Strawberries & Cream Macarons

Kasia

Who doesn't love macarons? They're elegant, flavourful and light. Following the right recipe, they are also not as hard to make as people believe!

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 16

Refrigeration Time 1

Total Time 2 16

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine European, French

Servings 30 Macarons

Pre-heat the oven at 170 degrees Celcius.
Put the egg whites and lemon juice into a bowl and whisk until they start to froth. Slowly add the caster sugar (one tablespoon at a time) whilst continuing to whisk.
Whisk the mixture until the egg whites form stiff peaks. I find doing this using a medium-speed hand whisk (and increasing as the whites become stiffer) most effective. Stiff peaks will form after 5-7 minutes.
In a seperate bowl, measure out the dry igredients. Then add these to the bowl containing the egg whites and gently fold. Do not mix too much as you do not want to lose the air created in the whisking.
Add in the food colouring and fold until fully combined.
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Using a piping bag, pipe the macaron mixture onto the baking tray (1 inch circles). You do this by holding the bag to the paper and slowly pulling upwards as you pipe the mixture. Ensure that you leave 1-inch gaps between each macaron so they do not stick together. Tip: draw circles onto the baking paper as a guide before piping.
Pop this into the oven and bake for 16 minutes. You should see the legs form on the macarons.
Leave to completely cool before decorating/filling.

Whilst the macarons are in the oven, you can make the filling. Combine all of the ingredients into one bowl and mix until combined.
Pop this into the fridge for at least 1-hour to set.
Once the macarons have cooled, spoon/pipe a thin layer of filling onto one side of the macaron. Use this to stick two halves together. The filling is soft so do not overfill.

To decorate my macarons, I used melted white chocolate and freeze dried strawberries (before assembling the macarons). Do this once the macarons have completely cooled.
If not already done, melt the white chocolate using the Bain-Marie method.
Using a spoon, drizzle the melted chocolate over the macarons (pattern as desired).
Whilst the white chocolate is still wet, crumble the freeze-dried strawberries onto the macarons.
Leave the decoration to set fully before assembling.

I stored my macarons in the fridge (air-tight container) as the filling can become runny at room-temperature after a while.

Keyword Cream, Elegant, Fancy, Macaron, Strawberries