Pretty in pink!
These eye-catching delights are naturally gluten-free (yay!) and the potential flavours for macarons are endless. They’re such a fun bake to explore.
I’ve chosen the dreamy flavour combination of raspberry and white chocolate as it’s a definite favourite of mine and such a classic! The tartness of the raspberries compliments the gorgeous creaminess of white chocolate ever so well. It’ll be hard not to eat the ganache straight from the bowl!
This chocolate ganache is so versatile too. You could use it to frost cakes, fill chocolates or even whip it up with a hand mixer (once it’s cooled down) for a decadent cake filling!
This recipe will take approx. 3 h to make (including resting time) and makes around 24 macarons.
Ingredients:
For the macarons:
- 60 g almond flour
- 115 g icing sugar
- 60 g (aged) egg whites
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- 30 g granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the white chocolate & raspberry ganache:
- 60 g raspberries (fresh or thawed from frozen)
- 110 g white chocolate, chopped
- 80 g double cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Decorating options:
- Dip top shell in royal icing coloured pink
- Dip shell in melted white chocolate (coloured optional)
- sprinkles!
Useful Equipment: 2 baking trays, each with a macaron mat on top (if you don’t have a macaron mat, place a sheet of baking paper on each tray and draw out circle templates with a diameter of 3 cm – you can use a cookie cutter to do this), hand/stand mixer with whisk attachments, stainless steel or glass mixing bowl, piping bag with a round nozzle, food processor (optional), sieve, spatula, cocktail sticks, blender/potato masher, small saucepan, heatproof bowl
Useful Tips:
- For best results, age your egg whites. This can be done by separating your eggs the day before and placing the egg whites uncovered in the fridge overnight.
- Bring your eggs to room temperature before whisking.
- Wipe your stainless steel or glass bowl with kitchen towel dampened with lemon juice before whisking your egg whites. This helps to ensure you get the best peaks!
- You need your dry ingredients to be as fine as possible. Blend them together in a food processor or push them through a seive a couple of times before combining with the egg. This is how the macarons get their shiny shell.
- Pay attention not to over-whisk your egg whites. This can cause your shells to crack apart during baking (too much air!). You need to get them to the thick and glossy stage.
- Leaving your macarons to dry out before baking is crucial for getting the smooth shell. If they are not dry, they are likely to crack when baking. Once you can touch the top of the shells without it sticking, they have dried enough.
- If you’re becoming a bit of a macaron pro, I highly recommend investing in an oven thermometer. This way you will know exactly what temperature your oven is at (it can vary so much, believe me!) and will have more control over the perfect macaron finish.
Please don’t hesitate to send me a message via the contact page or on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) if you need any advice or help troubleshooting your macarons!
Method:
Making the shells:
- Sift together the almond flour and icing sugar.If you have one, blend them together in a food processor to create a fine powder-like texture.
- In a clean stainless steel or glass bowl, whisk the egg whites on low until frothy. Gradually add the granulated sugar (one third at a time) and increase the speed of whisking to high.
- Whisk the egg whites until you can see lines forming as the whisk moves, then add the cream of tartar.
- Whisk until stiff peaks form. It should be thick and glossy. At this point, add your vanilla extract.
- Add in a third of your dry ingredients and fold until combined. Add the rest and continue to fold. As you do so, push your spatula down as you turn the bowl – the aim is to remove some of the air trapped in the mixture.
- Repeat this movement until the batter starts to fall like ribbons. This is a key step to get right as under-mixing can upset the texture of the shells. Pick up some batter with your spatula and let it fall off the end. If it is falling like a ribbon, try drawing a figure of 8. If the batter doesn’t break whilst doing this then it is ready. If it does, keep folding until the ribbon stage is reached. It should fall quite slowly.
- Place the mixture into a piping bag with a round nozzle and pipe onto your macaron mat/template. Try piping straight down into the centre of the circle to achieve a circular shaped macaron.
- Lift the tray about 10 cm off the surface and drop it down onto the table. Do this a couple of times to bring any air bubbles to the surface. You can then smoothen the top with a cocktail stick.
- Let the macarons sit at room temperature until dry on top. This can take from 30 mins to 2 hrs depending on the room. You will know they are ready when you can touch the top and it isn’t sticky.
- Whilst the macarons are drying, preheat the oven to 150 °C fan/320 °F.
- Bake for 14-15 mins or until lightly browned on top. Cool completely on the tray.
Assembling and decorating:
- For the ganache, blend (or mash) the raspberries to form a puree and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds. Place the chopped chocolate, cream and vanilla into a heatproof bowl and either heat together over a bain marie or in the microwave. Add the strained raspberries and stir to combine. Let it cool until it is the consistency of thick peanut butter before placing in a piping bag.
- In order to get neat looking macarons, try and pair similarly shaped shells together. Pipe the ganache onto the bottom shell and sandwich with the top.
- Decorate your macarons however you fancy! I decided to dip my shells in pink royal icing followed by lots of pink sprinkles! You could also use some melted white chocolate or instead of dipping the top shell, you could drizzle it on top. Enjoy!
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