Chocolate Strawberry Macarons
Hello friends! Today we are making one of my favorite Macaron flavors ever in the world! Chocolate Strawberry Macarons!
These Chocolate Strawberry Macarons are filled with sweet and fluffy Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, and tart Strawberry Jam in the middle. The perfect flavor combination!
I actually used store-bought strawberry preserves to fill these Chocolate Strawberry Macarons, but I’ve included a recipe below on how to make the jam yourself, in case you are interested.
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It’s the same Strawberry Jam recipe I use in my Strawberry Mint Macarons.
Yes, that’s right this is not my first Strawberry Macaron flavor on the blog. I actually have 4 more besides these Chocolate Strawberry Macarons:
- Strawberry Lemonade Macarons filled with Strawberry Lemonade Curd and Strawberry Frosting
- Strawberry Macarons filled with a swirled Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Strawberry Mint Macarons filled with Strawberry Jam and Mint Buttercream
- Balsamic Caramel and Strawberry Macarons filled with Balsamic Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Strawberry Jam
If you like making macarons, I have so many resources, flavor ideas, videos, and recipes for you to check out!
On my Youtube Channel you can find many videos, including this video for my Nutella Macarons, which uses the same chocolate shells recipe we use here on the Chocolate Strawberry Macarons.
And on the blog, I have over 55 macaron recipes and ideas (probably more by the time you read this).
Throughout my posts, I cover many topics, frequently asked questions, topics like oven thermometer, best almond flour, differences between parchment paper and silicone mat.
And the tips I give might even work different for you, or other bakers. Plus, as my own macaron baking journey has evolved, some of those tips also changed for me a bit. With my old oven, I used to bake my macarons for about 15 minutes, at the 325ºF. And with the oven I use today, I bake them for 18-20 minutes.
This is just a very simple example, since there are many intricacies in macaron baking. As your own journey evolves and progresses, you will also notice the same.
Do what works for you, make lots of experiments, write down results, and you will also see for yourself how your own macaron baking will change a lot with time.
So, that’s my best advice. Study a lot, keep reading blogs, watching youtube videos by me and other bloggers, join macaron facebook groups, and engage with the community.
A lot of people in this macaron baking community are very willing to offer help, which is what makes this one of the most beautiful communities I’ve ever been a part of.
I am also willing to help as well, just send me a dm on instagram, and I always try to reply and help troubleshooting macaron batches, or answer questions! (ps. really helps if you have a picture of your macarons, or even the meringue, or the piped batter, if your question is about troubleshooting a failed batch)
Here are some more macaron flavors you may like:
- Pecan Turtle Macarons
- Pomegranate Macarons
- German Chocolate Macarons
- Brownie Macarons
- Passion Fruit Macarons
- Key Lime Raspberry Macarons
I hope you liked today’s recipe! Thank you for stopping by!
Chocolate Strawberry Macarons
Ingredients
Chocolate Macaron Shells
- 100 grams egg whites about 3 egg whites, 3.5 oz
- 100 grams white sugar 3.5 oz
- 96 grams almond flour 3.4 oz
- 75 grams powdered sugar 2.64 oz
- 14 grams cocoa powder 0.8 oz
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (42.5 grams, 1.5 oz)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder 29.5 grams, 1 oz
- 1 cup powdered sugar 127 grams, 4.5 oz
- 1/4 cup cream cheese 56 grams, 2 oz
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 42.5 grams, 1.5 oz
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk as necessary
Strawberry Jam*
- 1 cup strawberries fresh or frozen 283 grams, 10 oz
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup you can use granulated sugar or other sweetener instead
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon cold water
Instructions
Chocolate Macaron Shells
- Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
- I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicon mat
- Measure out all of your ingredients.
- Sift powdered sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
- 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. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.
- Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
- Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise speed to high for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.
- Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should form a bird’s beak shape, but shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.
- Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.
- Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
- Add the food coloring at this point, if using. You can add a bit of brown food coloring to enhance the color of the shells if you want to.
- 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.
- First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.
- There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
- Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
- If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.
- Test again.
- Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.
- You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to over mix. It’s always best to under mix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
- The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
- Transfer batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
- Place piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply equal pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.
- Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.
- Use a toothpick to gently poke any bubbles of air that may have formed on the surface of the macaron shells.
- 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.
- Pre-heat the oven to 300°F.
- Bake one tray at a time.
- Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
- I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes.
- When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.
- Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
- Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Start by melting the chopped chocolate in the microwave, or over a double boiler. I usually just microwave the chocolate for 15-30 seconds at a time, always stirring in between to help the chocolate melt evenly and faster, without having to overheat it. You never want to overheat chocolate. Set the melted chocolate aside to cool down.
- Now, sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine cream cheese and butter. Cream for 2 minutes, until creamy and fluffy.
- Pour melted and cooled chocolate in the bowl of the mixer. Mix on slow until combined. Scrape the bowl to ensure everything is getting incorporated.
- With the mixer off, add sifted powdered sugar and cocoa powder.
- Mix on low until combined. Raise speed to high and cream for one minute.
- Add vanilla.
- If frosting is too thick and dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of milk, or as necessary. If frosting is too runny, it might need some more powdered sugar. Adjust to find the perfect creamy consistency.
Strawberry Jam
- Mix strawberries, maple syrup (or sweetener) and lemon juice in a small pot. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes. Use a spoon or spatula to break up the strawberries as you stir.
- Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl.
- Once strawberries have boiled and reduced a bit, add cornstarch and water to the pan.
- Bring back to a boil, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened.
- Let the jam cool. Cover it and place it in the fridge.
- You may process the jam in a small food processor to make it smooth if you want to, which will help when filling the macarons, since you will only need a tiny bit for each macaron, and you don’t want to have huge chunks of strawberries in there.
How to assemble
- Pipe a circle of buttercream around the edges of the macaron. Fill the middle with a bit of strawberry jam. Don’t overfill it. Place another shell on top.
Storage
- These Chocolate Strawberry Macarons will be at their best for up to 4-7 days in the fridge.
- I don’t recommend freezing macarons with jam fillings, since they will often turn soggy because of the jam.
Beautiful macs. One question, do U think this would work for vegan ones if I replaced 100 g egg whites with 100 g aquafaba?
I have never tried it that way. I just use a completely different recipe for the vegan ones, with different measurements. Thank you!!!
I’m gonna try it. I find using equal amounts of almond flour and powdered sugar makes my batter too thick so I liked the proportions u have in this recipe. I’ll let u know how it goes. Thank you.
Oh absolutely let me know! 🙂 thank you!
Esses macarons ficaram fantásticos, o visual é muito apetitoso!!!!!!
Obrigada 🙂
Would you drizzle the chocolate only before serving or assemble everything together including drizzle and then age them for a few days with the drizzle? Thank you!
You can definitely drizzle the chocolate a few days before, as you assemble everything. I actually prefer to drizzle the chocolate before I even assemble the sandwiches together. I usually just drizzle it over the top shells, then let it dry for a bit, then I pipe the filling on the bottom shell and top with the decorated shell. This makes the macarons look neater, without chocolate drizzled on the sides.
What did I mess up if they never seem to dry before baking?!
The meringue was under whipped, or the batter probably got over mixed after adding the dry ingredients.
I was so nervous trying to make these for the first time, and they turned out absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for the recipe, and I’m so excited to try others you have made!!! <3
Yay!! I am so happy to hear that! Thank you!
I made these and they came out perfect! My favorite chocolate macaron recipe I’ve made yet!
Question… Can I adjust this recipe to make a strawberry cookie instead of chocolate? If so, do you think switching out the cocoa powder for equal parts strawberry powder? Thx!
I would add less strawberry powder, about 5 grams only, and add another 10 grams of almond flour.
I should have waited for your response. I took the chance and added the same amount of strawberry powder and it ruined the cookies! I’ll try what you suggested. Thank you!
This was my time using the Swiss meringue method for macarons and I loved it! The meringue took a while to whip to stiff peaks, but I’m in a super humid place right now, so that’s to be expected. The taste for these is amazing!
Note: I do have a recurring issue where silicone mats lead to uneven feet for me; parchment paper causes the wrinkly bottoms, but at least the feet are even. I’ve started layering them so that I can use the circles on the macaron mats but still have even feet. If anyone has insights into this, I’d love to hear them!
Hello Nina! Thanks for your comment!
So, have you tried a different mat brand? I have tried many brands, and some won’t work for me, specially the darker color ones, because they tend to retain more heat.
I am so happy you like the Swiss method! It’s my favorite!
Is that freeze dried strawberries you blitzed up and sprinkled on top? Thanks!
these were delicious! thankyou!
thank you so much!!!
I’ve been mixing the egg whites and sugar for over 5 monutes and it’s not getting any thicker… did I do something wrong?
You have to mix it for longer than 5 minutes for sure.
You should have show pictures of how the inside looks like, how will we know the texture of the macaron and the filling?
Can I use a different chocolate buttercream if I don’t care for cream cheese?
certainly