My birthday was yesterday and I thought about making myself tiramisu. As we all know though, my obsession with macarons runs deep and so these tiramisu macarons were born!
These are nice bite-size morsels of tiramisu. If I’m honest, they’re a little more finicky to make the regular tiramisu, but they have all of the delicious flavours in one little treat.
We got a little boozy with these bad boys because your birthday only comes around once a year, right? I put a nice, hefty tablespoon of Kahlua in with the mascarpone filling. If you don’t like Kahlua, don’t have it, or don’t want to use alcohol, you can substitute with coffee or espresso.
Tiramisu is typically made with lady fingers, mascarpone, coffee and cocoa powder. For these tiramisu macarons, we’re pretending the shells are the lady fingers. They have a coffee kick to them – if too much coffee isn’t your thing, I’d skip it in the shells and just keep it in the filling. These are the same shells I used for my espresso dark chocolate macarons. Don’t mess with a good thing, ya know?
Mascarpone frosting is really light and fluffy. We’re making it extra fluffy (and flavourful) by adding Kahlua. It’s a coffee liqueur made with rum, sugar, and coffee. If you’ve got it, use it!
I wanted to keep really light on the cocoa powder so I just sprinkled it on top of the shells. It gives the shells a nice look and gives us the hint of chocolate we’re looking for.
You guys, these are literally perfect. They were a great birthday treat, but honestly, they’d be good any time of year, whether you’re celebrating something or not.
Grab your ingredients and run to the kitchen to make these tiramisu macarons. You can get your fix of tiramisu anytime you want!
Tiramisu Macarons
Ingredients
- Macaron Shells:
- 275g almond flour
- 245g powdered sugar
- 5g espresso powder
- 210g aged egg whites
- 210g sugar
- Cocoa powder, for sprinkling on top
- Mascarpone Filling:
- 1/4 cup cold heavy whipping cream
- 6 oz. mascarpone
- 1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp. Kahlua
Directions
- Step 1 Shells:
- Step 2 To start, put the almond flour, powdered sugar, and espresso 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. 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, sprinkle with cocoa powder, 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 Filling:
- Step 8 Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Step 9 Add the mascarpone, powdered sugar, and Kahlua and beat until combined and you’ve reached a pipable consistency.
- Step 10 Assembly:
- Step 11 Match shells of the same size to form pairs. On one half of each pair, pipe the mascarpone frosting, then sandwich together.
- Step 12 To store, keep in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to a week. Or, freeze for up to 3 months, thawing before eating.
