It’s the lead up to Valentine’s Day and after only posting two new recipes so far this year, I have THREE (!!!) new macaron recipes just to celebrate the season of love. First up? These raspberries & champagne macarons!
These babies were 100% inspired by my strawberries & champagne macarons. It felt like the right time for another berry to join in on the boozy fun!
Raspberries & Champagne Macarons
The one thing that pushes these macarons over the top? The addition of raspberry powder to the shells. You guys, it gives the shells the BEST raspberry flavour. You do still need to add some pink or red food colouring, otherwise the shells will be an unattractive brown colour (I’m speaking from personal experience here, ok?). But just a little bit of raspberry powder really gives these macarons the extra punch of raspberry flavour.
Just like with our strawberry counterpart, we’re filling these macs with both a champagne buttercream and a homemade raspberry champagne jam. If you don’t want to make your own jam, feel free to just use whatever raspberry jam you can get your hands on. You can’t taste the champagne in the jam, but it does give it a little something extra.
For these raspberries & champagne macarons, I didn’t write the cute little messages on them like I did before. You absolutely can if you want to, but stay tuned later this week for a new recipe with the same cute messages!
I highly recommend making these, or any macaron, for your Valentine this year. You’ll impress them, for sure!
Raspberries & Champagne Macarons
Ingredients
- Shells:
- 275g almond flour
- 240g powdered sugar
- 10g raspberry powder
- 210g sugar
- 210g egg whites
- Pink/red food colouring
- Raspberry Champagne Jam:
- 1 pound raspberries
- 1/2 cup champagne (or cava)
- 5 tbsp. sugar
- Champagne Buttercream:
- 1 cup + 1 tbsp. champagne or cava
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Directions
- Step 1 Shells:
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour, powdered sugar, and raspberry powder in a food processor and blend thoroughly. Sift into a bowl to ensure there are no lumps.
- Step 3 In the bowl of a stand mixer (make sure it’s clean and dry), beat the egg whites until foamy. Slowly add the sugar, about 2 tbsp at a time, beating on a medium speed. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase speed to medium high and beat until a thick glossy meringue forms. Add pink food colouring and beat to combine. The mixture should form stiff peaks and you should be able to tip the bowl over your head with none of the mixture coming out.
- Step 4 With a large, flat rubber spatula, gently fold 1/3 of almond flour/powdered sugar mixture into egg whites until combined. Repeat until all of the almond mixture has been added. Fold to combine until you see no streaks of almond flour in the batter. The batter should be pretty fluid, a lot of people describe as a lava-like consistency. It should run smoothly off the spatula when you pull it out. This part comes with practice. Once you know the consistency, you’ll just be able to feel when it’s ready.
- Step 5 Pipe the batter into circles onto parchment or silicone lined baking sheets. Bang the tray a few times on a table to remove air bubbles and allow to sit for about 30 minutes before baking. To see if they’re ready for baking, touch your finger to them. If you get batter on your finger, they need to rest longer.
- Step 6 While resting, preheat your oven to 300°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 15-18 minutes (this depends on your oven, my old one was fine at 15 minutes, this one needs 17-18). The shells should cool completely before you remove them from the parchment/silicone.
- Step 7 Raspberry Champagne Jam:
- Step 8 Place ingredients in a pot and cook on low heat until thick and pasty, stirring to prevent burning.
- Step 9 Once cooked, transfer to a jar to cool.
- Step 10 Champagne Buttercream:
- Step 11 Place 1 cup of champagne/cava in a small saucepan. Simmer until reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Transfer to a small bowl to cool.
- Step 12 In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together the butter and powdered sugar until light, thick and fluffy. Pour in the reduced 2 tbsp. of champagne/cava and add one tbsp. directly from the bottle. Mix well to combine.
- Step 13 Assembly:
- Step 14 Pair up shells. If you want to write messages on your shells use food-safe markers to do so now. On one half of each pair, pipe a ring of buttercream along the outer edge of the shell. Fill buttercream ring with a dollop of the strawberry champagne jam and sandwich together. Refrigerate in an airtight container overnight to let the flavours develop.
