Strawberry Macaron 草莓马卡龙

This sweet and cold French macaron cookie with semi-sweet and tangy strawberry buttercream filling is most apt for a hot day. 

No artificial colour nor flavoring is being used. The macaron shells were tinted pink using beetroot powder, while a teaspoon of strawberry purée rendered both colour and flavour to the buttercream filling 😋

Yield: 19 bite-size macarons

Ingredients 

38g egg white 蛋白

38g fine sugar 细砂糖

45g superfine almond powder 超幼杏仁粉

51g icing sugar 糖粉

1/4 tsp beetroot powder 甜菜根粉

You may adjust the ingredient quantities  based on your egg white weight by using the below converting ratio

Macaron ratio

By multiplying the egg white weight to the respective factors to obtain the individual weight of the other ingredients:

Egg white: x 1

Fine sugar: x 1

Almond powder: x 1.17

Icing sugar: x 1.33

Flavoring powder: 1/4 tsp

(E.g. Cocoa or matcha powder)

Directions

1. Give the almond powder a few short rounds of blitzing in a food processor.

2. Add in icing sugar and beetroot powder, and blitz a few short rounds using pulse actions to keep the mixture lump-free. 

3. Sieve the mixture to ensure a finer texture powder.

Discard the coarser almond grains. This discarded quantity should not be more than 2 tsp. If more than 2 tsp of the coarser grains have been collected, you may need to re-grind the mixture again.

4. Whip the egg white in a dry, clean and grease-free bowl till soft peak stage.

Due to a small amount of egg white involved, I use a handheld blender for this recipe.

Add in the fine sugar, in a few batches, and beat the egg white at low speed. After adding the last batch of fine sugar, increase the mixer speed to medium high.

When the meringue is about to reach stiff peak stage, reduce the mixer speed and check regularly. 

When the tip of the lifted whisk formed a stiff peak meringue, the meringue is ready.

5. Add the almond mixture in a few batches to the meringue.

Use a spatula to fold the almond mixture in. Towards the end of the folding process, try to get rid of air bubbles while you are folding the batter.

The batter is ready when it becomes smooth and glossy.

4. Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round nozzle.

5. Pipe the batter onto a macaron mat or parchment paper. Give the macaron batters a few hard bangs against the work top to even out the batter surface as well as to raise the air bubbles to the surface.

Use the tip of a stick to remove air bubbles and the pointed tips on the macaron batter.

6. Let the macaron batter stands in a well ventilated place to dry the tops. It takes about 30 minutes to dry.

When the batter is dry, it appears matt and dry to touch,

It should be dry to touch.

7. Preheat the oven to 140 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes to get a constant oven temperature.

Bake the macarons at the lower rack of the oven for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Coming towards the end of the baking, you can smell the nice aroma of the almond.

8. Transfer the tray of macarons to a cooling rack to cool down completely before removing them from the baking mat.

Keep the cool macaron shells in an air-tight container till needed.

Strawberry Buttercream filling

Ingredients

30g salted butter, slightly softened 奶油

10g icing sugar 糖粉

2 tsp strawberry purée 草莓泥

1/4 tsp lemon juice 柠檬汁

Directions

1. Hull a strawberry and chopped it into purée.

2. Add about 1/4 tsp of lemon juice to the strawberry purée. Refrigerate till needed.

3. Whip softened butter for about 3 minutes, then add in the icing sugar and continue to whip till the cream becomes pale. 

4. Add in strawberry purée and mix till light and fluffy.

5. Transfer the strawberry buttercream to a small piping bag and keep in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

6. Cut away the tip of the piping bag. Pipe a thick ring of strawberry buttercream over one of the macaron shells.

You can pipe more cream to cover the entire face of the macaron.

Place another macaron shell over. Press lightly to even out the filling. Keep the macaron shells in an air tight container and refrigerate them.

Take out the macarons about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Yumz 😋