Turn your less than perfect macarons into these rich and indulgent brownie cookies!! It’s a truly easy and customizable recipe.
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love these cookies:
It’s no secret that we love baking french macarons around here. And these finicky cookies don’t always come out picture perfect, right?!
Well, good news! You don’t have to toss those less than perfect macarons, because you can turn them into a macaron flour and make these indulgent brownie cookies with it!! How genius is that?!
Key Ingredient Notes:
- Macaron shells – You can use any color macaron shells for this recipe, the color will be masked with chocolate. And if you don’t quite have enough shells, simply add all-purpose flour to bring it to 300g.
- Cocoa powder – Either natural or Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder will work for this recipe. However, Dutch-process cocoa powder adds richer flavor and darker color.
- Instant espresso powder – This’s an optional ingredient. You won’t taste coffee flavor, but it enhances the chocolate flavor even more.
- Butter & eggs – It’s important to bring butter and eggs to room temperature before making this recipe. These 2 ingredients don’t easily combine together, and if they’re cold, it’ll be even harder.
How to make this cookie recipe:
1. Crush macaron shells
- Process macaron shells in a food processor until finely ground. (You may need to occasionally pulse it to get the stubborn chunks to break down.)
2. Make the brownie cookie dough
- Whisk the macaron flour with the rest of dry ingredients: cocoa powder, instant espresso powder, baking powder and salt.
- Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave until smooth. Let it cool slightly.
how to melt chocolate in microwave
- Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl
- Microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power
- Stir well and microwave again for 30 seconds at 50% power. Repeat until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Whip the butter until nice and fluffy with an electric mixer and then add in eggs.
- The mixture won’t become 100% smooth, but if butter and eggs are both at room temperature, they’ll come close.
- Now, stir in slightly cooled melted chocolate and beat until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Chill the batter in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This’s an essential step, because cooker dough is quite soft and it needs to firm up before shaping and baking.
3. Shape and bake the cookies
- Once the dough is firmed up, divide it into 1.5-inch balls. I use a medium cookie scoop and it goes super fast!
- Arrange the cookies about 1.5 inches apart on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, or silicone mat.
- Bake in a preheat oven at 350°F for 13-15 minutes, or until the edges are set and slightly soft in the middle.
- Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Brownie Cookies’ Texture:
The texture and look of brownie cookies might vary slightly depending on whether you used all macaron flour, or how much all-purpose flour you’ve added.
- Cookies made with macaron flour and all-purpose flour (left) didn’t spread as much and had a crinkly top.
- Cookies made with macaron flour only (right) were flatter and slightly fudgier.
Both variations tasted delicious though!
Storing Tips:
Baked cookies:
- Store the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Or, you can also freeze them for up to 3 months.
Unbaked cookies:
Unbaked cookie dough balls can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Form the dough balls and arrange them on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, or silicone mat.
- Freeze the dough balls on the baking sheet for about 2 hours.
- Once the dough balls are frozen solid, transfer into a freezer bag.
To bake frozen cookie dough balls:
- Arrange the frozen dough balls on a baking sheet about 1.5 inches apart.
- Bake at 350°F for 15-17 minutes, or until the edges are set and the middles is slightly soft.
Macaron Brownie Cookies
Turn your less than perfect macarons into these rich and indulgent brownie cookies!! It's a truly easy and customizable recipe.
Ingredients
- 300 g macaron shells Note 1
- ¼ cup (30 g) cocoa powder Note 2
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder optional Note 3
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 oz (225 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup (72 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
Instructions
- In a food processor, place macaron shells and process them until finely ground. (You may need to occasionally pulse it to get the stubborn chunks to break down.)
- Add cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder and salt into the macaron flour. Pulse everything a few times until well combined.
- Place chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and melt the chocolate in a microwave. Place the bowl with chocolate chips for 1 minute at 50% power, stir well and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well and microwave again for 15 seconds, if needed. Let the melted chocolate cool slightly.
- In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy.
- Stir in eggs and beat for a minute or so on a medium speed until the mixture is almost combined. (Note: Butter and eggs won't fully combine into smooth mixture, but if they're both at the same room temperature, they'll come close.)
- Add cooled melted chocolate into the butter mixture and whip on medium high speed until well combined, about a minute.
- Now, add dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be super soft, but that's totally normal.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). And line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
- Chill the dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. (No more than 30 minutes, or the mixture will harden too much.)
- Using a medium cookie scoop, drop 1.5-inch balls on prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2-inch space between the cookies.
- Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 12-13 minutes, or until the edges are set and slightly soft in the middle.
- Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Tips & Notes
Note 1: It can be pretty much any flavored macaron shells. And if you don’t quite have 300g of macarons, you can add all-purpose flour for up to 1/3 of the amount for the difference. For example, if you have 200g of macarons, then add 100g of all-purpose flour to make it to 300g. I don’t recommend using more than 100g of flour per batch as it’ll affect the sweetness of the cookies.
Note 2: Use unsweetened cocoa powder, either natural or dutch-processed. Dutch processed cocoa powder produces darker cookies with slightly richer flavor.
Note 3: Instant espresso powder enhances the chocolate flavor, but it doesn’t add coffee flavor. If you don’t have it, skip it.
Nutrition
Servings: 1 cookie
Calories: 68kcal
Carbohydrates: 4g
Protein: 1g
Fat: 5g
Sugar: 3g
Sodium: 39mg
Did you make this?Share a comment or a review below!
Thank you for sharing this recipe Shinee. What a brilliant way to use up failed shells. It’s delicious too. I cut back a little on the semi sweet chocolate tho so it’s not too chocolatey.
Hi, Ruby. So glad you tried this recipe. It’s my favorite! Thank you for your feedback.
Made these with some of my lingering bad Mac shells today. 100% mac flour. They crinkled on the top beautifully and have a soft chewy cookie texture with just a bit of the crisp edge.
My new favorite way to use up those shells in bulk. Great quick and simple recipe.