Hazelnut Macarons

Hazelnuts are one of my favorite nuts, and they abound where I come from. Suffice it to say that hazelnuts to Turks are what peanuts to Americans. So I could not possibly finalize my experimentation with macarons without trying my hand at hazelnut macarons. To make these, I used Clement's macaron batter recipe and substituted an equal amount of hazelnuts for almonds. (By the way, I did a couple of things differently. First of all, I used room temperature egg whites without letting them dry overnight. I let the piped macarons dry for an hour and baked them at 350F for 10 minutes without rotating. The oven door was closed during baking.)

For the filling, I used the hazelnut spread we bought from a Turkish supermarket. Those spreads are delicious but overly sweet. I was cautious and tried to use it sparingly, but still these otherwise delicious macarons turned out to be a tad too sweet for my taste. Not so for the men in my house, they thought that they are the best macarons so far.