The macaron craze is sweeping the nation. This elegant French pastry is gaining ever-more attention thanks to growing macaron bakeries around the US as well as its inclusion in popular cooking shows like Masterchef. We’re happy it’s final made its splash across the pond!
The Macaron is a sweet, meringue-based confection with a smooth, creamy filling in the middle. It’s a soft and luxurious sandwich cookie that comes in all different colors and flavors.The stories goes that this pastry has been around since the 1500s. Today’s recipe will utilize a delicious raspberry buttercream filling, but feel free to experiment with all sorts of delicious filling combinations– there are endless possibilities!
Macarons
(makes about 16 cookies)
Ingredients:
Pastry
- 3 egg whites (room temperature. Achieved by leaving the eggs in water for about 5 minutes before cracking)
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 cup finely ground almonds (or almond flour)
- A pinch of salt
- Food coloring of your choice (optional)
Raspberry Buttercream
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 285F and line a backing sheet with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer, or a bowl and using a hand mixer beat the egg whites until foamy, then beat in the white sugar until the egg whites are glossy and hold soft peaks.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour, then quickly fold the mixture into the egg whites (it should take about 30 strokes).
- Take a pastry bag (or alternatively use a large Ziploc bag and cut a corner off), and use it to pipe some of the batter onto the baking sheet as a test. If the disc of batter holds a peak instead of flattening, fold the batter a few more times then retry.
- Once the batter flattens immediately after piping, spoon the rest into the pastry bag and pipe the batter onto the baking sheet. They should form about 16 rounds.
- Let the batter rest for about 1 hour or until they form a hard skin on top.
- Bake the cookies until set, but not browned. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes. Let them cool before adding the buttercream.
- To make the buttercream, whip the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
- Slowly add sugar.
- Add the raspberries to a saucepan with a splash of water and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes until raspberries are cooked down.
- Work the raspberries through a sieve held over a separate bowl to extract the seeds. You want to extract about 3 tbsp of juice. Use more raspberries if necessary.
- Add the juice to the butter cream, then whip until combined.
- add the cream to a pastry bag fitted with a small tip. Reverse the cookie shells onto their backs.
- Pipe a small mound of filling in the center of one of them, then top with another shell.
- Serve immediately, or store in fridge until serving time.
- Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from: Elle at All Recipes and Whisk It For a Biscuit for buttercream