Vegan Macarons

Preparation

Method for the macaron

1. Line a baking tray and pencil out 20 small circles, about 3cm in diameter. Preheat the oven to 140° Celsius.
2. Drain the chickpeas and pour the liquid (aquafaba) into a saucepan. Place over a medium heat and bring to a simmer, reduce the liquid by 20% so that you are left with 80g.
3. Leave to cool and then whisk to form stiff peaks with an electric whisk or stand-alone mixer, this will take a good few minutes! It will more than double in volume and become firm. Then add the caster sugar and whisk just to combine.
4. Sieve the ground almonds and icing sugar and then fold carefully into the whisked chickpea water. You want the aquafaba to remain as light and fluffy as possible!
5. If you want to add colouring do this now and fold it in gently to the mix.
6. Pour the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into the circles on your baking sheet. Leave to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature before baking at 140° Celsius for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before filling.

Method for the chocolate ganache filling

1. Boil the combined milks in a saucepan. (We use coconut for the creaminess, and we add oat to have a more neutral taste, so it doesn’t overwhelm the depth of the chocolate).
2. Take off the heat and add the chocolate chunks and stir in
3. Add in the maple syrup and coconut oil and mix well until you have a homogenous emulsion. Mix for 2 minutes, but not much longer or air bubbles will form inside. You want the ganache to be creamy and glossy, – air bubbles prevent that.
4. Leave to cool at room temperature and then in the fridge to firm up.

To assemble

Once the macarons and chocolate ganache have cooled completely, take one macaron half and pipe the chocolate ganache onto it, then sandwich it together with a second macaron.