Blueberry Macarons
Beautiful almond meringue shells filled with luscious blueberry buttercream and a whole blueberry stuffed inside for a sweet surprise.
Servings 26 sandwich cookies
Calories
Ingredients
Macarons:
- 75 g Whole Unblanched Almonds Ground in a food processor grinder
- 110 g Icing sugar
- 65 ml Egg whites about 2 eggs
- 55 g Superfine castor sugar
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp White vinegar
- 4 drops Navy blue gel food colour (optional)
- 1 speck Red gel food colour (optional)
Filling:
- 100 g Unsalted butter
- 150 g Sifted icing sugar
- 40 g Freeze dried blueberries (powdered)
- blueberries to place in the center of the cookies
Instructions
Make the macarons:
- In a food processor add the whole almonds along with the icing sugar and pulse till everything is well ground and combined. Make sure that you don't blend and only pulse.
- Sift this mixture once into a bowl. there will be about 1 tablespoon worth of ground mixture remaining in the sieve, discard it. Set aside.
- In a large bowl that is very clean and without grease (ensure that the beating attachments of your stand mixer/hand mixer are also clean and grease-free). Add the egg whites and salt. Start whipping at a slow speed.
- Once the egg whites start foaming up, add the vinegar.
- When bubbles start forming, slowly add in the caster sugar in small additions.
- Once all the icing sugar is added, increase the speed and whip, add the vanilla and the food colouring if using. Keep whipping till you reach stiff peaks.
- After you reach stiff peaks, add the sifted almond mixture in three stages, folding gently. Keep folding till the batter is flowing in ribbons from your spatula and you can make a figure 8.
- Transfer this mixture into a piping bag and cut a hole about 1/2-inch in diameter. Pipe little mounds into prepared and lined baking sheets. Leave some space between the macarons.
- Tap your baking sheet against the counter about 5-6 times to remove air bubbles.
- Let your macarons dry for about 15-45 minutes or till it forms a light skin on the surface and it's top is matte. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 150 C
- Bake your macarons for about 16 minutes or until set.
- Once baked, let your macarons cool on the baking sheet before removing.
Make the frosting:
- Add all the ingredients for the frosting into a medium-large mixing bowl and whip till it is smooth and fluffy. If your frosting is loose, refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Assemble the cookies:
- Pair up the cookies according to sizes. Pipe a generous amount of frosting on one cookie, place a blueberry in the center and use its pair to sandwich them together.
- Repeat for all cookies. Refrigerate them for 24 hours for best flavour and texture.