valentine’s day macarons with raspberry filling

A delicious and home-made-sweet surprise on Valentine’s Day; treat your beloved one with this pretty looking and fruity tasting raspberry Macarons!

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Makes about 40 Macarons:

For the shells:

• 200 g ground almonds
• 200 g confectioners sugar
• 50 ml water
• 200 g sugar
• 2 x 75 g egg white (about 5 eggs)
• Red food coloring

Sift the ground almonds and confectioners sugar together through fine sieve, just make sure it is very fine and pour 75 g of the egg white into the almond-confectioners sugar mixture and set aside.

Place the another 75 g of the egg white into a mixing bowl and whip the egg white to the soft peak. Add some colouring paste to the egg white.

Put the water and sugar in a heavy-base saucepan over medium-high heat.

When the syrup reaches 117°C, take if off the heat and slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl with the whipped egg white.

Continue mixing for about 10 minutes, until the meringue cool down. The whipped egg white will be very stiff and glossy.

Mix a third of the whipped egg white into the almond mixture and combine them well. Fold the rest of whipped egg white into the mixture and mix gently, until the batter is smooth and thick.

Put the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 0,8-cm plain tip. Pipe the staggering rows of rounds of the size of a walnut onto baking trays, lined with parchment papers or baking sheets. Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles.

Let the piped shells stand at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes to let the crust forms. When the piped shells are dry to touch without it sticking to your finger, they are good to go into the oven.

Preheat the oven to 170°C and bake the Macarons for about 10 – 12 minutes on the lowest part of the oven.

Remove the tray from the oven and put the Macarons (still on the baking paper) onto a cool bench top. This shocks them and makes them easier to remove from the paper.

For the filling:

• 300 g white chocolate, finely chopped
• 300 g raspberries, fresh or frozen
• 30 g sugar

Stir the raspberries and the sugar in a pan over low heat and bring the mixture to boil. 

Remove the mixture from the heat and blend until smooth, then press the mixture through a sieve over the white chocolate.

Let the chocolate begin to melt, and then stir it gently with a spatula. Set it aside and let it cool completely in the refrigerator, for about 2 hours.

Give the filling on one shell and place the other shell on, slightly twist as you push down so the filling evenly spreads between the two halves.

Store the Macarons in an airtight container in the refrigerator for least 12 hours. Macarons will taste better after they are chilled overnight as the filling flavour will blend in and shells will be less dry. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!