These Banana Macarons are filled with a delicious Banana Pudding, and Chocolate Ganache. The banana pudding is so delicious and so worth making!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword banana, macarons
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 50 minutesminutes
Servings 22macarons
Calories 150kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Equipment
Mixer
Whisk
Pan
Baking sheet
Silicon Mat (or parchment paper)
Piping bag
Piping tip (I use a 0.5" diameter tip)
Spatula
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites3.5 oz
100gramsgranulated sugar3.5 oz
105gramsalmond flour3.7 oz
105gramspowdered sugar3.7 oz
Food coloring if usingI used yellow
Banana Pudding
1cupmilk240 ml
3/4cupchopped bananas6 oz, 170 grams
1/2vanilla bean split in half*
2large egg yolks
1/4cupgranulated sugar1.76 oz, 50 grams
1 1/2tbspcornstarch
1/8tspsalt
1/2tspvanilla extract(or 1 tsp if not using the vanilla bean)
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
6ouncesdark chocolate170 grams, about 1 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
1/2cupheavy cream120 ml
1/4tspbanana extractoptional
Instructions
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 silicone 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 silicone mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicone mat.
Measure out all of your ingredients.
Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together.
Set it 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.
Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
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 sifted 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.
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, 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, transfer it 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.
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 the batter to the piping bag.
Place the piping bag containing both batters 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. 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 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 about 18 minutes 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.
Banana Pudding
Place the milk, the chopped bananas, and the seeds from the vanilla bean in a small saucepan, over medium heat, and bring it to almost a boil. When you see the first few bubbles, remove from the heat. Cover the pan and let the banana and milk infuse for at least 4 hours, or place the pan in the fridge overnight.
When the milk is done infusing, place the pan back over medium heat and re-heat it until hot.
While the milk re-heats, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, the cornstarch, and the salt. Strain the milk, being careful so you don’t let any banana pieces get through the strainer. Gently squeeze the bananas to release as much milk as possible from the solids without letting them through.
Slowly pour 2 tablespoons of the hot milk over the yolk mixture, while whisking non-stop. This is called tempering the eggs, and it means to slowly add the hot mixture to the yolks so it doesn’t cook them. Keep adding the remaining milk very slowly, while whisking the custard.
Once all the milk has been added to the yolks, return the whole mixture to the saucepan that you used to heat the milk by pouring through a strainer, to retain any bits of yolk that may have cooked, or banana pieces that may have gone through. Place the pan over medium heat and start cooking, while stirring non-stop.
Keep heating the mixture and mixing it with a wooden spoon or spatula, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom very well while you cook it. The custard will start to get thick and it will look lumpy for a while, just keep stirring over medium heat. After a minute or so, the mixture should be thick like a cream, and smooth.
At this point, remove the pan from the heat, and add the vanilla extract to the custard. Pour it in a small bowl, cover it with a plastic wrap, placed right on the surface of the custard, so it doesn’t form a skin as it cools. Place it in the fridge to chill completely.
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
Chop the chocolate very finely. Place it in a bowl.
Heat the heavy cream in a small pan over medium heat, or in the microwave. No matter what method you choose, be very careful not to boil the heavy cream.
Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Let it stand for a minute.
Start stirring with a spatula until completely melted. Add banana extract if using.
Let it come to room temperature and cool down completely. Place the ganache in the fridge for 5-10 minutes until slightly hardened, but not solid.
Whip with an electric mixer for 2 to 3 minutes.
If the ganache has been in the fridge for a while before whipping, and it’s too thick and hard to whip, insert it in the microwave for a few quick seconds, and stir it again. Test for consistency and keep going until you achieve the desired consistency.
To be pipeable, the ganache should be thick, but easy to spread.
If it happens that the ganache is too thin, you might want to put it in the fridge for a few minutes so it will harden up, and then try whipping it again.
To assemble
Line a piping bag with a round tip, I used Wilton number 7. Fill it with the Whipped Chocolate Ganache.
Once the macarons have cooled down, simply pipe a ring of Ganache around the edge of a bottom macaron, fill it up with about 1/4 teaspoon of Banana Pudding, you can place the pudding in a piping bag to help do this. Top with another macaron cookie.
Macarons are best after they’ve matured in the fridge for a day, or at least a few hours.
Storage
Since these macarons have a pudding filling, I don’t recommend freezing them.
I would recommend refrigerating these Banana Macarons for up to 4 days.
Notes
Scale: Please use a scale when measuring the ingredients for accuracy.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 every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.Vanilla Bean: in case you don’t have, or don’t want to use vanilla bean seeds, use vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract, except for the shells, don’t add any extract or paste to the shells. Add another 1/2 tsp of vanilla paste or extract to the Pastry Cream if substituting.Chocolate: You can use dark chocolate, semi-sweet, or even milk chocolate to make the ganache. Also feel free to use chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate.