Cherry Macarons

Hello friends! Today I am bringing these Cherry Macarons to the blog! Check them out!

To make these Cherry Macarons, I decided to go with a chocolate shell. I didn’t add too much cocoa powder to it, because I didn’t want it to be too dark.

The filling of these Cherry Macarons is a Cherry buttercream, so delicious you’ll want to eat it with a spoon!

To make these Cherry Macarons, I piped my macaron shells a bit larger than usual. Because I wanted a lot of room on the macaron shell so I could pipe some Cherry buttercream and place a cherry on top. Because everything is just better with a cherry on top.

While my macarons cooled down after baking, I made my cherry buttercream. So easy to make, specially if you use store-bought jam. I used homemade and included a recipe below. But feel free to use whatever kind you would like. Don’t go overboard with the amount of jam you are adding to the buttercream, or it might make it way too runny, which almost happened to mine.

These cherry macarons made me feel super fancy! And I am loving the pink filling.

If you want more macaron ideas and flavors, please check out my macaron recipes!

Here are some of my favorites:

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons
• Blueberry Macarons
• Cookie Dough Macarons
• Dulce de Leche Pecan Macarons
• Toffee Macarons
• Blackberry Macarons
• Strawberry Macarons
• Pomegranate Macarons
• Raspberry Macarons

If you are new to making macarons and want to learn more, you can check out my youtube channel, with some macaron tutorial videos I started to post. And also there are tones of resources on my blog, tips, explanations, frequently asked questions throughout my posts!

Make sure to read the recipe carefully, and understand that mastering macarons is a journey, and you will end up finding what works best for you, as you dive deeper into this adventure. Sometimes, the same things that work for me might not work for you and vice-versa, but in any case, each time you attempt something, if you take both victory and failure as a learning lesson, you will advance much faster.

Have a great day! Thanks for reading my blog!

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Cherry Macarons

Cherry Macarons with cherry buttercream filling!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Keyword cherry, macarons

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 30 minutes

Servings 26 cookies

Calories 140 kcal

Ingredients

Chocolate Macaron Shells

• 3   egg whites  100 grams, 3.5 oz
• 1/2   cup   white sugar  100 grams, 3.5 oz
• 1   cup   almond flour  96 grams, 3.4 oz
• 1/2   cup   plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar  75 grams, 2.64 oz
• 2 1/2   tablespoons   cocoa powder 14 grams, 0.8 oz

Cherry Buttercream

• 1/4 cup cream cheese softened (2 oz, 56 grams)
• 1/4 cup butter softened
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons cherry jam store-bought, or homemade- check below

Cherry Jam

• 1/2 cup pitted cherries
• 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Instructions

Chocolate Macaron Shells

1. Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.

3. I prefer using a silicon mat.

4. Measure out all of your ingredients.
5. Sift powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
6. Now you can finally start.
7. Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes.
8. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
9. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. (I use my kitchenAid bowl when doing this, because it makes it easier)
10. With the whisk attachment, whisk mixture on low speed for 30 seconds, raising speed to medium. Whisk on medium for 1-2 minutes, until the whisk starts to leave streaks in the meringue. Raise speed to high, and whip for a couple of minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
11. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing deep streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
12. You don’t want to overbeat the mixture at this point, because you don’t want to add too much air to it. Just whisk until stiff peaks have formed.
13. The peaks should resemble a bird’s beak shape.
14. Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
15. Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
16. It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this, and you might have to have a couple failed batches before you get this right.
17. First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to form a figure If the 8 forms without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
18. Then, I grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto my parchment paper or silicon mat.
19. If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
20. Test again.
21. Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
22. You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
23. This is the most important part about making macarons in my opinion.
24. Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
25. Let your trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.
26. Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
27. Bake one tray at a time.
28. Bake for 4 minutes, rotate tray.

29. Bake for 4 more minutes, check if it needs to be rotated again. You will know if it needs to be rotated again depending on how the macarons are baking. Take a look at them, if one side seems taller than the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.

30. Bake for around 4 minutes or so. I would say I bake for a total of 18-20 minutes.

31. When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And will peel off easily from the silicon mat.

32. Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
33. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Cherry Buttercream

1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream at medium high speed for 1 minute. With the mixer off, add powdered sugar. Mix on low until combined. Raise speed. Cream on medium for 1 minute. Add vanilla and cherry jam. Stir to combine.
2. If buttercream is too liquid and runny, you might want to add some more sifted powdered sugar in.
3. If the buttercream seems too stiff, add just a tad of milk or more jam (about 1 teaspoon at a time until you achieve desired consistency)

Cherry Jam

1. Place cherries in a small food processor, puree until liquid. Pour in a small saucepan with sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir and let mixture simmer at medium heat for 10 minutes, or until thickened, and with a very deep color.

To assemble

1. Pipe a small amount of buttercream on a bottom shell. Top with another shell. I also sprinkled some chocolate sprinkles over the filling.

Storage

1. Keep these macarons in the fridge for up to 7 days, and in the freezer for up to 1-2 months, very well packaged.