Friday, December 3, 2010

A Trans-Atlantic Visit: Macarons with Raspberry-Goat Cheese Filling

Before I left for my meeting in Atlanta, where I passed along chocolate chunk banana bread and got soaked trying to find chocolate, I had an exciting weekend visitor.

My friend Leigh was in DC all the way from Frankfurt! And she spent some of her very limited time in DC with me. How lucky was I?

Even luckier: She brought me German chocolate and a cute Christmas card.

Now wouldn’t it be just totally embarrassing if I didn’t have something for her, too? Luckily, I’ve become obsessed with making macarons ever since the Macaron Monday challenge issued by Julie, Evan, and Heather, and I had a batch filled with raspberry-goat cheese buttercream waiting patiently in the freezer.

Since my last stab at macarons involved shells that were heavy on the chocolate flavor, I used a slightly different recipe for plain macaron shells, which I found from Helene’s site and converted to measures rather than mass because I still lack a kitchen scale. And these also turned out to be perfect for the MacTweets Savory Sweet Holiday Macs Mac Attack Challenge.

Ingredients for Shells (as adapted from Tartlette)

1 2/3 cups powdered sugar

¾ cup almond flour

3 egg whites

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Few drops red food coloring

I started by blending the powdered sugar and almond flour in my food processor, being careful to arrive at a finer mixture than I did last time. I was determined to get smooth tops and perfect feet this time.

In the interest of getting perfect feet, I also whipped up the meringue a little more than last time, as I realize in retrospect that the meringue I made during that attempt wasn’t quite the consistency of shaving cream. I whipped the eggs until foamy, then continued whipping while slowly adding the granulated sugar, and finally added a few drops of red food coloring at the very end of the process.

Nice firm, but not dry, meringue to work with. After carefully folding the meringues and almond-powdered sugar mixture in fewer than 50 strokes, taking care to scrape the bottom of the bowl on the strokes, I piped the mixture in rounds about 1 ½” in diameter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I let them sit for 45 minutes, determined to let a skin develop so that I would get that foot on each shell. Jessica over at Bake Me Away may call this a foot fetish that macaron makers all seem to develop, but I sadly think I’ve also caught that bug. After giving the unbaked shells time to develop that skin, I put them in the oven, which I’d pre-heated to 280° F, for 20 minutes, and crossed my fingers.

Look Ma- FEET! On MY MACARON SHELLS.

After a bit of a happy dance (it’s acceptable, I live by myself), I moved along to making the filling, which was loosely based on the old-fashioned buttercream recipe I learned from my mother decades ago.


Raspberry-Goat Cheese Buttercream Ingredients

6 ounces goat cheese, softened

4 tablespoons butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

5 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed, pureed and strained


I began by taking the softened butter and goat cheese and whipping them with the whisk attachment to my stand mixer, which I ran at high speed, for about five minutes, until they were quite fluffy. Then I continued whipping the mixture while very slowly adding the powdered sugar, and finally mixed in the pureed and strained raspberries.

It was a little soft, so I refrigerated it before piping it onto the shells and making the cute little macaron sandwiches.

And yes, they have feet. The tops of the shells still aren’t quite smooth enough, so I’ll have to make more macarons.


It’s too bad Leigh will be back in Germany and unable to eat them for me. I’ll need to find other volunteers.

32 comments:

  1. Don't you love getting cool food gifts from friends who live in other countries? And ooh la la what stunning macs! Love the flavors! Why don't you join us at Mactweets? We have a monthly theme and we all bake together. Casual and fun! We'd love you to bake with us!

    http://mactweets.blogspot.com/

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  2. @Jamie It is cool when you get gifts from foreign visitors, and even cooler when that visitor is as awesome as Leigh.

    I looked at MacTweets a couple weeks ago and was thinking of joining...what exactly do I have to do?

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  3. Those look deeeeelish!!!!!!!! I'm feelin' a macaron craving coming on...how much would you charge to ship some to me? =P

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  4. @fitchocoholic I would love to do a cookie exchange! Though...these might not ship so well, the shells are really delicate and the buttercream might not hold up so well that well. Plus, most of the fun is making, not eating, them. Such a challenge!

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  5. oh, those look yum for sure and I bet they were! macarons are the new cupcakes did you hear? raspberry-goat cheese buttercream sounds almost too good to be true.

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  6. @The Chocolate Addict It was just the right blend of tang and sweet. And so so easy to make! Way easier than tempering chocolate, no doubt.

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  7. Oh dear me, I adore goats cheese so much that I desperately wish I could open my freezer and find a batch of these inside! *closes eyes and wishes really hard....*

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  8. @Hannah Did it work, Hannah? If not, you could always whip some up and enjoy it on plain cookies...or toast...or...straight...

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  9. They are so CUTE! Will be attempting these soon. Thanks for the recipe.

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  10. @onebrewhouseThe goat cheese buttercream is the best part - and the easiest!

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  11. Wow they look pretty good. It a few months since I did any baking. Might have to give these a shot.

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  12. @foodjunkYou should give these a try - though make sure you devote enough prep time to this. You need a project plan to make macarons.

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  13. Oooo! My husband and I love macarons. He keeps bugging me to make them, but I haven't really been able to find a do-able recipe. This one makes me have a little bit of faith that I'd be remotely successful!

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  14. @Kristen Kristen, you should totally try it - and check out Helene's site, she has really good information about when you've beaten the meringue enough and the like. However, all her instructions are in weights, mine are converted to measures because I still lack a kitchen scale :).

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  15. These are so pretty! My taste buds are unfortunately allergic to goat cheese (I know, I know), but I love everything else that's going on here. Nice footsies!

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  16. @Jessica @ bake me away! Ohs nos, Jessica - goat cheese issues! I bet cream cheese would be a good stand-in.

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  17. @Victoria (The District Chocoholic)Oh yes, that would totally work! I keep trying goat cheese and it keeps tasting like the most awful thing ever. :(

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  18. @Victoria (The District Chocoholic)I'm embarrassed to say that brie is in a close boat to goat cheese for me...doh! Even though I'm a cheese addict, it's probably the thing I'm most weird about.

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  19. @Jessica @ bake me away! Oh man, tough crowd tonight! Tell you what: I'm working on a cheddar+chocolate recipe. You like cheddar?

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  20. I ate so many macarons I got sick.

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  21. @Leigh Oh but Leigh, they were delicious and worth it, right?

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  22. LEIGH RULES!!! (I was also special enough to get a visit from her).

    Damn those recipes look good.

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  23. @Anonymous I agree that Leigh rules. Aren't we lucky to be friends with her?

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  24. Sweet macarons. Love the raspberry goat cheese and the colors are just beautiful.

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  25. What a nice rise of your macaron "feet"! Interesting sweet and savory combo, too.

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  26. @Lora Thank you! I actually thought they clashed a little, but in the picture, the colors are a little better. Either way, the taste was AMAZING.

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  27. @HI Cookery I was also happy with the feet - such a struggle, these macarons are.

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  28. What excellent flavours and feet. I love what you did with the filling; novel & exciting! Thank you for bringing these beauties to MacTweets! It's wonderful to have you join us! {Sorry we got late stopping by...our apologies!}

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  29. Gorgeous macs, and the goat cheese and raspberry is perfection. this is one I'd love to try :)

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  30. @Deeba PAB Thanks for hosting MacTweets - what a fun challenge.

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  31. @Lisa I think the hardest part is not eating the raspberry goat cheese straight.

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