passover week 2024 - chocolate almond macaroon teacakes

passover week 2024 - chocolate almond macaroon teacakes

• 14 Apr 2024

Some recipes only need to be lightly adapted to become Passover friendly and this Claire Ptak recipe from her book, Love is a Pink Cake, is one such recipe. All I had to do was swap the cornflour for potato starch and I was done. The recipe is naturally gluten free and if you made the hot water ganache recipe from the Passover Sachertorte with apricot compote post, these little treats would be dairy free as well. 

The recipe is a bit fiddly but the teacakes are delicious and not too sweet. The original recipe was for 12 teacakes but I halved it to make 6. I doubled the marshmallow recipe though just to ensure there was sufficient marshmallow to go around. If you make 12 teacakes, I would make a 3 egg white marshmallow recipe just to be on the safe side.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 6 teacakes. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate almond macaroon tea cakes - makes 6
For the almond macaroon base
25g flaked almonds, lightly toasted
37g almond meal
80g caster sugar 
2 tsp potato starch
1 egg white

For the marshmallow
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
3 tsp golden syrup
Small pinch fine salt

For the chocolate ganache 
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 
120g cream

1 tsp maple syrup

To finish

25g flaked almonds, lightly toasted

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C conventional and line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Mix the toasted flaked and ground almonds, 50g of the caster sugar and the potato starch together and set aside. Put the remaining sugar and egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk together to form soft peaks. Fold the two mixtures together, then spoon 6 x 5cm circles of the mixture onto the lined tray and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes, then carefully peel off the paper and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Marshmallow

Put all the ingredients into the metal bowl of your stand mixer and set over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl or it will cook the egg whites). Whisk continuously by hand with a balloon whisk, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is very warm to the touch. If using a sцgar thermometer, whisk continuously for 2 minutes, or until it reads 70-75°C whichever comes first. Transfer the bowl to your electric mixer (fitted with the whisk attachment) and whisk quickly until stiff peaks are just beginning to form.

Put the mixture in a piping bag with a large round nozzle. Pipe large bubble shapes onto your cooled macaroons (or use a spoon).

Ganache

Put the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Heat 100g of the cream until just beginning to bubble, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then stir until smooth. If the ganache is a little broken or spilt, stir in the remaining cold cream and stir until smooth.

Position the wire rack of macaroons over a baking paper-lined tray, to catch any chocolate drips. Spoon the chocolate over the marshmallow macaroons, coating them evenly. Top with the flaked almonds, then leave to set for 15 mins before serving.

The teacakes do not have a long shelf life so I would serve them the same day they're made.

See you all tomorrow with another bake for Passover Week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian