Crispy meringue sandwich cookies with raspberry butter cream filling. Crispy, chewy almond meringues with a creamy raspberry filling.
I once had a roommate who loved macarons. She would go crazy for them. We would be at the farmers market, and someone would be selling them for $5 or $6. She would buy as many as she could with whatever cash she had with her. It astounded me. How anyone could spend $25 or $30 just for 5 or 6 cookies seemed completely shocking to me.
Well, I finally decided to make them. For the first time I made these, I decided to go to a basic, yet delicious flavor. Raspberry. I figured with as much sugar as in the meringue part of the cookie, having a bit of the tart raspberry flavor might be a good balance.
A few things I learned that I would change for next time. There really isn’t much of a difference between almond flour and almond meal, except that almond meal has the skins of almonds mixed in, while almond flour is made from blanched (skins removed) almonds. I used almond meal for these. They still taste good, but I think they would be a little prettier without the skins showing through. Also, when tinting the meringue, go a little darker than you would think. Baking these fades the color. The meringue was originally the color of peppermint. The cookies turned into a pale pinkish-beige.
3 egg whites (room temperature)
¼ cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Food coloring of your choice
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup almond flour, sifted
Beat egg whites on low until foamy. Add salt, cream of tartar and granulated sugar. Increase mixer to medium or medium high and beat until stiff peaks form. When lifting the whisk attachment of mixer out of the eggs, the peak should stand straight up. This will take about 8 or so minutes. Mix in the food coloring.
Carefully fold in almond flour and powdered sugar. You want the eggs to keep some of the air. It’s a little tricky to get everything incorporated, but if you are patient, continuing to fold should get you where you need to be while keeping some of the air incorporated into the mixture.
Transfer the batter to a pastry bag or Ziplock bag with a half-inch tip fitted in the bottom. Pipe out one-inch rounds on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Tap the pan against the counter a few times to let out the air bubbles.
Let the cookies sit out for about a half an hour to an hour. They should no longer be sticky when you put them in the oven, though they may be a little tacky. Doing this helps them to develop the “feet” people talk about when making a perfect macaron. While cookies are drying out, preheat the oven to 300 F degrees.
Bake about 18-20 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies should have the ridges around the edges, or the “feet”, and the tops should be crisp. Let cool.
Raspberry Buttercream
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
½ cup fresh or thawed frozen raspberries, worked through a sieve to extract 3 tablespoons of juice
Push raspberries through a fine-mesh sieve, until you have 3 tablespoons of pulp and juice. Throw away the seeds and any remains in the sieve.
Beat the butter until it turns pale and fluffy. With mixer still running, add powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time. Scrape down sides of bowl and beaters. Add juice and pulp to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until incorporated.
Flip over the macarons. If you want to be fancy, you can pipe the buttercream onto the bottom of a macaron. I was lazy and used a teaspoon and put a dollop on the bottom of the macaron. Top with another macaron (not upside down.) Repeat with remaining macarons.
Refrigerate if not eating right away.
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