April Fools! Chocolate Avocado French Macaron

Here eat this...don't you trust me? Is it because it's green? Is it because of April Fool's Day?

The guinea pigs, er, I mean, the lunch crowd at work are notorious sugar fiends. Any one of them would be willing to trudge through a calorie-burning walk in the snow every break just for an extra doughnut. Of course, so would I!

But many of my taste-testers are also a bit Dutch, which means an instinctive distrust for green things, exotic things, flavors which no sane grandmother would ever think to combine. So, naturally, I wanted to scare their taste buds.

Especially when I saw this! This delicious recipe came from Steph over at Raspberri Cupcakes, who is such an inspiration to me as a baker and as a blogger. She takes such experimental risks with flavors and is so creative with the presentation. Learning new recipes and putting them to the test is my goal here on Tried & Twisted, so how on earth could I resist such a unique new flavor combination?

Would such a daring flavor combination as avocado and chocolate ever possibly be accepted by my taste-testers?

Would you believe it that they hardly even noticed that something green and healthy was lurking within the chocolatey shells?
 
Avocado icing brings a salty creamy sweet taste with only the gentlest hint of avocado and tangy citrus. It's the perfect pairing with the nutty chocolate flavor of the macarons. My twist to the recipe was to add a pinch of salt to accentuate the savory avocado flavor.

The macaron shells are chocolate flavored, which does require a subtle change to your standard macaron recipe. To keep the balance of dry to wet ingredients, decrease the amount of almond flour and add powdered cocoa instead. Be careful because if you add too much cocoa powder, then the texture and consistency may change slightly.

Otherwise, the process is very similar to mixing regular macaron shells.

Making icing out of avocado sounds like voodoo, but the process is actually very similar to using avocado as a substitute for butter.

Chocolate Avocado French Macaron (based on Raspberri Cupcake)

100 grams egg whites, aged at room temperature

110 grams almond meal

190 confectioner's powdered sugar

10 g Dutch process cocoa powder

50 g granulated sugar

Optional: pinch of tartar or Steph suggests 1 tsp egg white powder to help stabilize your meringue

1/2 medium-sized avocado, peeled and pitted
2 tsp lemon juice
100 grams confectioner's powdered sugar

1 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

1. Sift and mix almond flour, cocoa powder, and confectioner's powdered sugar in food processor. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 325°F. Whip egg whites on medium speed in a stand mixture. Add a pinch of cream of tartar for extra stability (optional). Continue to whip until egg whites are foamy and cream of tartar is dissolved (1 - 2 minutes).
3. Slowly add granulated sugar to egg whites while beating on medium high (about 1 tablespoon every 30 seconds). Continue whipping on medium high until meringue forms and becomes glossy, stiff, and can form stiff peaks (about 4 - 8 minutes).
4. Pour half of the almond flour, cocoa, and powdered sugar mixture into meringue and gently fold together with rubber spatula. Once combined, add second half of almond flour mixture. Fold until lumps are removed, but not more than 40 times to avoid removing too much air. Mix should flow like lava when complete.
5. Pipe batter with a round piping tip onto parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheet. Pipe evenly sized circles about a 1/2 - 3/4 inch apart. Gently tap baking sheet against table when done to remove air bubbles from macarons.
6. Let macarons rest for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour to let the top of the shell dry. When it is no longer tacky to the touch, it is ready to be baked.
7. Bake at 300°F for 10 - 15 minutes until baked solid through the center. When baked solid, the macaron cookie should remove very easily from the parchment or silicone. Let cool on wire racks. 

8. Remove pitt and remove skin from avocado. Place the avocado flesh with lemon juice in an electric mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Strain mixture if necessary to remove any lumps.
9. Add sifted powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Continue mixing until ingredients are combined. Add condensed milk and beat until combined.
10. Chill icing mix in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then pipe icing onto macaron cookies and sandwich together. Let macarons mature in the refrigerator overnight to mature. Serve at room temperature. 

Rating of Difficulty: 4 out of 5. Macarons are always tricky, but this icing is pretty simple since it just involves blending the ingredients and no cooking or monitoring temperature. If you've already mastered the basics of making a macaron, then this won't be much challenge at all.

Thanks again to Steph for permission to share her unique tropical macaron as part of my March of Macarons series. You should stop by and check out the latest novelty from her kitchen at Raspberri Cupcakes.

Linking at:
Natasha in Oz,  Sugar & Slice, Give me the Goods Monday, Make it Pretty Monday, Watch Out Martha,Best Blog Recipes, Craft-O-Maniac, Shabby Creek Cottage,