Chocolate Nutella Macarons

So Ferrero Rocher chocolates are my absolute favorite! I can eat like 10 in a row ( totally not healthy, I know, but so good!!!) Coley and I decided to re-create them in macaron form. They came out so good! 

Chocolate Macaron Shells:
110g blanched slivered almonds or almond meal/flour

• 200g confectioner’s sugar (minus 2 tbsp)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g aged egg whites (3 egg whites), room temperature
• 20g sugar
• finely chopped hazelnuts for garnish

1. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. 
2. Grind the almonds, cocoa, and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor. Grind for 2-3 minutes until fine and like sand in texture. Sift 2-3 times to lighten the dry mixture. Reprocess as needed to get out all of the big pieces of almonds ground down, and lumps out of the sugar. You are looking for the consistency of sand.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer whisk the egg whites until a foam starts to foam. Slowly add in the sugar while mixing and whisk until a medium stiff peak forms. 
4. Sift half of the dry mixture onto the egg whites, and mix in to lighten. Sift in the remaining dry mixture, and begin to gently fold in. Once mostly combined, tip the bowl at a 45° angle. Spread the mixture out on 1/3 of the side surface of the bowl, sweep under and fold it over on it self. Repeat this process 10-12 times. When you reach the 10th time, stop and lift up a spatula full of the mixture if it forms thick ribbons, watch the mixture and count to 10. It should absorb into the rest of the mixture with only slight indication of edges, your mixture it done. It should just very slowly settle on itself.
5. Pour mixture into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe out following your guide pattern. Sprinkle with finely chopped hazelnuts. Gently tap the bottom of your sheet twice to remove air bubbles, and let it set out to dry to form a shell.
6. Bake at 300°F for 18 minutes or until the shells easily lift off of the parchment paper. Once finished baking let cool for 10 minutes then remove from parchment paper. When they are completely cool it will turn off of the parchment quiet easily. If you are using a silpat you can let sit out to cool until you can easily remove from the silpat.
7. Pair up the shells of the same size and flip bottom up to let cool completely before adding in filling.

Nutella Ganache:

2oz. Milk chocolate (Finely chopped)

1/2 cup heavy cream

6 tbsp. nutella

2 1/2 tbsp. finely chopped hazelnuts

Place chocolate and Nutella in a medium-sized heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and Nutella and let sit for 20 seconds. Stir to combine until smooth. Place ganache in the refrigerator until thickened, but still pourable. Make sure to stir a few times during the process so the ganache is a uniform consistency throughout. Using an electric mixer, whip ganache until it is a pipeable consistency and light in color. Add chopped hazelnuts to ganache and whip until combined. Place ganache into a piping bag and pipe a small circle onto one macaron shell. Top it with a similar sized shell and squeeze together carefully.