Macarons - raspberry and pistachio

After a break that has been way too long I am finally back! Unfortunately I was not really able to find time for baking and blogging in addition to my vocational training. But now I am finally a fully approved teacher and I can enjoy life again! So to treat myself a little I made a big batch of French macarons.

Voilà!

For about 14 raspberry macarons (meringues) you will need:

• 50 g (1.8 oz) peeled almonds
• 75 g (2.6 oz) icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg white
• 1 pinch of salt
• 20 g (0.7 oz) sugar
• red food colouring

For the filling you will need:

• 100 g (3.6 oz) softened butter
• 50 g (1.8 oz)  raspberries
• 1 tbsp raspberry syrup

1. For the macarons, pulverize the almonds with a blender until you get a very fine powder. Add the icing sugar and pulse some more. Add the baking powder.

2. In a seperate bowl whisk the egg white with the salt until soft peaks form. Then add the sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. 

(Tip: You need an absolutely fat-free bowl, so you may want to rub the bowl with a halfed lemon before whisking the egg.)

Very carefully fold in the almond mixture, using a wooden spoon. If you wish, add some red food colouring to achieve a nice pink hue.

3. Fill a piping bag with the macaron mixture and pipe 28 dots of 4cm (1.5 inch) in diameter onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 

(Tip: To achieve very even dots, draw circles onto the rear side of your baking paper using a pencil).

Gently tap the tray onto the work surface a couple of times to break any bubbles.

Let the macarons rest for about an hour for them to develop a soft skin that will give them their typical shape with the little "foot" or base.

4. Prehat your oven to 150 °C (302 F). Bake the macarons for about 12 to 15 minutes but make sure they do not brown. Allow to cool.

5. For the buttercream filling, beat the softened until it is pale and fluffy. Blend the raspberries with the raspberry syrup and add mixture spoonwise to the butter. Refridgerate for an hour. 

Fill a piping bag with the buttercream and pipe onto macaron, sandwich together with a second one. Proceed like this with the rest of your macarons. Allow to set for about 2 hours.

For the pistachio macarons you can use the the above recipe as well, but need to adjust some ingredients:

For the meringue mixture substitute half of the almonds with finely ground pistachios and add some green food colouring instead of the pink one, if you like. 

To make the buttercream, use (store-bought) pistachio butter or a pistachio spread instead of the raspberries and syrup.