Green Tea and Chocolate Macarons

matcha and chocolate macarons with nutella filling

March 20th is macaron day. It was started in Paris by Pierre Herme in 2005,  and introduced several years later in New York by Francois Payard and is catching on in some other cities too. Participating bakeries will offer a free macaron to any patron who requests one. You could technically eat yourself silly, bakery hopping to  shops across lower and midtown Manhattan and requesting free macarons, but if you actually buy some extra, the proceeds go to charity. Sweet! I rather like the idea of walking around to get a sample from all the different bakeries in NYC or better yet, Paris…

Since I won’t be able to partake in the festivities, here in Atlanta I am celebrating a little early by making some, courtesy of a combination of recipes from Bravetart and tips from Hungry Rabbit and Giverslog.  Here is a link to the recipe, which I halved to make smaller batches. The filling is piped nutella, which keeps well at room temperature, but hardens a bit if refrigerated. The ‘feet’, a desired little lip on the bottom of each half, came out nicer on the green ones (made with a teaspoon and a half of matcha green tea powder), than the chocolate ones, but the chocolate ones had a little espresso powder in them as well, so they had more depth of flavor.  I may try making these again, as there’s a lot of technique to perfect with macarons and endless flavors to try,  (like these crazy-awesome kids participating in the Mac Attack #27 macaron day challenge  are doing). They are not the easiest cookie to make, but even the less than perfect ones still taste melt-in-your-mouth good.

update: I am delighted to have been included in the macaron day mactweets roundup!  I am also submitting my pic to Aspiring Bakers #17 – March Macaron Madness, hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies. I’m just about drooling on my keyboard just looking all those beautiful macarons!

gooey nutella filling