Kiwi macarons, filled with kiwi jam. The top shells are piped in two different colors to recreate the kiwi look. I used black sesame seeds to represent the kiwi seeds.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French, Gluten-Free
Keyword macarons
Prep Time 1 hourhour
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Servings 26macarons
Calories 210kcal
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites3.5 oz
100gramswhite granulated sugar3.5 oz
105gramsalmond flour3.7 oz
105gramspowdered sugar3.7 oz
Green food coloring
Black sesame seeds to make kiwi seeds
Kiwi Jam
1cupchopped kiwi
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup you can use granulated sugar or other sweetener insteadmore or less according to how sweet your kiwi is, and how sweet you like your jam to be
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
Vanilla Buttercream
1cupconfectioners’ sugar sifted
4tbspunsalted butter softened
1/2tsp vanilla extract
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 silicone mat.
I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. There are places you can print your own, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper.
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.
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.
Once you don’t see the dry ingredients any more, separate the batter into two different bowls.
I grabbed about 3/4 of the batter for the darker green color, and 1/4 for the lighter green that would be the middle of the kiwi.
Dye each batter at a time. Add the green food coloring to the larger batter amount, fold to the perfect consistency (see steps below to identify the perfect consistency). Place batter in a piping bag, twist the top of the bag so the batter won’t dry while you color and fold the other batter.
Dye the second batter with less green food coloring, so you can have a lighter green. Fold to the perfect consistency (see steps below to identify the perfect consistency), place it in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, since you will need to pipe smaller amounts of the light green batter to make the center of your kiwi shells. Set aside.
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, and you might have to have a couple failed batches before you get this right.
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, 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.
If putting sesame seeds on top of the macaron shells, do so right after piping the macarons, as the shells will start to dry out as soon as you pipe them, and the sesame seeds might not stick to the shells if the batter has dried. I used tweezers to help place the seeds in the center of the macaron in a nice circumference.
You want to do this in half of the shells, and leave the other shells plain, since they will be the bottom shells of the kiwi macarons, and they don’t need to have the seeds and lighter green in the middle unless you want them to.
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.
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.
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.
Kiwi Jam
Mix kiwi and maple syrup (or sweetener) in a small pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Use the spoon to break up the kiwi as you stir.
Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl.
Once kiwi has boiled and reduced a bit, add cornstarch and water to the pan.
Bring back to a boil, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened.
Let jam cool. Cover it with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge.
Vanilla Buttercream
Sift powdered sugar. Set aside.
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 extract and beat for a another 30-45 seconds.
If buttercream is too stiff, add a bit of milk or water to make it a bit softer. And if buttercream is too runny, add a bit more sifted powdered sugar.
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 kiwi jam. Don’t overfill it. Place another shell on top.
Storage
These Kiwi Macarons will be at their best up to 4-7 days in the fridge.
I don’t recommend freezing macarons with jam fillings, since they will often turn soggy because of the jam.
Notes
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. 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 every 5 minutes, but I do have to with my oven, or I will get lopsided macarons. Please adjust this according to your oven.