I am doing this recipe as a trial run for Thanksgiving. Macarons are my sister-in-law’s favorite cookies. I have been making these for her for years now. For those who want to attempt these cookies, these are not a beginner cookie. There is technique involved that takes a bit of practice. It took me five years to get the cookies right. Granted, I wasn’t working on them daily. Since I have never make a vegan version, I will have to test these. To make these vegan, we go back again to the aquafaba. This will replace the egg white typically used in this recipe.

I am combining two recipes for this. I am using the recipe from Petit Chef for German Chocolate Cake Macarons for the flavor and the technique from Baked by Clo for Vegan Macarons. I typically make these as is, meaning all of the sugar included. However, I will be making these sugar free because they will be in our house. Keep your fingers crossed that these will work. I will post an update no matter if these work or not.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I swapped out the egg whites for aquafaba to make these vegan.
• I replaced the sugars with their sweetener equivalents to reduce the carbs.
• I swapped out the evaporated milk for light coconut milk to make these vegan.
• I replaced the egg yolks with chickpea flour to make this vegan.
• I increased the servings from 8 to 20 to reduce the calories.

Here are the final stats:

Check below the recipe for an updated on the first attempt.

Here is the final recipe:

Vegan German Chocolate Macarons

Makes 20 Cookies

For the macaron shells:

• Liquid from 2 x 400g cans of supermarket chickpeas
• ¼ Teaspoon Cream of tartar
• 1 cup (100 g) powdered sweetener
• 1/2 cup powdered almonds (50 g)
• 3 tablespoons (25 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 5 tablespoons (65 g) granulated sweetener

For the filling:

• 12 ounces light coconut milk
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sweetener
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons chickpea flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 7-ounce package unsweetened flaked coconut, chopped
• 1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped

1. Weigh the liquid from the 2 cans of chickpeas and place it in a medium-sized pot. Place it over the heat and let it simmer. Weigh it periodically until it reaches half the weight you started with. You should start with roughly 250g of liquid and finish with roughly 125g.
2. When you’ve reduced the chickpea liquid, let it cool and place it in the fridge in an airtight container overnight.
3. Preheat your oven to 150°C/300°F (130°C/275°F if using a fan or convection oven). I highly recommend using an oven thermometer for accuracy.
4. Grind together the powdered sweetener with the almond flour and cocoa so there are no lumps. Use a food processor since purchased almond meal isn’t quite fine enough.
5. Weigh out 100g of your reduced aquafaba and place it in a scrupulously clean, medium-sized bowl along with the cream of tartar. Using a very clean electric whisk or stand mixer, whisk on high speed until the mixture becomes frothy and goes pale in colour.
6. With the mixer still going, start adding your granulated sweetener a little at a time. Keep whisking until the mixture becomes white and glossy and forms stiff peaks, until you can tip the bowl upside-down without it moving. This takes a bit longer than it would with egg whites so be patient and keep whisking!
7. Sift the ground almond mixture into a separate bowl. Use the back of a spoon to push any lumps of almonds through the sieve.
8. Add half of the ground almond mix to your aquafaba mixture and gently fold it in using a spatula. Then fold in the other half.
9. Keep folding gently until the mixture begins to get a little softer, but be careful not to over-mix. You’ll know you’re done mixing when you can place a spoonful of the mixture on a flat surface and it slowly flattens out without any lumps or bumps on top. Another way to test is by lifting up a bit of the mixture and drawing a figure of 8 with it. It’s ready when you can do this without it breaking.
10. Place the mixture into a piping bag with a round nozzle and pipe 1-inch circles onto your cookie sheet*. You may need 2 trays to do this.
11. Slam the tray(s) on a work surface to get rid of any air bubbles. Sprinkle the tops of half of the macarons with finely chopped pecans when you pipe them. Let them sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes, or until you can touch them without getting any mixture on your fingers.
12. Place your macarons on the middle shelf and bake for ~18 minutes. You can check they’re ready by wiggling the top of one with your finger. If it moves out of place, it needs to be baked a little longer. I recommend that you only bake one tray at a time unless you can fit the trays on the same shelf.
13. Once baked, remove them from the oven. When they are fully cooled, gently pull them off of the tray and find matching pairs of similar shape and size. If they stick to the tray once cooled, they are probably underbaked and you can pop them back into a preheated oven for a few more minutes.
14. Mix milk, sweetener, butter, chickpea flour and vanilla in a large saucepan. Cook on medium heat for 15-18 minutes or until mixture thickens and turns a light golden brown, stirring constantly. The mixture won’t be thick enough to spread and will thicken up after the coconut is added. Add coconut and mix well. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate to a consistency that will hold its shape. Makes about 4 cups. Fill macarons and refrigerate.

Here’s an update on my first trial:

First off, the oven temperature was not hot enough. When the oven temperature is not hot enough, the macarons will not rise. I used the temperature from the non-vegan recipe and they rose just fine with the second batch.

Second, when you cook the aquafaba liquid down, time it for 5 minutes after it starts to simmer. Take the weight here. Then watch it carefully. Weight frequently. I timed another five minutes and it reduced too much.

A positive is that the reduced aquafaba worked beautifully. I got stiff peaks in no time. It took a little longer to get the consistency I needed to pipe. I found it took no extra time to whip the mixture.