French Strawberry Macaron Recipe

Oh, my dear french macaron… the world’s most trickiest cookie! Let’s face it, these cookies are delicious but man are they hard to make! It seriously drove me crazy!

So today I’ll be sharing an easy French Strawberry Macaron Recipe, which is made with a Strawberry Mascarpone filling. You can use strawberry jam or a puree (see instructions below).

Before we get started, here is a quick run-down on the macaron. A macaron is a sweet meringue-based confection made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food colouring.

While I was making my first batch, I realized that the measurements I had from another recipe didn’t make that nice creamy batter that I was looking for. The batter was rather thick, and no matter how much I tried to get some air out of it. The consistency was staying the same.

I ended up adding an additional egg and the batter turned out ok. So here is my version of the Macaron recipe.

TIP:

Instead of measuring the ingredients, I recommend you weight them, which should give you that perfect creamy consistency.

French Strawberry Macaron Recipe

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Bettina Johnson

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Ingredients

[b]For the Macarons[/b]
100 grams egg whites (about 3 eggs) – at room temperature
50 grams white sugar (about 1/4 cup white sugar)
200 grams confectioners’ sugar (about 1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar)
110 grams ground almonds (about 1 cup finely ground almonds)
Food color
1 tsp Almond, Peppermint or Vanilla extract (optional)
[b]For the Filling[/b]
75 grams Mascarpone
1/4 cup Cream cheese – at room temperature
1/2 cup strawberries, pureed to make about 3 tablespoons puree
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions

Print 2 pages of the macaron template (here). Line a baking sheet with the templates and parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on top. Note: Once you have piped the batter onto the baking sheet, remove the templates.
Beat room temperature egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until whites are foamy; beat in white sugar and continue beating until egg whites are glossy, fluffy, and hold soft peaks, add food coloring and extract (optional) mix for 5 additional seconds (be careful not to overbeat). Sift confectioners’ sugar and ground almonds in a separate bowl, combine the mixture and fold the almond mixture into the egg whites, do not overmix (you need about 30 strokes).
Use a pastry bag with a round 2A decorating tip, twist the pastry bag in order to avoid batter leakage while you are spooning the macaron mixture in. Fill a tablespoon of batter into a plastic bag or pastry bag with a small corner cut off and pipe a test disk of batter, onto prepared baking sheet. If the disk of batter holds a peak instead of flattening immediately, gently fold the batter a few more times and retest.
Let the piped cookies stand out at room temperature until they form a hard skin on top, about 40min. to 1 hour (depending on the humidity).
Preheat oven to 285 degrees F (140 degrees C).
Bake cookies until set but not browned, about 10 minutes; they shouldn’t stick to the parchment paper. Let cookies cool completely before filling.

[b]For the filling[/b]

Clean and cut the fresh strawberries or frozen strawberries into a food processor and puree until smooth.
Add the strawberry puree and sugar to a saucepan, bring the puree to a boil (stir occasionally). Cook the puree until you have a thick consistency (about 5-10 minutes).
Let the puree cool down, you can place the puree into the fridge to speed up the cooling.
Add mascarpone and cream cheese to a stand mixer and mix until smooth, add 3-4 tablespoons of cold strawberry puree to the filling and mix until combined.
Pipe the filling onto cooled down macaroons and serve immediately or store in the fridge for 1 day.