Macarons with Raspberry Buttercream Filling

For this recipe, and also for all French Macaron recipes, the weight of the ingredients is very important. It is best to use M sized eggs where the egg white must weigh 36 grams. I also wanted to achieve a very saturated, rich red colour and used Wilton red icing colour.

There are two options for making nice, round and equal sized macaron shells. The first option is to use baking parchment and draw circles with a pencil. When you pipe the filling, you must be very careful not to go over the baselines. The thing is, even if you are extremely precise, there is no guarantee that the macaron mixture won’t leak or rise unequally. This way you’ll get uneven shells, and you will find it difficult to match them.

The second option, which we believe is the best way to prepare French macarons, is to use a silicone macaron baking mould. This way the almond mixture won‘t stick during baking and all macaron shells will be the same size.

For piping the macarons and the filling, we use a special silicone piping pot, which is very easy to work with.

Ingredients for 30 French macarons:

150 g powdered sugar
120 g ground almonds
2 egg whites (72 g)
1/8 tsp. salt
Red food colour

Ingredients for the raspberry buttercream filling:

75 g butter, softened
70 g raspberries

Preparation:

Sift the ground almonds. In a separate bowl sift the powdered sugar.
Pour the egg whites into a bowl and add the salt. Beat on the highest level with a stand mixer for 4-5 minutes until you get a thick mixture.
Fold the powdered sugar and the almonds into the meringue and use a spatula to mix.
Finally add the red food colour. Hit the bowl several times on the counter to remove the air bubbles. Leave the macaron meringue to rest for half an hour.
Spoon the mixture into a piping pot fitted with a 1 cm plain nozzle.
Pipe small rounds of the macaron mixture onto a silicone baking mould or baking sheets. Give the mould a sharp tap on the work surface to ensure there is no air trapped in the shells. This will prevent them from cracking during baking.
Leave the macarons to rest for at least half an hour while their surface slightly hardens. You should be able to touch them lightly without any mixture sticking to your finger.
Preheat the oven to 180º C and bake for about 6-8 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully.
For the filling blend the raspberries. Add the softened butter and mix well.
Spoon the cream into a piping pot and pipe a little bit of cream on half of the macaron shells. Sandwich them with the rest of the shells by pressing slightly so that the filling spreads to the outer edge.
French macarons last a long time, but once sandwiched with cream soften quickly, so it is best to store them in a box in the refrigerator.