Recipe: Pistachio macarons (with Italian meringue)

Some time ago I decided to make green macarons and so I bought a powdered green colouring (which for some reason is orange until it melts in a liquid).
Several months later, I finally made them! Don’t know why I waited so long but here they are! 😀
This recipe, taken from Christophe Felder’s book “Pâtisserie!”, is for around 80 pistachio macaron shells (so 40 macarons) and a pistachio buttercream filling.
To make them, I had to use fresh unsalted pistachios: they are not so easy to find in supermarkets (apparently the whole world likes them salted) and they’re even a bit pricey, but the result was definitely worth it. 🙂
Moreover, the recipe called for pistachio paste. You can certainly find it in shops, but why buying it while RoadToPastry has a fantastic recipe for a homemade pistachio paste?
So far I had only made macarons with a ganache filling, and this was the first time I tried a buttercream filling. It is not difficult at all: it’s just soft butter whipped with some sugar, ground almonds and the main ingredient, pistachios.
As I already mentioned in a previous article, macarons are quite touchy and require a lot of precision and a good mastery of the technique. Nothing impossible, if you follow my step-by-step recipe below (and don’t forget reading the notes at the bottom)! 🙂
Pistachio macarons (Italian meringue) with buttercream filling
Ingredients
Macaron batter
200g | Powdered sugar |
135g | Almond flour |
65g | Pistachios (or 65g of almond flour) |
75g | Egg whites (for the dry ingredients) |
75g | Egg whites (for the Italian meringue) |
200g | Granulated sugar |
75g | Water |
Powdered green colouring (just the tip of a knife) |
Pistachio buttercream filling
200g | Unsalted butter (softened) |
130g | Powdered sugar |
80g | Almond flour |
60g | Pistachios (finely chopped) |
80g | Pistachio paste |
Directions
Macaron shells
Pistachio cream filling
Assembling the macarons
Note
- When the food processor is in action, its blades will heat the almond flour and pistachios: for this reason it is very important to work with chilled ingredients and to avoid overheating them by pausing the processor regularly
- Macarons require precision in terms of quantities, technique and also temperature: use a chilled almond flour, room temperature egg whites and check the sugar syrup temperature with a thermometer (yes you really need it, but it just costs about 15€)
- Based on personal experience, silicone mats are not the best choice for macarons as the "crown" at the bottom might not develop well; I prefer the good old parchment paper in this case
- To pipe the batter, keep the pastry bag vertically and mechanically apply the following technique: 1) Pipe enough batter - 2) Stop piping - 3) Draw a round on top of the piped macaron and quickly lift the piping bag vertically at the same time
- For best results, pipe the macarons alternately in the pan, like in the pictures
- It is possible to scale this recipe, but be careful when scaling down since it can be very difficult to whip well less than 60g of egg whites
- Macarons need to absorb humidity for at least one day in the fridge . Then they can keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the fridge and can be frozen as well for several months.