Baked Goods & Sweet Treats Recipes

Pistachio Macarons

Pistachio Macarons are my all-time favourite luxury treat. If a someone brought me a box of chocolates, I’d be grateful for the gesture, but let’s face it- you end up throwing half the chocolates out because they are gross. And it’s a tentative minefield of carefully biting to find one that you like. If someone brought me a bouquet of flowers, I’d love it. I adore having fresh flowers around. But if someone brought me a box of macarons I’d swoon with joy.
 
Now, I love a macaron in most flavours but the pistachio flavoured ones are superior to all others!
 
Also this is the first food photography that I’ve done with an actual camera. I know I have a lot of room for improvement, but I’m still pretty proud of my first DSLR food photography attempts.
 
Pistachio Macarons
macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons
 I call this one the Pistachio Princess.
macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons
You could smell the pistachio when you broke these macarons in half. It was heavenly!
 

Ingredients:

(For macaron)
1 cup of ground almond flour
1/2 ground pistachios
3 egg whites
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
green food dye

(For pistachio buttercream)
1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1/4 cup ground pistachios
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of milk

macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons
An undecorated one.

Instructions:

(For step by step pictures on making and setting up macarons see  Gingerbread Macaron Recipe.)

Prepare 2 large baking sheets. On 2 large pieces of paper the size of your baking sheets, trace 1-1 1/2 inch diameter circles (I used the bottom of a candle….) evenly spaced, leaving about 1 inch between each circle. This will be your template to help you pipe even circles of batter onto the parchment paper. Place one paper on each baking sheet then cover with parchment paper. Set aside. Prepare a pastry bag with a plain tip.

Sift the powdered sugar, the ground almonds, and pistachio together into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

With a hand mixer, whip the egg whites for 30 seconds on low speed then increase speed to high and whip until the whites are foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar as you continue to whip the whites until you obtain a glossy meringue and all of the sugar has been beaten in. The meringue will be very stiff (turn the bowl upside down over your head stiff) and be dense.

Gently but firmly fold the whipped whites into the powdered sugar/ground almonds/ground pistachio, using a silicon spatula or the equivalent, turning the bowl as you lift and fold, making sure you fold in all the dry ingredients completely.

Fill your pastry bag with the batter. Pipe circles onto the parchment paper, using the traced circles on the template sheets to guide you, holding your pastry bag above each circle and piping into the center. Don’t forget to remove your paper template from underneath the baking parchment. 

Allow the macarons to sit out for about an hour or even longer if the shells are not ready to bake. The top of each shell should form a “skin” (it will feel like it hardened a bit when gently touched and not stick to your skin). Preheat your oven to 340°F (170°C). Bake the shells for 12-14 minutes, depending on their size. Mine baked for 12 minutes and my oven bakes fairly slowly.

Remove the tray from the oven and immediately slide the parchment paper with the shells off of the hot baking sheet and onto the counter. Allow to cool completely before sliding the shells very gently off of the parchment paper. Be extra careful with the center of each macaron- that’s where the worst sticking occurs!

macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons


Now make your pistachio buttercream. Cream your butter and confectioner’s sugar together. Mix in the vanilla and milk. Stir in the pistachios and add green dye until you’ve reached your desired color. 


When the macaron shells are cool, pair the shells up evenly, each with a matching partner. Smear a half teaspoon or more of the buttercream onto the bottom shell of each pair.  Carefully sandwich the shells together.

macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons
 You’ll see that some of mine have cracks on top because the feet didn’t set up properly. Despite leaving them to form skins for ages, it was just too cold in the flat for them to properly smooth out.
macaron recipes rhyme & ribbons
These are little edible sugar pearls.


What’s your favourite luxury treat? 

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