Chocolate macarons with Christmas chocolate-cherry ganache

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 36 g protein
• 40 g almond(s), peeled, very finely ground
• 10 g sugar, fine
• 1 pinch of salt
• 75 g powdered sugar
• 8 g cocoa powder
• 50 g couverture or dark chocolate
• 50 g cream
• 2 tbsp jam (sour cherry)
• 1 tsp, heaped cinnamon powder, to taste

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Rest time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 14 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 19 minutes

First, weigh all the ingredients for the macaron shells very precisely. Sift the almond flour. Discard any larger pieces that remain in the sieve. You should have exactly 40 g of almond flour left. Sift the powdered sugar into the almond flour, then the cocoa powder. Mix everything well. Now beat the egg whites until lightly foamy. Add the 10 g of sugar and a pinch of salt. Continue beating until they form a nice peak. When you pull the whisk up, a peak should remain. Add one-third of the almond/powdered sugar/cocoa mixture to the egg whites and carefully fold in with a spatula. Then repeat with the next third. And then with the last third. The mixture should now flow from the spatula like a ribbon. Fill a piping bag with a perforated nozzle and pipe evenly sized circles (about 3 cm in diameter), not too close together, onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Let the macarons dry at room temperature for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius (convection oven). After the drying time, bake for about 14 minutes. Then remove the baking paper with the macarons from the baking tray and let them cool for 10 minutes, after which they can be easily removed. For the ganache, heat the cream and chop the chocolate coating into small pieces. Pour the hot cream onto the chocolate coating, let it stand for 5 minutes, and then stir until smooth. Puree the cherry jam and add it to the ganache with the cinnamon. Let the mixture cool for about 30 minutes, then whisk vigorously until it becomes lighter in color. Spoon the finished ganache onto half of the macaron shells and place a second one on top of each one. This amount of batter makes 36 macaron halves. Tip: The baking time on silicone mats increases to 16-17 minutes.