Pomegranate Macarons

Today we are making Pomegranate Macarons.

Pomegranate Macarons

These Pomegranate Macarons were delicious! Not to mention that awesome color.

Let’s talk about food coloring and macarons for a second here.

This post may contain affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualified purchases. Please read our Privacy policy here.

Needless to say that to obtain this vibrant strong color in my macarons I had to use quite a bit of food coloring.

Pomegranate Macarons

What is the best food coloring to use when making macarons?

When making macarons, you should always use a gel base food coloring, or food coloring paste. Don’t use water based food colorings, as they will spoil your macarons, because the water will react with the egg whites.

The Wilton Gel-Based Food Color is my go to.

Pomegranate Macarons

How to make bright colored macarons?

The simple answer is: you will need a lot of food coloring.

Be aware that eve the gel food coloring can alter your macarons consistency. I realize that my macarons had feet a bit too large, probably due to the excess moisture in the batter, since I had to add a lot of food coloring to obtain the color I was going for.

I used mostly Burgundy, then complimented with some drops of Red, some of Pink, and a tiny bit of Blue, to balance out the pink.

Pomegranate Macarons

To sum up, be careful when using food coloring in French Macaron batter. Always make sure to use gel-based food coloring. And don’t add too much of the food coloring, or your batter might end up with too much moisture and your macarons might have spread out feet.

Once you are done with the hard work of making the perfect macaron shells, you can proceed with the filling.

Simply pipe a ring of buttercream around the edges of the macaron shell, and fill it up with a bit of the pomegranate jam.

Pomegranate Macarons

Make sure your jam is very thick. The recipe I have down below makes for a very thick jam, however, depending on how juicy your pomegranates were or the amount of liquid you’ve added, your jam might turn out more or less runny than mine.

When making the jam, simply notice if it’s too runny or thick. It should be so thick that you will have to press the seeds in the fine mesh sieve to squeeze the jam out of it. Shouldn’t be too runny at this point when you remove it from the heat. And it will also thicken more as it sits in the fridge.

Pomegranate Macarons

And, as always, let your macarons mature in the fridge overnight before serving them, for optimal flavor and texture. Serve them after they’ve sat out of the fridge for a bit. When they come straight out of the fridge, sometimes they might be a tad hard.

If you are new to making macarons, check out my Matcha Macarons post, where I go over some main tips and techniques.  On my Raspberry Macarons post, I talk about Almond Flour, brands, sifting methods, etc. On my Espresso Macarons post, I answer common questions about making macarons. On my Lemon Macarons post, I talk about macaron shelf life and storage. Check them out! And also, there are tones of other resources online that can help you.

Pomegranate Macarons

If you want to check out more macaron recipes, click here.

Thank you for reading my blog! Have a great day!

Pomegranate Macarons

Pomegranate Macarons

Camila Hurst
These are Pomegranate Macarons, filled with a Pomegranate Jam.
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Servings 26 macarons
Calories 80 kcal

Ingredients
  

Macaron Shells
  • 3 egg whites 100 grams 3.5 oz
  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar 100 grams 3.5 oz
  • 1 cup almond flour 96 grams 3.4 oz
  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar 90 grams 3.17 oz
  • Food coloring I used some burgundy, red, pink, and a tiny bit of blue
Pomegranate Jam
  • 2 cups pomegranate seeds
  • 1/4-1/2 cup pomegranate juice or water
  • 3 tablespoons maple syrup or another sweetener
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon water
Buttercream
  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon whipping cream

Instructions
 

Macaron Shells
  • Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
  • Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
  • Under my parchment, I put a layout with circles that measure about 1 1/2 inches each. That’s how big I like to pipe my macarons.
  • Measure out all of your ingredients.
  • Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.
  • Now you can finally start.
  • 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. (I use my kitchenAid bowl when doing this, because it makes it easier)
  • With the whisk attachment, whisk mixture on high speed 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 you would like to use any.
  • 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.
  • Then, I grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto my parchment paper or silicon mat.
  • If the batter stays stiff 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 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 overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.
  • Once you’ve piped as many 1 1/2” circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.
  • 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 6 minutes and rotate the tray.
  • Keep baking the trays for a total of 16-20 minutes each.
  • When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet.
  • Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
  • Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Pomegranate jam
  • Add seeds, juice, maple syrup in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stirring constantly, bring the heat down and let mixture cook.
  • Once you’ve let the mixture simmer, while stirring, for about 8 minutes, you can mix the cornstarch with the water in a small bowl, and once the water and cornstarch are incorporated, you can add that to the jam.
  • Let it come to a boil again, cook until thickened for a couple of minutes. Turn heat off.
  • Pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Use a spatula to help press the mixture through, scrape the bottom of the sieve as you go.
  • Place jam in the fridge until completely cooled down and you’re ready to use it.
Buttercream
  • Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar in.
  • On low speed, beat the sugar and butter together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy. Add vanilla and cream in, beat for a another 30-45 seconds.
  • STORAGE: Store buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.
How to assemble
  • Pipe a circle of buttercream around the edges of the macaron, in a way that you have a little hole in the middle. Fill the little hole with a bit of pomegranate jam. Don’t overfill it. Place another shell on top.
Storage
  • These Pomegranate Macarons will be at their best up to 4-7 days in the fridge.
Keyword macarons

Similar Posts

16 Comments

    1. Hello Eliza, I bake each tray for a total of almost 20 minutes, probably 16-20 minutes depending on the batch, and depending on my oven. I should change the directions to specify that. The baking time will depend on your own oven and batch. What I meant with the 4 minute intervals is that I rotate my macarons at every 4 minutes when they are in the oven, and keep checking.
      Thank you so much for your comment!! Have a lovely day!!!

  1. Would these macarons be ok if frozen and then thawed in the fridge? Just wondering if the jam would get very watery doing this.

    1. Hello Melody, my experience with freezing macarons with jam filling is that the jam has to be very thick in order not to get the macaron soggy.In the case of this pomegranate jam, I made the jam very thick, like a jelly. So in this case you should be fine to freeze it. No need to thaw it, if you remove the macarons from the freezer you can serve them within 30 minutes or so and they should be fine.

      1. One more question 🙂
        It made so much less jam than I thought it would lol
        Have you ever mixed the jam into the buttercream to make it go farther? Or would the buttercream overpower the pomegranate flavour?

        1. You could definitely try to do that! Ohhh I remember having extra jam last time I made this! Have you already started filling the macarons? because they will only take a tiny bit of jam in each macaron. It doesn’t take much to fill a macaron, since they are so small and you will be piping the buttercream on the edges of the shell to put the jam inside. Well, I hope it works for you Melody!!
          Thank you!! Have a fabulous day!!

  2. Hi I want to make these for my mom on , Mother day. Would you say that there is a very strong pomegranate flavor or it’s barely there? My mom’s a big fan of pomegranate and I want to make these for her. I just want to know if the flavor is really there.

  3. Hello Camilla,

    I love the amazing colour you have achieved. I can make macarons no bother but I’m finding it really difficult to get my colours as vibrant as you have without affecting the batter and thus end result. I have the Wilton icing colours: https://www.lakeland.co.uk/17519/Wilton-Icing-Colours-8-Pack

    They look like the same product you are using. Can you be more specific just to how much you use of each and how you measure it out please? I’d really appreciate some guidance!

    Thank you!

    1. I never really measure it, because I just add it until I have achieved the perfect color, but I believe sometimes I add up to 1 tbsp. And by affecting your batter what do you mean? what is exactly happening? Is the batter becoming over mixed? Maybe you are mixing longer because you are trying to keep on adding the color to achieve your desired tone. So I recommend adding the food coloring right at the beginning of mixing, so you don’t have to keep adding food coloring thus mixing too much in order to incorporate all the color. Also, it might need slightly less time mixing, since the gel can be considered extra liquid and moisture, so you have to adjust folding time accordingly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.