugar
50g unsalted, softened butter
125g full fat cream cheese
100g Nutella

Combine the butter and icing sugar together until there are no lumps of butter left. Add the cream cheese and beat on a low speed until combined and then add the Nutella. Beat on medium high for a few minutes until smooth.

Place in a piping bag. Pipe a small amount onto one macaron shell and then sandwich together with another shell.

Once they’re done, thank your oven for all the good baking it’s done…