Lightly Freckled Macarons with Cheesecake Filling. Flavored with Mathilda Liqueur

Hello my darling bees! I've been wanting to make these for some time now, When I got married to my husband, Harvey, (a very long time ago), we had theses at our reception. They went like hot cakes! From that moment on, I was obsessed with learning how do you make theses delightfully chewy treats that look like perfectly colored buttons. With one bite, its feels like a party in your... um... mouth! Well, you get what I mean... its always nice having a party go off in your mouth.

I don't know about you, But! I love love love Macrons, I could do a whole series on them alone, maybe I will when I have more time, but until then, here we are. 

Cooking time: 30 minutes
Prep time: 2 hours 
Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes (including filling)
Yield: 20 filled macarons

What do I need?

• 100g Egg White (room temperature) 
• 100g Almond Flour (fine)
• 100g Powdered Sugar 
• Pinch of Salt
• 100g Sugar 
• 1 Cup of water 
• Food coloring (optional)

What do I do?

1	Start by preheating your oven to 300°F, then line two baking sheets with parchment paper (set these to one side).
2	Sift together your powdered sugar, super fine almond flour, and a pinch of salt. Sift three or four times (don't roll your eyes, haha... it really helps!).
3	Take your small jug of water (one cup) and pop that in a pan over medium-low heat until it steams. Into your heatproof stand-mixer bowl, combine your egg whites and roughly 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar (sifted), and place the bowl over steaming pot, creating a double boiler/bain-marie.
4	Whisk your egg whites as though your life depends on it, then add sugar continuously until your sugar completely melts and the egg whites become nice and frothy (about 1 minute should be enough), Remove from heat and place the bowl back onto the stand mixer (watch your pinkies... it will be hot).
5	Fit your stand mixer with whisk attachment and whisk on high speed 8-10 while slowly adding in the remaining sugar. Add the food coloring (optional). Continue to whisk for another 3-4 minutes, until stiff meringue peaks form. Yay! We now have Swiss meringue! (You can test a little bit by rolling between your fingers to make sure it's no longer grainy).

6	Now get your sifted dry mix (almond flour, powdered sugar, and salt), then gently shake the mixture into the meringue bowl - I prefer to do this in two half's, whisking in-between - then place the bowl back onto a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Turn the mixer to medium speed 6-8 and whisk for 5 seconds (just enough to combine the almond flour mixture with the egg whites).
7	Stop the mixer and use a large spatula to hand-mix the batter for the rest of your mixing. You’ll want to gently fold the mixture with your spatula - scoop up the batter from the outside of the bowl and gently twisting it into the center in a circle-like manner. You will know when its ready when you can make a figure-of-eight out of your batter without it breaking. Keep folding, and trying the figure-of-eight again until the batter no longer breaks, and the edges of your batter begin to get glossy, and also starts to slowly ooze off your spatula.
8	Once your batter is the correct consistency, pop your batter into large pastry bag fitted with a piping tip (I'm using 1/2 inch Russian Piping Tip). Now you can pipe away - 1" circles - lightly squeeze in an upright position onto your prepared baking sheet, keeping about ½ inches away from one another (you can use a template if you want - link at the bottom of the page)
9	Now lightly tap your baking sheet on counter two or three times from about 5 inches from your contour (not from a great height) to remove any of those dreaded air bubbles - your batter should spread slightly.
10	Then allow the macarons air dry for 15 to 30 minutes, or until dry to the touch (they should no longer be sticky). Just pop them into the prepared oven for 12-15 minutes. I like to turn them around halfway through to ensure they cook evenly even in the most stubborn oven. Once done, let them cool completely before removing from baking sheet (again, watch your pinkies).

Cheesecake Filling

• 8oz - Cream Cheese
• 100g (½ cup) - Powdered Sugar 
• 1/4 cup - Milk 
• 2-3 Tsp - Mathilda Framboise Liqueur (Optional) - or your choice of flavored alcohol

- or -

• 1/2 Tsp - Vanilla extract (in place of alcohol)

1	This is very easy. Get your large bowl and combine all the ingredients except the alcohol/vanilla. Beat with a stand-mixer (or hand held mixer) to a smooth consistency, then add 2-3 Tsp of alcohol for flavor, mix in with a spatula.
2	Cover, and pop in the fridge until you're ready to use.
3	When ready, pop the mix in a piping bag with piping tip (I used a Russian Piping Tip #5), then pipe a layer of filling and repeat until all are done. Now enjoy, but save some for your guests!!

Tips, Tricks & Tiaras 

• There is a difference between 'Almond Flour' and 'Almond Meal', You want the one that says "super-fine".  I used 'unblanched whole almond flour', which resulted in my macarons having a freckley appearance, which I like. Blanched flour will also work just fine too.
  
  
• Instead of making french meringue, warm the eggwhites. This results in a more stable base for otherwise finicky macarons.
  
  
• For best results, bake your macrons bake at a low temperature.
  
  
• Cracked shells happen, usually when you have over-mixed your batter, or if your oven is set too high. If you don't have an oven thermometer, I highly recommend getting one. They are very helpful - sometimes your oven can say its 300°F, when in fact its really 325°F inside (yes, your oven can lie to you. Rude, I know!)
  
  
• I bake mine for 7 minutes, then like to turn them around for another 6 minutes. 

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Storage

You can freeze your macrons before you add the filling, just be sure to pop them in an air tight container. I've kept mine in the freezer for one week, but I'd recommend no longer than 2 weeks, Let them come to room temperature then carry on with the filling, which will keep for 1-2 days in the fridge. Of course these are always best eaten right away!

​Downloadable Template

To make things a little easier for you, here is a printable template that you can use to help you pipe your macarons to the right size.

1.5_inch_circle_template.pdf
File Size:	932 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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