Chocolate Macarons with Hazelnuts and Grand Marnier

• 16 servings
• 45 minutes to prepare

Instructions

Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment and pop a little weight onto each corner to hold the paper down. (A 2p coin works really well).

Sieve the almonds, icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks, then add the caster sugar in 3 batches, whisking well between each batch until you have a lovely glossy meringue. Whisk in the almond extract.

Add a large spoonful of the meringue to the chocolatey almond mixture and using a metal spoon gently fold. Add the remaining meringue mixture and again gently fold. For a neat looking macaron place the mixture into a piping bag and pipe 3cm rounds onto the parchment.

Pre-heat your oven to 150ºc , gas mark 2.

Tap the baking sheet lightly to flatten out the macarons, and then leave to one side for 10 minutes. Bake the macarons for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and leave to cool for five minutes, then pop onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the filling, beat the softened butter, hazelnuts and icing sugar until light and fluffy, then add the Grand Marnier and beat again.

Using the butter knife, spread a little of the filling onto the base of the macaron, take another macaron and sandwich together.Repeat with all the macarons. When ready to serve, sprinkle with either a little icing sugar or cocoa powder.