Today I will show you how to make these colorful macarons, beautifully decorated! We are making all colors from the same batch and I will show you how to do it.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword macarons
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 22macarons
Calories 120kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
4gramsegg white powder
100gramswhite granulated sugar
100gramsegg whites
105gramsalmond flour
105gramspowdered sugar
A few drops of food coloringread notes bellow to see the colors I used
Filling
1/3cupapricot preservesor any jam you want
Cream Cheese Frosting
85gramscream cheese softened 6 tbsp
42.5gramsunsalted butter softened 3 tbsp
125gramspowdered sugar
1/4tspvanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Decoration
1/4cupmelted chocolatecheck notes below to see which ones I’ve used
1/4cupsprinkles
Instructions
Macaron Shells
Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare three piping bags fitted with 1/4” piping tip.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
Measure out all of the ingredients.
Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour. Set it aside.
Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water.
Add the egg whites to the sugar and whisk the mixture 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.
Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
Also, 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 the syrup 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 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.
Whip until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whisk 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 and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
Fold the dry ingredients with the meringue just until you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue.
As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between four different bowls.
Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other ones covered meanwhile.
To the first batter add white powder food coloring and stir until the perfect consistency is achieved. The batter should be flowing slowly and effortlessly off the spatula, you should be able to pick up some batter with the spatula and draw several figure 8s with the batter that’s flowing, without having the batter break up. And even after the batter breaks up, it should still continue to flow off the spatula slowly.
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, it’s ready.
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.
Once the first batter achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to a piping bag. Secure the top with a tie, so the batter doesn’t scape while piping, and to keep the batter from drying out while you work with the remaining batter. Set the piping bag aside.
Now, it’s time to work with the second batter. I colored the second batter yellow, I added a bit of gold and also egg yolk gel food coloring from americolor. After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
Transfer the yellow batter to the piping bag. And secure the top with a tie.
Now, it’s time to work with the green batter. I added a bit of electric green and a touch of avocado gel food coloring also by Americolor. After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
Transfer the green batter to a piping bag. And secure the top with a tie.
Next, let’s make the pink shells. I added some electric purple and violet gel food coloring from Americolor.
After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above. Transfer the pink batter to a piping bag and secure the top with a tie.
Time to start piping! Position the piping bag over the center of the circle template, and start applying gentle pressure to release the batter. Then pull the bag up twisting slightly at the top.
Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter.
Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles on the surface of the shells.
If you want to apply sprinkles to the shells, now it’s the time to do so.
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, how much food coloring you have added, and on the consistency of the batter. You’ll know the macarons are ready to be baked. when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry, and doesn’t stick to your finger.
Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
Bake one tray at a time.
Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray in the oven to bake evenly on all sides. And then continue baking.
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.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together in the bowl of an electric mixer, for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer off, add powdered sugar to the bowl.
Turn mixer on low to incorporate the powdered sugar with the cream cheese and butter.
Once you see no streaks of dry powdered sugar, beat mixture on medium high for one minute. Add vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
If the frosting is too runny, add more powdered sugar as needed. And if the frosting is too stiff, add a teaspoon of water or milk to thin it out.
This frosting will store well in the fridge for up to 5 days, covered.
Make sure to always leave your frosting covered. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap, because otherwise, the surface will dry out and get hard.
To decorate
Melt white chocolate and place it in a piping bag, snip the end with scissors.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the macaron shells, and place sprinkles on top. You can do straight lines, swirls, and top them off with sprinkles or leave the drizzles plain. Check out the video to see the different decorations I made with each macaron.
To assemble
Line a piping bag with a small round tip or a small star tip. Fill it with the cream cheese frosting.
Once the macarons have cooled down, simply pipe a ring of cream cheese frosting around the edge of a bottom macaron, fill it up with about 1/2 teaspoon of apricot preserves. Top with another macaron cookie.
Macarons are best after they’ve matured in the fridge for a day or more.
Storage
Store the macarons in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
Colors: For the white shells- Master Elite white powder food coloring from The Sugar Art. All of the following colors are gel food coloring from americolor- egg yolk and gold for the yellow macarons, electric green and avocado for the green macarons, and electric purple and violet for the pink macarons.Chocolate Decoration: I used melted chocolate wafers from Valhrona in two different flavors, the yellow is passionfruit and the red is strawberry.Vinegar: Before starting make sure to wipe down the bowls, whisks, silicone mats and everything you are going to use with vinegar, to avoid any grease particles of coming into contact with the meringue and batter.Egg white powder: Egg White Powder is not the same as meringue powder. Egg White Powder is made of only egg whites. They help with getting fuller shells, and specially when adding a lot of food coloring to the batter, because they make the shells dry faster. I recommend experimenting with it if you can find it. I use 4 grams for each 100 grams of egg whites.Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid. For all the colors here I used Americolor. If you are a beginner macaron baker, I recommend going easy on the food coloring, as it can alter your batter a lot, and it can take extra mixing time, specially if you continue to add the food coloring as you do the macaronage.Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy. Macaron amount: it will vary greatly depending on how big you pipe the shells, and on how runny or thick the batter is.Baking time/temperature: Baking time and temperature will vary according to your own oven. I recommend experimenting with your oven to find out the best time, temperature, position of the baking tray.Oven thermometer: Make sure to have an oven thermometer to bake macarons. It’s one of the most important things about making macarons. Home ovens aren’t accurate at all at telling the temperature, and even a slight 5 degree difference can make or break your whole batch.Tray rotation: Lots of bakers don’t have to rotate the trays 180 degrees in the oven after 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.