Pistachio Macarons
Hello friends! Today we are making Pistachio Macarons! I will show you how to make the pistachio flour for the pistachio macarons, and the delicious Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling.
Make sure to watch the video on this page or on my YouTube channel, showing you how to make these macarons.
This week I am bringing three French macaron recipes to the blog. The recipe for the Pistachio Macarons is the first one.
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I had a Macaron Marathon this week. I made 7 flavors of macarons:
- Pistachio
- Coffee
- Blueberry (I have 2 different Blueberry Macaron recipes on the blog: with jam filling, or mascarpone filling)
- Pumpkin
- Lemon
- Raspberry
- Funfetti
A total of 364 macaron shells, and 182 assembled macarons.
Most of these were made for a neighbor.
So this week I will bring the recipe for these Pistachio Macarons, then my Coffee Macarons, and finally the Funfetti Macarons.
The Coffee Macarons were used to top my Mocha Cupcakes, as you can see here.
I had the most fun making all of these macarons and can’t wait to show you more pictures in my other posts!
Let’s talk about these Pistachio Macarons.
Ok, so first thing, some people make their pistachio macaron shells with pistachio paste. That’s one route to take. This is a pistachio macaron recipe without pistachio paste. I use pistachio flour instead.
How to make Pistachio Flour
Start with dry roasted pistachios. Very important that they are dry roasted, and not roasted with any oils.
Place one cup of pistachios in a small food processor.
Pulse a few times until the pistachio starts to become ground. Be careful, don’t process to the point that it will start to release oils, and form a paste.
Stop once the mixture is still dry.
It will be very lumpy still, which is ok.
Sift the ground pistachios. And then, place the big pieces that got left out in the food processor, and pulse again to grind them up a bit more. Repeat sifting.
Do this one more time if necessary.
You will obtain a pistachio flour that’s very similar in consistency to the almond flour. I give more instructions bellow with the recipe. Also watch the video to watch me make the flour!
You can use the big pieces that are leftover to make the buttercream for the filling, as you really don’t need the pistachio to be very finely ground for that.
And you can also use the big pieces to to decorate the top of the Pistachio Macarons once you assemble them.
I drizzled some white chocolate over the macarons, and sprinkled some of the pistachio crumbs on top.
For the filling of these Pistachio Macarons, I actually made a Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling.
You’ll see I use a lot of cream cheese frosting in my baked goods, because taste wise is probably one of my favorites, not gonna lie.
And I wish I could eat this Pistachio Cream Cheese Frosting with a spoon. Self-control stops me, thank goodness!
I also want to point out to you the difference on the bottom of my macaron shells. The first picture is from when I first made uploaded this recipe here, 10 months ago. The shells were all uneven, and not smooth. And that is due to using parchment paper to bake my macarons instead of silicon mat.
The bottom picture is the most recent one, and look at the improvement on those bottom shells! What do you think? Do you like baking macarons with parchment paper, or do you prefer silicon mat?
I get asked all the time about tips on how to make macarons. So far, I’ve written several macaron posts and some of them have some important tips that could help you if you want to master how to make French macarons.
I have some video tutorials, and many tips throughout all of my macaron posts that can help you in your macaron baking journey.
Make sure to check out my YouTube channel.
If you want to learn more about making macarons, visit my Macaron School, where I publish everything related to macarons, from troubleshooting guides, to beginner’s guides, and more! Lots of tips, science behind macarons and everything you need to know to help you on your macaron journey.
Here are some more links you might be interested in:
- M&M’s Macarons (with video on how to make different color shells from one batch of macarons)
- Tutorial on the Meringue Stage
- Brownie Macarons
- Balsamic Caramel Strawberry Macarons
- Caramel Popcorn Macarons
- Key Lime Pie Macarons
- Strawberry Lemonade Macarons
To name a few. Go to my Macarons category page to see more macaron recipes and macaron ideas.
If you have any macaron questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me over email, or on instagram, over dm, which is probably the best way to reach me.
And if you make any of my macarons, don’t forget to tag me also on social media!
Making macarons can be challenging, but don’t let that stop you. If you really want to master them, all you have to do is to keep on baking. Try to research as much as you can about how to make French macarons, and try to put the tips you learn in practice, and you’ll end up finding what works best for you, your kitchen, and the climate you’re in.
Another thing you need to know about these Pistachio Macarons, is that they are my favorite! They were the first macarons I ever attempted too. Because I just love pistachios so much! What’s your favorite macaron flavor?
I hope you have a great day. Big thanks for reading!!
Pistachio Macarons
Ingredients
Pistachio Macaron Shells
- 100 grams egg whites
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- 72 grams almond flour
- 28 grams pistachio flour* see notes
- 90 grams powdered sugar
- A few drops of green food coloring
Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling
- 56 grams cream cheese softened
- 28 grams butter softened
- 125 grams powdered sugar sifted
- 28 grams pistachio flour* see notes
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
To assemble
- 28 grams ground pistachio* read notes
- 56 grams white chocolate melted and slightly cooled
Instructions
Pistachio Macaron Shells
- Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip, I use a 1/4” diameter tip. Set aside.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
- Measure out all of the ingredients.
- Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, and pistachio flour together. Set it aside.
- Place a bowl over a pan with barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water. Add the sugar and egg whites to the bowl.
- Whisk the sugar and the egg whites until frothy and the sugar is completely melted. It will take a couple of minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking the mixture over the water bath.
- Don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
- Transfer the syrup 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 the mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise the speed to high, or medium-high and whisk 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 be stiff and shooting straight up, with possibly a slight bend at the top, but not bending down to the side.
- Pour the sifted powdered sugar, almond flour, and pistachio flour into the stiff meringue.
- Add the food coloring at this point, if using. I added a drop of green gel food coloring.
- Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
- How to know when to stop folding the batter: 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, pick up some batter with the 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, fold 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 or silicone mat, it’s ready.
- 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.
- When you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly the batter is ready. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.
- Transfer the batter to the piping bag.
- Place the piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply gentle 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. This will release air bubbles that are in the batter and prevent your macaron shells from cracking.
- Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles in the surface of the shells.
- Let the 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 300ºF.
- Bake one tray at a time.
- Bake for 5 minutes, rotate tray.
- Bake for 5 more minutes. Rotate again.
- I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. If you try to move a macaron, it shouldn’t feel jiggly. If the macaron is still jiggly, keep baking.
- Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
- Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling
- Beat the butter and cream cheese at medium speed for about 1 minute.
- With the mixer off, add sifted powdered sugar, mix on low to combine. Add pistachio flour and vanilla. Cream for another minute or so until creamy and fluffy.
- Put the filling in a piping bag.
To assemble
- Pipe about 1 teaspoon of filling on top of each bottom shell. Place another shell on top.
- I melted white chocolate and put it in a piping bag, cut a very small hole at the end and drizzled the white chocolate over the macaron shells, and then topped them with ground pistachios.
Storage
- Store macarons in the fridge, in an air tight container for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for about 1 month.
Hi, I’m wondering if I can dry toast raw pistachios on my stovetop?? I’m not always able to find the exact right nut for the job and thought it might just be easier to toast my own.
Hello!! Can you use all-purpose flour with the pistachio? A family member is highly allergic to almond but they can have pistachio.
you can, but the batter will be different. check this post for tips: https://www.piesandtacos.com/macarons-with-all-purpose-flour/
I made these macarons and they turned out really great. I did have my doubts because meringue recipes off the internet are hard to trust, but these were my first pistachio macarons and my entire family loved them. Do you know a substitute for pistachio flour? What if you do not have a food processor, what then?
The taste is great! I use your normal version recipe all the time and they come out perfect! However every batch for these that I make, I end up with no feet cracked shells, and Ive made them the same way, oven temperature, meringue mixing time, etc. Still trying to figure it out, assuming its the pistachio flour I found! Otherwise they taste good still!
do you let them rest? also how stiff is the meringue? make sure the meringue is stiff enough, and let the shells rest before baking.
Hi! Do you use salted or unsalted butter for the filling? Thanks!
you can use either really. I usually use unsalted. But if I run out or something, I’ll use salted.
I am just curious, why this recipe has a slightly different ratio than all the others, having the almond and pistachio flour, not be matched to the amount of icing sugar (10g less icing sugar to the normal 1:1 ratio)
Hey Camilla, Thank you for this recipe. Can you tell me please if we can double this recipe without any problems? Thanks.
definitely can be easily doubled. nothing changes, same exact procedure.
Hi Camila, this is my first time posting but I have made a few of your macaron recipes since my first attempt 6 months ago and they have always turned out fantastic. Thanks for writing such comprehensive and clear instructions! These are probably my favourite of your recipes that I have tried but it is a very crowded field haha.
I was wondering if you had any advice on how to incorporate rose water into these macarons? The pistachio flavour is fantastic but since pistachio/rose is such a classic combination in other contexts I was going to see if I could give it a go with these.
Thanks in advance!
I have made Rose Macarons for my upcoming macaron book, I used rose water in the buttercream just about 1/8 tsp because a little goes a very long way. I haven’t used any in the batter itself, but if I were to use it I’d go with an extract probably and just add a tiny tiny bit.
First time making macarons. They came out amazing!! My family loved them. Will be making these again soon.
Awesome thank you!!
I teach Macarons classes myself so I’m always on the lookout for new recipes. I’ve always made pistachio filling using pistachio paste and melted white chocolate and it always turned out a little runny. So I tried your filling recipe, adding a little pistachio paste with the pistachio flour (just to boost the flavor a bit). It turned out good- no filling oozing out of the shells! Thanks!
Thank you so much!!!
Turned out absolutely delicious! I always love your thorough recipes
Thank you so much!!!
Hello! This was my first time making macarons EVER and I am proud to say I nailed them first go. They were delicious! I was very hesitant at the beginning and expected this to fail not once, but maybe after numerous attempts because hey, macarons aren’t meant to be easy right? I followed your recipe step-by-step and the video was so an added bonus for a visual person like me! I am by no means ‘a cook’ or ‘a baker’ but this recipe really helped a newbie like me. Thank you!
That’s so awesome to hear!! It means you’re a natural!!! 🙂 great job!!!
Can you make these with just pistachio flour? I want to make them for someone who is allergic to almonds.
I have never tried with just pistachio flour. I tried with just hazelnut flour once, they came out ok, but looked a bit weird because the texture of the hazelnut isn’t as smooth as the almond.