PISTACHIO MACARONS
Category
Pistachio Macarons
Servings
24
Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Calories
70
Classic pistachio macarons,
Author:Mon Dessert
Ingredients
72g sachet ground almonds
108g sachet British icing sugar
40g sachet Caster sugar
2g green food colouring
70g sachet Rainforest Alliance vegan white chocolate drops
30g pistachios
60g egg whites*
60ml full fat milk (dairy or oat)
* Use aquafaba and a pinch of cream of tartar if making a plant based macaron. Please note that aquafaba can be a little more unstable than egg white
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Macaron mat
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Piping bag
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Small connector
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Nozzle
Ingredients included
Ingredients you will need to add
Recommended equipment to add
Directions
Filling
Open the pistachio bag and chop the pistachio finely or put in a pestle and mortar till you have a finer powder.
Spoon out 1 teaspoons or 5g of the pistachio and keep to one side.
Pour the whole milk into a saucepan, add the remaining pistachio and gently heat until it starts to bubble and infuse.
Put the white chocolate into a non-metallic bowl then add your heated mixture and whisk vigorously until you have a smooth consistency. If you find that your chocolate is not completely melted, pop your bowl into the microwave for 15-second bursts and whisk until the chocolate has melted.
Put the bowl in the freezer to cool and thicken. Check after 1 hour and whisk, it should be the consistency and thickness of buttercream icing so that it is easily pipeable. If not quite there, put it back in for another 30 mins- 1 hours further.
The macaron shells
Meanwhile, using a wooden spoon as a wedge if needed, open your oven door by 1-2cm and heat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2/ 300°F. Alternatively, if your oven is a well-ventilated fan oven you can have the door closed and lower the temperature to 120°C/gas mark ½/250°F
Lay the macaron baking mat onto a large baking tray. Alternatively you can use parchment paper. Note the macaron will take less time to bake on parchment, but it will be more difficult to pipe and get a uniform shape.
Place the piping bag pointy end down, into a tall glass. Slightly tilt upwards so that the mixture doesn’t fall through.
Carefully separate out 60ml of egg whites or aquafaba (approx. 2 large eggs) into a clean mixing bowl or a freestanding mixer.
Add to the egg whites: The 40g caster sugar and the spirulina powder. Adjust this to your desired colour preference. If you prefer a paler macaron add less. Note that we have decided to use natural food colours with no nasties. So this will not be as vibrant as some artificially coloured macarons. There may also be a faint taste coming through. Although it is very negligible with such a small amount of spirulina.
Using an electric whisk, whisk the ingredients together on a high speed for 5 minutes. Once complete, turn your whisk to face upwards and check that the ‘peaks’ in the mixture are very stiff (they should remain upright unaided). You now have a green meringue mixture. If you do not have an electric whisk you can do this by hand, but you will need to really whisk vigorously and potentially have to whisk for at least 10-15 mins until you have stiff peaks as described above.
Empty the macaron mix into a bowl. Sieve out obvious lumps. The almond will not go through a fine sieve but that is ok, you just want to get rid of any obvious large bits (over 3mm diameter).Once the macaron mix is lump free empty the dry contents into the meringue.
Now comes the crucial part of mixing the batter. Do this by scooping the mixture up with your spatula and pressing it back down into the centre of the bowl. Repeat this action 30 times, rotating the bowl as you go. With the spatula raised, you should now see a treacle-like ribbon of batter that takes about 20 seconds to fall back into the batter. If it is thicker than this, fold again and re-check until the consistency is perfect. It should be smooth and shiny with no grainy bits.
When you have the right consistency, pour the mixture into the piping bag, keeping it in the glass. Pick up the bag with one hand on the nozzle end, and the other hand sealing the open end in a twist. Pipe batter onto each of the cavities on the macaron baking mat. Pipe generous rounds (circular disks of mixture) 1mm outside of the inner circles of the macaron baking mat. Or 3.5 cm diameter rounds on parchment paper.
Pipe using a slight swirling motion from the centre of the round to disperse the batter, or pipe using a 45-degree angle. Experiment and see what works better for you. Take your time. The key is to get control of the flow of the mixture. Tilt the bag upward if you feel it starts oozing out too much.
Remove any air bubbles by tapping the baking mat firmly against your kitchen counter several times, rotating the sheet as you go. When complete, the macarons will form perfect circular rounds in the grooves of the mat. If they do not you may need to tease them a little with a teaspoon.
Sprinkle the pistachio you kept aside onto half of the macaron shells.
Let the macarons rest on your kitchen counter until the tops form a skin. They are ready to bake when you touch the tops of the rounds, and the mixture doesn’t stick to your finger. Depending on humidity, this will take around 15-30 minutes. You want to make sure they are dry.
Put your macarons into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check if the macarons come away from the mat easily. If not, return them to the oven for 5-10 minutes at a time and keep rechecking.The easiest way to take them off the mat is to flip the mat onto a tea towel (so shells are upside down) and peel the mat away. Note with a macaron mat it is not always the case that the underside is completely smooth, but rather they are quite porous. We actually prefer this as the shell absorbs the flavour of the filling more this way.
Cool the macarons upside down for 10 minutes or until completely hardened.
Assembly and decoration
Turn the pistachio encrusted shells the right way up. Leave the other half upside down.
Whisk the filling and make sure it is a pipable consistency. It needs to be firm enough to hold its shape yet not too firm that it is impossible to pipe. Like buttercream.
Pipe a 10p sized blob of filling onto each upturned half of the macaron shells. Try to pair up shells according to size and form sandwiches twist rather than pushing them together otherwise they may break.
Your beautiful macarons are finished! You can enjoy them straight away, but they are even better 24-48 hours later. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before you serve them.
This process is called “ageing” and softens the inside of the shells, whilst keeping the outer shells crisp. Yummy
Storage and batching advice
Your macarons can be enjoyed for up to 7 days (if kept refrigerated). You can also freeze them 48 hours after they are made and bring them out when you have guests that you would like to impress! Make sure you defrost them for at least 1 hours at room temperature before eating.
Recipe Video
Recipe Note
This videos shows our chocolate macaron recipe, but will give you a good visual guide to how to make caramel macarons too. For the longer form video tutorial, click here.
*All sachets are recyclable at all major supermarkets. Simply keep them with the rest of your supermarket bags and they will be recycled.*Wash any new equipment that is in contact with food throughly.
Allergens: Nuts
Ingredients contained in kit: Sugar, Ground Almonds, Vegan White Chocolate (Cocoa Butter, Rice Syrup, Rice Starch, Rice Flour, Sugar, Natural Flavouring), Pistachios (10.8%), Spirulina Powder
*Risk of trace particles from manufacturing of- Wheat, Sesame, Soy, Peanuts, Milk
Nutrition
Calories 70, Fat 3.8 grams, Saturated Fat 1.1 grams, Carbs 8.1 grams, Sugar 7.2 grams, Protein 1.3 grams
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