Passion Fruit Macarons

• servings: 26 servings
• active time: 2 hours
• total time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

100 grams egg whites (3.5 oz)

100 grams granulated sugar (3.5 oz)

105 grams almond flour (3.7 oz)

105 grams powdered sugar (3.7 oz)

Food coloring I used yellow

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup passion fruit pulp*

2 egg whites

1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams, 3.5 oz.)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup white chocolate chips (optional to drizzle on top)

Passion fruit seeds (optional)

Directions

Macaron Shells

Before you start, get all of your ingredients ready. Prepare a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip. Set aside.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon mat.

I use a baking mat with the macaron template already in it. You can make your own or print it from the internet, and just place it under silicon mat, or parchment paper. I recommend using a silicone mat.

Measure out all of your ingredients.

Sift powdered sugar and almond flour together. Set aside.

Place egg whites and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl or in a double boiler. Over a pan of simmering water, whisk the whites and sugar until frothy and sugar completely melted. It will take a couple minutes. You can test by touching the mixture between your fingers, and if you feel any sugar granules just keep whisking mixture over the water bath.

Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the simmering water.

Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.

With the whisk attachment, start whisking mixture on low for about 30 seconds, then gradually start increasing speed to medium. Whisk on medium for one to two minutes, until mixture is white and starting to become fluffy. Raise speed to high for a few minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Best way to check this is to keep your eye on the whites. Once they get glossy and you start seeing streaks formed by the whisk, it might be time to stop.

Whisk until stiff peaks have formed. When you pull your whip up, the peak should form a bird’s beak shape, but shouldn’t be falling to the side, the peak should be stiff, forming a slightly curved shape at the top.

Pour powdered sugar and almond flour into stiff whites.

Start folding gently forming a letter J with a spatula.

Add the food coloring at this point, if using.

It’s time to stop folding when the batter is glossy and has a thick and flowing consistency. There are several ways to test this.

First, I pick up some batter with my spatula and try to draw a figure 8 with the batter that is dripping off the spatula. If you can form several 8 figures without the batter breaking up, that’s one indication that it might be ready.

There’s another test you can do. I call it the Teaspoon test.

Grab a teaspoon of batter and spoon onto the parchment paper or silicon mat. Wait a minute to see how it behaves.

If the batter stays stiff, forming a point and doesn’t spread out a bit, I start folding a little bit more, about 3 folds.

Test again.

Once the batter spreads out a bit and starts to look glossy and smooth on top, on the parchment paper, I transfer my mixture to the piping bag.

You don’t want your batter to be too runny either. So be careful not to overmix. It’s always best to undermix and test several times until the proper consistency has been achieved.

The best way I can describe this stage being perfect is when you hold the spatula with batter on top of the bowl and the batter falls off the spatula slowly but effortlessly. The batter will keep flowing off the spatula non-stop, but not too quickly.

Transfer batter to a piping bag fitted with a round tip.

Place piping bag directly 90 degrees over the center of each macaron template. Apply equal pressure and carefully pipe for about 3 seconds, and then quickly pull the bag up twisting slightly.

Once you’ve piped as many circles as you could, bang the trays against the counter a few times each.

Let your trays sit for a while so the shells will dry out a little bit. I usually leave about 20-40 minutes, depending on how humid the day is. You’ll know they’re ready when you gently touch the surface of a macaron and it seems dry.

Pre-heat the oven to 300°F.

Bake one tray at a time.

Bake for 6 minutes, rotate the tray if needed.

I bake each tray for a total of 18-20 minutes.

When baked, the macarons will have a deeper color and formed feet. And they will be coming off the mat easily, and with a completely formed bottom.

Remove from the oven and bake the other tray.

Let the macarons cool down before proceeding with the filling.

Passion Fruit Curd

Cream the butter with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds at medium speed.

Add the sugar and salt to the butter and cream for another minute.

Add the egg yolks, one at a time, creaming until each egg yolk is incorporated before adding the next one.

Pour the passion fruit pulp in the bowl and mix. Mixture will seem curdled and separated, and that’s ok.

Transfer it to a small saucepan.

Start cooking at low heat, stirring non-stop with a spatula.

Keep cooking for 5-10 minutes. Don’t let the mixture boil, and don’t stop stirring.

The curd should be thick, coating the back of a spoon.

Depending on how high or low the heat is, the time will vary. I suggest keeping at low, or medium-low heat. You don’t want the eggs to boil, and you don’t want the mixture to stick to the bottom of the pan, which will easily happen if the heat is too high, or if you stop stirring.

Once the curd is ready, pour it into a heat-proof bowl, and let it cool down.

Place it in the fridge for at least 6 hours to chill through and get thick.

Marshmallow frosting

Mix all ingredients, except for the vanilla extract together in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water over medium heat.

Whisk mixture while it sits in the double boiler.

Keep whisking over simmering water until it reaches 140F.

That way the egg whites will be in a safe temperature to be consumed.

Move bowl to the mixer.

Whip with the whisk attachment for about 5 minutes on high speed.

Add vanilla and mix to combine.

To assemble

Pipe the marshmallow frosting around the edges of the bottom shell macarons.

Fill with the passion fruit curd. It makes it easier to place the curd in a piping bag and pipe it in the middle.

Place another shell on top.

Drizzle white chocolate and top with passion fruit seeds, if desired.

Storage

These macarons will store nicely in the fridge for up to 5 days. The marshmallow frosting doesn't keep for too long, so I don't recommend freezing them.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 macaron
• Calories: 125 kcal