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Key Lime Raspberry Macarons

Key Lime Raspberry Macarons

Macarons with raspberry buttercream filling, and lime curd in the center.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, French
Keyword macarons
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 26 macarons
Calories 120 kcal

Ingredients

Macaron Shells

  • 100 grams egg whites  
  • 100 grams  white granulated sugar  
  • 105 grams almond flour  
  • 105 grams powdered sugar  
  • Pink food coloring for half of the batch and green food coloring for the other half

Lime curd

  • 3  tbsp  lime zest
  • 1/4  cup  lime juice 59 ml
  • 1/3  cup  granulated sugar  66 grams, 2.3 oz
  • 3  tbsp  unsalted butter room temperature  42 grams, 1.5 oz
  • 2  large eggs
  • 1/8  tsp  salt

Raspberry Buttercream

  • 4  tbsp  cream cheese room temperature 2 oz, 56 grams
  • 2  tbsp  unsalted butter room temperature 1 oz, 28 grams
  • 1-1 1/2  cups  powdered sugar  4.5 oz-6.75 oz, 127 grams-191 grams
  • 1/4 cup freeze dried raspberry powder* 0.85 oz, 24 grams
  • 1  tsp  milk

Instructions

Macaron Shells

  1. Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.
  3. 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 silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicon mat if you want more uniform bottoms.

  4. Measure out all of the ingredients.

  5. Sift the powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.

  6. 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.
  7. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.
  8. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.

  9. 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 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.

  10. Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.

  11. Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula. Add the food coloring at this point, if using just one.

  12. If using more than one color to color the batter, start folding the dry ingredients into the batter and mix them just until you don’t see any streaks of dry ingredients any longer. Once that happens, you can split the batter between the number of bowls correspondent to the colors you want to use in your batter.

  13. So in this case, once you see there are no more dry ingredients in the macaron batter, split it between two bowls.

  14. Work quickly, with each color, one at a time, folding the batter until ready, then transferring it to a piping bag. Move on to the next color and do this until the entire batter is ready. Then you can start piping.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. Then, grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicone mat.

  18. If the batter stays stiff and doesn’t spread out a bit, start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.

  19. Test again.

  20. Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy on the parchment paper, transfer the mixture to the piping bag.

  21. 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.
  22. 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.

  23. 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.

  24. Pre-heat the oven to 325F.
  25. Bake one tray at a time.

  26. Bake for 5 minutes and rotate the tray.

  27. Bake for 4 more minutes, check if it needs to be rotated again. You will know if it needs to be rotated again depending on how the macarons are baking. Take a look at them, if one side seems taller than the other, maybe you have to rotate the tray again.

  28. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

  29. 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.

  30. Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
  31. Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Lime Curd

  1. Cream the butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar and lime zest to butter and keep creaming at medium speed for a few minutes, until mixture is light in color and fluffy.

  2. Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until egg has been completely incorporated before adding the next one.

  3. Add the salt. And finally, add the lime juice, and stir on low speed.

  4. Pour the mixture in a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat, while stirring nonstop.

  5. You are looking for a very thick and creamy curd. Don’t stop stirring, don’t look away.
  6. The temperature of the curd should be reaching 170F.
  7. When that happens, remove from heat and pour into a heat proof bowl.
  8. Let it cool in the fridge.
  9. STORAGE: The shelf life of the lime curd will be up to 1 week in the fridge, and up to 3 months in the freezer, if well protected.

Raspberry Buttercream

  1. Sift the powdered sugar and raspberry powder together. Set aside

  2. Cream the butter and cream cheese at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 1 minute. With the mixer off, add all of the powdered sugar, and powdered raspberry in.

  3. Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated. Once they are incorporated, turn speed to medium and cream for 1-2 minutes until very fluffy. Add vanilla and milk in, beat for another 30-45 seconds.
  4. If the consistency of the frosting seems a bit runny, add more powdered sugar in it to make it thicker. If the consistency of the frosting seems too stiff, add more milk, only 1 teaspoon at a time, as necessary.
  5. STORAGE: Store buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.

To assemble

  1. Pipe a circle of Raspberry 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 lime curd. Don’t overfill it. Place another shell on top.

  2. STORAGE: This Key Lime Raspberry Macaron’s shelf life is 4-5 days in the fridge. I don’t recommend freezing it because the curd might make the shells soggy.

Recipe Notes

*You can process 1 cup of freeze dried whole raspberries in the food processor to make about 1/4 cup of freeze dried raspberry powder.

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, especially 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.

Nutrition Facts
Key Lime Raspberry Macarons
Amount Per Serving (1 macaron)
Calories 120
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.