During Christmas time I made ginger flavoured Macarons filled with chocolate buttercream, so this time I made CHERRY MACARONS!
When I made Macarons the first time, it took me four attempts to get them right (yes you read correctly, 4 times!) and when you live in a high humidity area like I do, it makes things even more difficult! This time I had success on the 1st attempt which made me one veryvery happy lady!
Ingredients
- |Pink Macarons
- 100g icing sugar
- 55g grounded almonds/almond flour
- 1 ½ L egg whites at room temperature
- 25g white granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence/paste
- pinch of salt
- pink gel colourant
- 125g of unsalted butter at room temperature
- 200g of sifted icing sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole black cherries
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Sift your icing sugar, salt and grounded almond together and leave to the side.
- Beat your egg whites until soft peaks form and while continuing to beat on high, slowly add your granulated sugar until your egg whites have formed stiff peaks.
- Add your vanilla and continue to beat on high until the vanilla is incorporated.
- Sift your sifted dry ingredients (again) into the same bowl you used to beat the egg whites.
- Use a rubber spantula to mix all the ingredients together by working in big/wide circular movements until the mixture resembles baby porridge (takes about 30-35 circle movements).
- Fill a piping bag with a round nozzle tip and pipe on a oven tray pre-lined with wax paper. I use a silicone mat for this job but if you don´t have it the wax paper works perfectly well just make sure circles are aprox. 2cm apart and they are all the same size.
- Leave in a dry room to set for aprox. 2-3 hours or when you touch them they don´t stick to your finger.
- Pre-heat your oven to 150ºC and bake for 15 minutes.
- Put your oven off and leave them for a further 5 minutes in the hot oven. You will know if they ready if they have rised and have the famous bottom parts/feet and when you remove them from your baking sheet they come off quite easily.
- Leave to cool at room temperature and when cool fill with homemade cherry preserve and vanilla buttercream (both recipes below).
- Cream the butter and when soft add the rest of the ingredients and continue to beat until smooth and fluffy. Takes about 3-5 minutes.
- Wash and un-pit the cherries, add to a heavy bottom saucepan with the white granulated sugar on medium to high heat, stirring continuously.
- When the liquid has reduced, empty some of it (liquid only) in a cup and add the cornstarch, mix well (make sure there are no lumps) then add to the cherry mixture on the stove.
- Reduce the heat and continue to mix until then preserve is nice and thick.
- Remove from the heat entirely and let cool at room temperature.
- When cool, you can put it in a jar and let cool overnight in the fridge.
TIP: You don´t have to fill the Macarons with homemade cherry preserve, you can add your favourite store bought cherry jam too and it would taste great too.
Johlene
xoxo
Jocelyn says
Oh em gee, I’m totally drooling over these! First of all, they’re so pretty! And secondly, cherry preserves in macarons! 🙂 Pinned!
Johlene Orton says
Thanks for pinning Jocelyn!! xoxo
Ashley @ Wishes and Dishes says
I love making macarons!! They are my husband’s favorite cookie because his Grandma used to make them for him all the time when he was little. I try to carry the tradition on 🙂 Love this recipe!
Johlene Orton says
Wow so is your husband´s grandma French? xoxo
Elizabeth - SugarHero.com says
Wahoo, look at these picture-perfect macarons! Extra bonus points for making them in high humidity!
Johlene Orton says
Yeah tell me about it.. I´ll accept those bonus point kindly LOL xoxo
Danguole says
These look amazing! I’ve only made macarons a couple times–they are so fussy. My hat is off to you!
Johlene Orton says
Thanks friend! Yes they can be fussy but try this recipe as it works! 🙂 xoxo
Laura Dembowski says
Will you send me some of these, please? Everything from the color to the preserves to the buttercream is calling my name!
Johlene Orton says
I could eat Macarons every day, so I suppose I could say they call my name daily 😉 xoxo
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen says
Johlene – these macrons are so PERFECT, they look like they came out of one of those fancy french bakeries! Girl, these are money and you should be selling them! Gorgeous and I love the flavor combination and the fact you made them with homemade preserves. Truly impressed. Pinned!
Johlene Orton says
Thanks for pinning friend! This recipe is foolproof so go ahead and try it 🙂 xoxo