Ingredients for the macaron shell:

• 150g of almond meal
• 150g of hazelnut meal 
• 300g of icing sugar
• 300g of caster sugar 
• 75ml of water 
• 2x 110g of egg whites  (room temperature)

 Ingredients for the hazelnut and chocolate ganache filling:

• 300g of cooking milk chocolate - preferably chocolate chips/buttons or chopped up or grated (option: replace a portion with dark chocolate so it's not as sweet)
• 200ml of thickened cream 
• 50g of butter - diced
• 50g of hazelnut meal or chopped hazelnut pieces

 Method for hazelnut chocolate ganache

1. Place the chocolate in a large bowl 
2. In a saucepan, bring the cream to the boil 
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Whisk to combine. 
4. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then add the diced butter and combine well until smooth
5. Optional: add chopped hazelnuts or hazelnut meal 
6. Cover the ganache with cling wrap, with the cling wrap in contact with the surface of the ganache so a skin doesn't form 
7. Refrigerate until firm

Method for macaron shell:

1. Combine the hazelnut meal, almond meal and icing sugar, preferably in a food processor.  If you don't have a food processor like myself, be prepared to sift the mixture several times to make sure it is fine.
2. Mix the first portion of egg whites with the dry ingredients until well combined (Refer right) and set aside
3. In a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil.
4. As it is starting to boil, start beating the remaining portion of the egg whites until soft peaks
5. Once the sugar syrup reaches approximately 115-118°C, take off the heat and slowly begin to pour the syrup in a thin stream down the side of the bowl into the egg whites. Continue to beat egg whites while doing this. (This is the hardest step for me, since I have a hand held mixer and have to multi-task all these steps at once. I highly suggest if you don't have a stand alone mixer, you get someone to help you!). The egg whites should thicken up and form a meringue mixture.
6. Continue to beat the meringue mixture for approximately10 minutes so it cools.
7. Using a spatula, add approximately a third of the meringue into the previous mixture containing the hazelnut meal, almond meal, icing sugar and egg whites. Fold through until the mixture begins to loosen.
8. Fold in the remaining meringue until well combined. The mixture should slowly fall off the spatula.
9. Now the mixture is ready to pipe! I find it best to draw a stencil of circles onto baking paper. You can make the circles however big or small you want. Make sure there is equal amount of space between each circle, approximately 2-3cm.
10. Place the stencil underneath another sheet of baking paper and start piping. Best way to pipe is to hold the piping bag in one position and pipe straight down.  You can then remove the stencil and reuse it to keep piping.
11. For decoration, I sprinkled some leftover hazelnut meal on top of the macaron shells.
12. Before putting the macarons into the oven, leave them at room temperature for approximately 30 minutes. You will be able to see the skin or you can gently touch the surface with your finger and it should not stick.
13. While waiting for the skin to form, preheat the oven to approximately 135°C.
14. Bake the macarons for approximately 14-16 minutes.
15. Remove from the oven and set aside for 2 minutes.
16. Let the shells cool and then start pairing them up according to size. The shells should come off easily from the baking paper but you may put them on a dampened bench top to make it easier to remove.
17. Start piping the hazelnut chocolate filling. Pipe the mixture onto one shell then sandwich it with the other shell. Voila!
18. Refrigerate overnight before eating; it makes it tastes so much chewier!

I had so much ganache left, I also quickly made bite sized cupcakes! I used this recipe, but just added extra milk to make the mixture a bit runnier.
With my macaron recipe I had help from these references:

• Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal
• Zumbarons: A fantasy land of macarons by Adriano Zumbo