These vegan chocolate hazelnut macaron cookies have a soft, chewy interior and a light crisp shell. They are pretty enough to give as a gift, although they are incredibly straightforward and quick to make, with relatively few ingredients.
They’re also gluten free. The only ‘flour’ they contain is ground nuts.
Strictly speaking, these are not macarons, which are meringue or aquafaba based, but macaron is what they taste like, so that’s what I’ve called them.
I have used both ordinary cocoa powder and Dutch processed cocoa to make these, and the latter gives them a slightly darker colour and richer cocoa flavour, but it won’t make a huge difference unless you’re very particular about your cocoa!
Rolling them thoroughly in icing sugar before baking gives them their special ‘cracked earth’ appearance.
Chocolate hazelnut Macaron Cookies…
Ingredients
- 70 g ground hazelnuts
- 50 g ground almonds
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 75 g light muscovado or other sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp ground flaxseed
- icing sugar for rolling
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line the base of a baking tray large enough for 18 small (5 cm) cookies.
- If the flaxseed is not already finely ground, ideally you should grind it in a coffee grinder or similar until there are no larger pieces of husk visible. Stir 40 ml of water into the ground flaxseed and set aside.
- Mix the ground nuts, cocoa powder, muscovado sugar and baking powder thoroughly together in a bowl.
- Make a well in the centre and pour in the flaxseed mixture. Mix with a spoon or fork until it comes together into a fairly firm dough.
- Place a tablespoon or two of icing sugar in a small bowl. Roll small balls of dough (no more than 2.5 cm diameter) using your hands, then roll them in the icing sugar until they are really well covered.
- Place the balls onto the baking sheet and press just a little bit with the back of a spoon to flatten the tops.
- Bake for ten to twelve minutes, by which time they will have expanded and formed a crisp cracked surface.
- Allow the cookies to cool on a rack. They can be stored in an airtight tin.
If you would like to receive e-mail alerts when new recipes are published, please see my contact page.
