White Chocolate Raspberry Macarons

Ingredients:

• 70g (2.5oz) of egg whites (±3 medium eggs, but you should still go by weight)

• 70g (2.5oz) almond flour

• 90g (3.2oz) powdered sugar

• 70g (2.5oz) granulated sugar (preferably white, cane is ok too) 

• Red gel food coloring

• 65g (2.3oz) real white chocolate 

• 20g (0.7oz) heavy whipping cream

• 170g (6oz) of fresh raspberries

• 2 more tablespoons of granulated sugar

Materials:

• Baking sheet, 

• (Stand) Mixer with whisk attachment

• Food processer

• Baking paper (silicone baking sheet)

• Paper guide for pipping

• Piping bag or ziplock bag

• Piping tip

Part I: The shells

In a bowl, mix the powdered sugar and almond flour until combined. 

Pour the mixture into the food processor and pulse until no clumps remain and the powder is very fine. (Pulsing generally helps to not overmix/grind the almond flour, avoiding excreting extra oils that throw off   the dry/wet ingredient balance.)

Sift the mixture back into its original bowl to ensure smooth macaron shells. 

TIP: If some pieces of almond flour don’t pass smoothly, it is better to toss them in the trash then risking the macaron shells. 

Pour the egg whites into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and add 30g (1.1oz) of your granulated sugar. 

Start mixing on low speed until you can still distinguish hundreds of small bubbles in the egg whites, but they are not yet opaque. 

Then, while mixing, add half of the remaining granulated sugar (20g/0.7oz) and increase the speed slightly (not to the max, though), then continue mixing. 

Once the mixture becomes opaque white, add the remaining sugar (20g/0.7oz) and increase the speed to the maximum.

Continue beating until your egg whites form stiff, white peaks that hold their shape in all angles. 

TIP: If you are worried about overmixing the final batter, it is better to add all the sugar at the beginning, as this will make for a more stable, denser French meringue. However, the shells will be hollow on the inside.

Add some red food coloring to the meringue.  Fold it in gently until mostly incorporated using a circular motion, scraping the bottom, then the sides of your bowl. 

Add the dry ingredients and fold them in gently until fully combined (no pockets of dry ingredients in your meringue), checking the texture periodically. 

The texture should be “lava-like”, which is admittedly a strange description for food. This means a batter that slides off the spatula when lifted slowly, forming one thick “ribbon” (not in pieces or choppy) that slowly reincorporates into the batter (± 10 seconds before fully reincorporating).

Undermixing means you have too much air in your batter, meaning it holds its shape too well, giving choppy ribbons of batter when dropped or not reincorporating/self-leveling. This can be remedied by continuing to fold for a longer time, adding a hint of non-greasy fluid (eg: few drops of water), and continuing the folding until achieving the “lava-texture”.

Overmixing, on the other hand, occurs when there is no longer sufficient air in the mixture, making the batter runny and thin, and not holding its shape well or at all. This can not be remedied and could have multiple causes, such as too high water/fluid content (eg, food coloring or oils from the almond flour).

TIP: In case of uncertainty or confusion air on the side of undermixing rather than overmixing.

Now that the batter is ready, prepare the baking sheet with a sheet of baking paper and a macaron piping guide underneath. 

Fill a piping bag with or without a large round piping tip and start piping the macarons.

Start in the center of the circles on the guide. 

Pipe until you reach the edge of the designated circle and a height between 0.7 and 1 cm (the diameter should be 3 - 5 cm). 

Once the shells are piped, apologize to your household and/or downstairs neighbors, as you will be banging the baking sheet on the countertops to eliminate excess air bubbles. Bang the baking sheet 4 times in one direction, rotate it by 90°, and repeat until you have done all 4 sides. 

TIP: Instead of using a piping bag, you could use a large ziplock bag and cut one of the bottom corners.

TIP: Be careful to not pipe the shells too close to each other, or the edge of the backing paper, as they risk merging or having an uneven bottom as they spread slightly.  

Let the shells dry slightly, creating a film on the surface that doesn’t stick to a slight touch (10-30 minutes).

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300° F.

Once both are ready, bake the shells for 12-15 minutes, depending on the oven. Turn off the oven and let them cool inside for 3 minutes, then take them out and let them cool gradually under the cloth. 

Part II: The fillings 

Meanwhile, make the fillings:

First, make the raspberry concentrate. 

Rinse the raspberries, then put them into a small pan with 2 tablespoons of sugar. 

Place the pan over medium-low heat. 

With a (wooden) spoon, mash the raspberries and mix them with the sugar. 

Continue mashing and mixing until a fine ‘purée,’ and most of the water content has evaporated, leaving a viscous mixture without burning the raspberries. It should be able to hold the shape of a line of missing purée when coating the back of the spoon.

Remove the pan from the heat and push most of the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds, catching the remaining mixture in a small bowl. 

Set aside and let cool.

Now start to make the white chocolate ganache

In a bowl, combine the white chocolate, broken into small pieces, with the heavy whipping cream.

Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water.

Mix the chocolate and cream until the chocolate has fully melted and combined with the cream.

Remove the bowl from the heat (and pot of simmering water).

Let it cool slightly, then transfer it to a new piping bag with a very small round tip.

Part III: Assembly

Once the macaron shells are cool, gently peel them off the baking sheet.

Match similarly sized/shaped ones together. 

Take one shell of the pair and flip it so the flat side is up. At ±0.4 cm from the edge, pipe a circle (don’t fill it in) of white chocolate ganache.

Fill the center with raspberry purée, then place the second shell on top and squeeze gently. Place the finished macaron on a large plate. 

Repeat the process until all macarons are done. 

TIP: For them to be at their best, you truly should refrigerate them for at least 12 hours before serving and eating. 

Enjoy!