Pistachio Macarons

Here's another macaron recipe! This time it's quite a sophisticated one I think as the macarons are filled with a pistachio buttercream, which gives the macarons an extra nutty taste. You could also try finely grinding some pistachios and use 50% pistachio, 50% ground almond in the macaron mix, but I haven't had a go at this method yet (hopefully soon I'll give that a go!).

These need to be kept in an airtight container, and I think they are best eaten the day after baking, as the shells soften slightly and the flavour seems to intensify.

Ingredients:

For the macaron shells:

160g (1 & 1/4 cups) ground almonds
175g (1 & 1/2 cups) icing sugar
4 (125ml/1/2 cup) medium egg whites
165g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
50ml (3 tbsp and 1 tsp) water
Green food colouring (I used a concentrated gel)

For the pistachio filling:

50g (1/3 cup) shelled pistachios
1/4 tsp sea salt
65g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
55g (1/4 cup) softened butter
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp water

Method:

1. Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor (or high power blender) and blitz for 2-3 second bursts, until the mixture is very fine. Don't over blend the mixture as the almonds will start to turn to almond butter.

2. Sieve the almonds/icing sugar into a large bowl. Add 2 (60ml/1/4 cup) of the egg whites, and beat until a smooth paste is formed.

3. Heat the granulated sugar and water in a saucepan, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Then stop stirring and place a sugar thermometer in the pan. In a grease-free bowl, add the remaining two egg whites. Once the sugar/water has reached 112C, start whisking the egg whites at a medium speed (I used a stand mixer and found this required less of my attention than a handheld).

4. Once the sugar/water syrup has reached 118C, the egg whites should be white and frothy (like shaving foam). Turn the stand mixer down to a low speed, then carefully pour the syrup onto the egg whites, whisking constantly. Be very careful not to touch the syrup as it is super hot! Once all of the syrup has been added, turn up the speed of the mixer to high and keep whisking until the mixture is shiny and forms peaks when the whisk is lifted from the mixture (this should take between 5 and 7 minutes).

5. Dip a toothpick into the violet food colouring and then dip into the meringue mixture. Whisk briefly. Add more food colouring until you have the desired green colour.

6. Use a metal spoon to fold a third of the egg white mixture into the almond/sugar paste. Once incorporated, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

7. Fill a piping bag with the macaron mixture, and cut off 1cm from the end (or use a large round nozzle). Grease and line four baking trays with parchment paper and hold the piping bag vertically above where you want to pipe. Pipe directly down onto the tray until you have a circle 3cm wide (or whatever shape you like - I also like making rectangles so that they look like mini eclairs). Repeat across the trays, leaving about a 1&1/2cm gap between each macaron shell.

8. Tap the tray on the surface a few times, then leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, until a "skin" has formed on the macarons - this means that when you gently touch the macaron, no mixture goes on your finger.

9. Preheat the oven to 170c (150c fan)/ 340F/ gas mark 3. Before you place the baking trays into the oven, tap the trays against the surface again. This gives the perfect "foot" of macarons. Bake the macarons for 10-12 minutes - keep an eye on them after 8 minutes in case they are browning too much. Remove the macarons from the oven and transfer the macarons (with the baking paper still attached) to a wire rack to cool.

10. To make the pistachio filling, place the pistachios and salt in a high-speed blender/food processor with around 1 tsp water. Pulse until the mixture becomes a smooth butter, adding teaspoons of water if the mixture isn't coming together.

11. Pour the caster sugar and 2 tbsp water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the temperature reads 120c/250f on a sugar thermometer.

12. Start whisking the egg yolks using an electric whisk or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Once the sugar/water gets to 120c/250f, gently pour over the egg yolks, continuously whisking on a low speed (to prevent splashing).

13. Once all of the sugar syrup has been added, turn the speed of the whisk up to medium, and whisk for 5-10 minutes, or until the temperature drops to 40c/104f.

14. Chop the butter into 1cm cubes, and add a few cubes of butter at a time to the buttercream whilst whisking. Once you can no longer see the butter cubes, add another 2-3 cubes. Keep going until you have used up all of the butter and the mixture is light.

15. Add the pistachio paste and whisk in to combine. Once well mixed, transfer to a piping bag.

16. Once the macarons have cooled, flip half over and pipe about 2 tsp worth of filling on each flipped shell. Top with an un-flipped shell.

17. Enjoy!!

If you liked these, here are my other macaron recipes :)