Pistachio Macarons with a Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling. Drizzled with white chocolate, and topped with ground pistachio.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword macarons, pistachio
Prep Time 2 hourshours
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours40 minutesminutes
Servings 26assembled macarons
Calories 130kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Pistachio Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites
100gramsgranulated sugar
72gramsalmond flour
28gramspistachio flour* see notes
90gramspowdered sugar
A few drops of green food coloring
Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling
56gramscream cheesesoftened
28gramsbuttersoftened
125gramspowdered sugarsifted
28gramspistachio flour* see notes
1/2tspvanilla extract
To assemble
28gramsground pistachio* read notes
56gramswhite chocolatemelted 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.
Notes
Pistachio Flour- To make the pistachio flour, you want to grind about 1 cup of pistachios in the food processor. However, you have to be extremely careful not to over process the mixture, otherwise the pistachio starts to turn into a paste, as you grind it out and it releases oils. You want this mixture to be dry. Once you’ve processed it, sift this mixture to obtain the dry powdered pistachio flour. You will use 1/4 cup of pistachio flour in the recipe for the shells and another 1/4 cup for the Pistachio Cream Cheese Filling. Remember to process the nuts just enough not to form a paste. The pistachio flour needs to have the same consistency as the almond flour does. You will have some big pieces of ground pistachio left back in your sifter, I used those big crumbs of pistachio to top the white chocolate drizzle after the macarons were assembled, for a cute decoration.Pistachio- Use DRY roasted pistachios, or raw pistachios for the flour over oil roasted pistachios. Salted pistachios work fine, but I prefer without salt.Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring, not liquid, as it will affect the batter, and it will destroy the protein bonds in the meringue that form the structure of the macarons.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.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. Read more about how to figure out your oven here.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.Troubleshooting: Please visit this article for troubleshooting tips.