Pear Macarons, filled with a Pear Jam filling. The pear jam is easy to make and spiced with cardamom.
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Keyword macarons
Prep Time 1 hourhour30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 40 minutesminutes
Total Time 2 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings 26macarons
Calories 120kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Macaron Shells
100gramsegg whites3.5 oz
100gramsgranulated sugar3.5 oz
105gramsalmond flour3.7 oz
105gramspowdered sugar3.7 oz
Food coloring I used about 30 drops of yellow and 1 drop of blue
Pear Filling
2cupspears chopped small
2tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp brown sugar
Cinnamon stickoptional to infuse flavor
1/4tspground cardamom
1/2tspcornstarch
2tspcold water
Buttercream
1 1/3cupsconfectioners' sugar sifted
4tbsp unsalted butter softened
1tsp vanilla extract
1/2 -1tbsp milk as necessary
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 silicon 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 silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicone mat.
Measure out all of your ingredients.
Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set 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.
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 be shooting straight up, it shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.
Pour 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.
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, I transfer my mixture 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 batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.
Place piping bag 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.
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 6 minutes, rotate tray if needed.
I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes.
When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.
Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.
Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.
Pear Filling
Add chopped pears, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon stick if using, ground cardamom to a small saucepan.
Cook over medium low heat for about 15 minutes until pears are falling apart and soft.
Check the sweetness, my pears were very sweet so I didn’t have to add much sugar.
Once pears are soft and falling apart, remove the cinnamon stick.
Mix cornstarch with water.
Add it to the pan and bring it back to a gentle simmer.
Cook for 1 or 2 minutes until thickened.
Remove to a bowl and let it cool down in the fridge.
Buttercream
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 and milk in, beat for another 30-45 seconds. Only add 1/2 tablespoon of milk if necessary, 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 stiff, add a tiny bit of milk as necessary. If the buttercream seems too runny, add more sifted powdered sugar until you obtain a firm, but smooth and creamy consistency.
STORAGE: Store buttercream in the fridge for up to 1 week.
To assemble
Pipe a ring of Buttercream Frosting around the edges of the bottom shells.
Spoon some Pear Filling in the middle.
Top with another shell.
Storage
Store macarons in the fridge for up to 5 days.
To freeze: freeze them in an air tight container for 1-2 months.
Notes
Food coloring: Make sure to use gel food coloring. I use Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set. 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.Storage:This is the Storage Container I use to store my macarons.