Over the last few weeks, I’ve been running a bunch of different instagram polls to find out what sort of content people are interested in seeing on the blog. One of these polls was whether or not people prefer fruity or chocolatey macarons. Fruity macarons narrowly won, and these raspberry macarons were born!
You guys, these are SO GOOD. After making these, I have so many plans for more raspberry-infused macarons. Prepare yourselves!
Fruity macarons usually use fresh fruit in the filling, either in jam or a buttercream. I love those, but they usually result in soggy macarons after a while and no one wants that. Instead, these use a raspberry chocolate that is truly to-die-for!
By now, you probably all know about my love for Valrhona chocolate. It really is the best. Expensive, but so worth it.
The ganache for these macarons uses their Raspberry Inspiration chocolate and I just want to keep using it forever. I’ve made cookies using their strawberry inspiration, but I think I might prefer the raspberry. It’s incredible!
I’ll be putting together a macaron troubleshooting post soon. These seem like intimidating little cookies, but I promise you can master them! You know the cliche: practice makes perfect? It really is true with these bad boys. The more you practice, the better you’ll get! It took me YEARS to start getting consistent results. I want to make it easier for you.
But back to these macs! They’ve won the approval of my most trusted taste-testers, coming in a close second to last week’s updated lemon macarons.
So much raspberry flavour you’ll think you’re eating a fresh raspberry. These are really just so, so good. You don’t have to wait around for raspberry season to enjoy these. Grab some raspberry chocolate and enjoy these all year round!
Raspberry Macarons
Ingredients
- Shells:
- 275g almond flour
- 250g confectioners' sugar
- 210g egg whites
- 210g sugar
- Few drops red/pink food colouring gel
- Filling:
- 250g Valrhona raspberry inspiration
- 250g heavy whipping cream
Directions
- Step 1 Shells:
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour and powdered sugar 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 food colouring and beat briefly 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 (if adding sprinkles, add prior to resting). 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 Filling:
- Step 8 Heat the cream until hot, but not boiling.
- Step 9 Put the chocolate in a separate bowl and pour the hot cream over it. Allow it to stand for 1 minute before mixing. Let it sit at room temperature until it reaches your desired piping consistency.
- Step 10 Assembly:
- Step 11 Pair up the macaron shells.
- Step 12 Once the ganache is ready, pipe some ganache onto one half of each pair, then sandwich together.
