Ingredients
- 3 large egg whites 100 g, carton or fresh
- ½ cup granulated sugar 105 g
- ¾ cup icing sugar 100 g
- 1 cup almond flour 115 g
- Gel food coloring Maroon and Burgundy, Americolor
- Chocolate coating for decorating
Ganache Filling
- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate 250 g
- ¼ cup raspberry puree 65 g
- ⅓ cup heavy cream 35% 85 g
- 1 ½ tablespoon butter, room temperature 20 g
Instructions
For the macaron shells (Swiss Meringue Method):
- In a medium pot, put about 2 inches of water and bring into a bowl over high heat.
- Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium and keep the water simmering.
- In a medium bowl (preferably stainless steal), add the egg whites and the sugar and whisk to combine.
- Put the bowl over the simmering pot and keep whisking until the temperature of your mixture reaches 50C/122F.
- It should be white, foamy and all the sugar must have been dissolved.
- Using a hand held mixer, whip the whites until they come to medium peaks.
- Add the food coloring (for reference I've used 2 parts of burgundy to 1 part of maroon from Americolor, but add to your taste) and then whip to hard peaks. Set aside.
- On a small bowl, mix the icing sugar and the almond flour until there are no visible lumps of sugar.
- If needed, sift the mixture to ensure there are no big lumps but there's no need to discard the bits of almond flour that sits in the strainer or sifter, whichever you're using.
- Pre-heat your oven to 300F/150C (use an over thermometer to ensure temperature is correct, adjust your temperature accordingly), prepare two aluminium half-trays with parchment paper or silicone mats and one piping bag with a round tip (Wilton 1A works perfectly here).
- Make sure you have an oven rack that sits in the middle of your oven, so it will bake more evenly.
- Add the dry mixture to the meringue ALL AT ONCE.
- Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the meringue until it's fully combined.
- Once it's combined, continue mixing, using a fold and smear motion to deflate the meringue, checking the consistency frequently.
- It should pour from your spatula and once it reaches the bottom of the bowl, it is reabsorbed into the existing batter in 5-10 seconds without showing any peaks or strikes.
- Once consistency is reached, transfer the batter to your prepared piping bag and pipe 1.5 inch rounds into the prepared trays.
- The batter should spread until it reaches about 2 inches but not further (if it does, it means you've overmixed).
- Leave it out to dry the shells for about 10 minutes or until it feels dry to the touch.
- You may pop any bubbles, should it have, with the help of a toothpick.
- Put the tray in the oven and set the timer for 5 minutes.
- Then, open the oven, turn the tray and let it bake for 10 more minutes.
- You may start checking the readiness at the 8-minute mark. The shells are done when they no longer move if you touch them. If they still move, let them bake for 2-3 minutes more, checking every minute and always turning the tray.
- Remove the tray from the oven and let the shells cool down properly before removing them from the parchment paper.
- Each shell should have it's own "pair" even if you don't use a stencil for piping. Make sure to find the pairs before piping the filling.
For the ganache:
- Bring the raspberry puree and the cream into an almost boil.
- Pour over the chocolate and wait for 1-2 minutes until partially melted then whisk to combine.
- Add the butter and emulsify with a hand held blender.
- Let it come to room temperature, then transfer to a piping bag to pipe into the macarons.
- To decorate, melt a little bit of chocolate coating (not couverture) and transfer to a small piping bag and cut a little hole in the tip of the bag.
- Once macarons are properly filled, place them in a parchment-lined tray and pipe chocolate strikes over all the macarons.
- Let the chocolate set before moving them out of the tray.
