Mango Raspberry Macarons
Mango Raspberry Macarons filled with Mango Curd and Raspberry Buttercream. A seriously delicious combination!
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
- 4 grams egg white powder
- 100 grams white granulated sugar
- 100 grams egg whites
- 105 grams almond flour
- 105 grams powdered sugar
- A few drops of pink purple, yellow, and orange gel food coloring
Mango Curd
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 42 grams
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 36 grams
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup mango pulp 62 grams
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Raspberry Buttercream
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter softened 56 grams
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted 187.5 grams
- 1/3 cup freeze dried raspberry powder about 30 grams
- 2 to 4 tbsp milk or water as needed
Instructions
Macaron Shells
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Before you start, get all of the ingredients ready. Prepare one large piping bag, fitted with a round tip, I used a 1/4” diameter tip. Also leave 2 piping bags set aside, without the ends cut. Set aside.
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Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.
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Measure out all of the ingredients.
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Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour. Set it aside.
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Whisk the sugar and the egg white powder (if using) in a bowl, and place it over a pan with barely simmering water.
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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.
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Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water because you don’t want the whites to cook.
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Also, don’t overheat the sugar syrup, this may cause issues down the line, such as wrinkly macarons.
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Transfer the syrup to the bowl of a stand mixer.
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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.
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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.
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Pour the sifted powdered sugar and almond flour into the stiff meringue.
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Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.
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Fold the dry ingredients with the meringue just until you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue.
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As soon as you see no more dry ingredients in the meringue, stop stirring. Divide the batter between two different bowls.
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Work with one bowl at a time, leaving the other one covered meanwhile.
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To the first batter add pink gel food coloring and stir until the perfect consistency is achieved. I also added a drop of mauve food coloring. 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.
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There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.
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Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.
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If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out, fold a little bit more, about 3 folds.
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Test again.
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Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, it’s ready.
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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.
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To give a layered color effect, I brushed the walls of the piping bag with some purple food coloring. It’s best to not go overboard with the food coloring when doing this.
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Once the first batter achieves the perfect consistency, transfer it to the 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.
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Now, it’s time to work with the second batter. I colored the second batter yellow. After adding food coloring, stir until the perfect consistency is achieved, like I’ve explained above.
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I also brushed the sides of this piping bag with orange food coloring.
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Transfer the yellow batter to the piping bag. And secure the top with a tie.
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Place the large piping bag fitted with the round tip (I used a 1/4” piping tip) in a cup, so this way the bag will be held open.
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Using a pair of scissors, snip the ends of each piping bag that contains the colorful batters.
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Place the two bags inside the large piping bag. I really recommend watching my video to see how to do this, it’s very easy to understand once you watch the video.
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Now 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.
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Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter.
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Use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles on the surface of the shells.
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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.
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Pre-heat the oven to 300ºF.
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Bake one tray at a time.
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Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the tray in the oven to bake evenly on all sides. And then continue baking.
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I bake each tray for about 15 to 20 minutes.
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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.
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Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
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Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Mango Curd
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To obtain mango pulp, simply puree the mango in a food processor or blender cup. To make the 1/4 cup needed for the recipe you will need a bit more than 1/4 cup of chopped mangoes, so it’s best to go by the weight.
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Beat the butter with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds at medium speed.
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Add the sugar to the butter and beat for another minute.
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Add the egg yolks, one at a time, creaming until each egg yolk is incorporated before adding the next one.
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Add the mango pulp and lemon juice to the bowl and mix. Mixture will seem curdled and separated, and that’s ok.
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Transfer it to a small saucepan.
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Start cooking over low heat, stirring non-stop with a spatula.
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Keep cooking for 5-10 minutes. Don’t let the mixture boil, and don’t stop stirring.
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The curd should be thick, coating the back of a spoon, and a thermometer should indicate 170ºF.
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Depending on how high or low the heat is, the time will vary. I suggest keeping at low, or medium-low heat. You don’t want the eggs to boil, and you don’t want the mixture to stick to the bottom of the pan, which will easily happen if the heat is too high, or if you stop stirring.
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Once the curd is ready, pour it into a heat-proof bowl, and let it cool down.
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Place it in the fridge for at least 6 hours to chill through and get thick.
Raspberry Buttercream
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Beat the 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, the raspberry powder.
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On low speed, beat the ingredients together. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy.
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Add 2 tbsp of liquid (water or milk) only if necessary, if the buttercream seems dry or stiff.
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Sometimes you may find that the consistency of the buttercream is already perfect and doesn’t need any more liquid. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
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Place the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.
To assemble
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Pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the bottom macaron shells.
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Then pipe a bit of curd in the center.
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Top with another shell.
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Let the macarons sit in the fridge overnight before serving.
Storage
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Store the macarons in the fridge for up to 4-5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month though they can get soggy in the freezer because of the curd filling.
Recipe Notes
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.
Mango pulp: to make mango pulp simply puree the mango in a food processor or blender cup. To make the 1/4 cup needed for the recipe you will need a bit more than 1/4 cup of chopped mangoes, so it’s best to go by the weight.