Yield - 24 assembled 1.5 inch macarons
My favorite recipe of the season. The shells are full of flavor. They are made with apple pie spice. It is filled with homemade apple sauce and apple cinnamon buttercream. It is essentially eating apple pie, macaron style. I made this with the Swiss meringue method. Happy baking.
I am a huge fan of adding flavor to my macron shells. It does take some experience to do this correctly so as not to distabilize the meringue. If you are new at baling macarons, may want to try basic sheets without the spices first. But I have figured out that using just a loiter pit of extra ingredients will not destabilize a well made macaron meringe.
Ingredients:
For the Shells:
3/4 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar 1 cup almond flour 3 large egg whites, at room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice For the apple pie buttercream filling:
1/2 cup homemade apple sauce or apple jam*
1/2 cup butter, soft, room temperature
2 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
Drop of green food coloring (optional)
* 1/2 cup after it has been cooked down. Half will be used in the buttercream and the other half to fill the macarons as described below. My homemade apple sauce has less moisture than the store bought version. If you use store bought sauce, I recommend you cook down the apple sauce to remove excess moisture. This is an optional step but I recommend you do this if you want to keep the macarons for a few days in the fridge. If you do not cook down the sauce, it may make the shells soggy after 1-2 days in the fridge. If using apple jam, you do not need to cook it down.
Method:
1. Lay parchment paper on baking sheets. You will need 2 baking sheets. Have a macaron template under the parchment paper (you can slide it around as needed when you start piping later).
2. In a food processor, grind confectioners’ sugar, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and almond flour to mix it up and make it a fine texture. Next sieve. In my previous recipes, I used a fine sieve. Now I use a regular flour sieve and it works well and faster. You may have 2 tablespoons of coarse almond flour that doesn’t pass through the sieve. It is okay to toss this.
3. Prepare a water bath where you will begin making your meringue. Heat some water in a saucepan until it is just about to boil.
4. Place egg whites and granulated sugar in your mixing bowl and place this over your water bath from step #3. Immediately begin whisking this to dissolve the sugar. You can use an electric hand mixer on low speed but you can also just use a whisk.
Note: To make your water bath, use a saucepan that your mixing bowl will fit in. The trick here is to use a setup in which the mixing bowl does not touch the hot water in the saucepan but the steam from the water heats the bowl. To achieve this, I use a rimmed saucepan that suspends my mixing bowl.
5. Continue to mix until all the sugar is dissolved. This is the trick for Swiss meringue. You have to let the sugar completely dissolve. You can test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers to ensure a smooth texture.
6. Once the egg white-sugar mixture is ready, take your mixing bowl off the water bath. At this point, you will want to start whipping up your meringue under high speed with your hand mixer or stand mixer. Continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
7. Using a spatula, fold in the sieved almond flour mixture from step #2. Do not whisk anything from this stage on. Handle the meringue with care. Fold it in 2 to 3 additions. Be careful not to over handle this mixture. Carefully continue combining by folding, always sliding the spatula to the bottom of the bowl and back up to make sure no pockets of dry ingredients remain. Fold till you have the correct consistency.
Note: The correct consistency is like molten larva. When you raise your spatula, the macaron mixture should trickle down like a ribbon and the ribbon lines slowly fade into the mixture in the bowl within 8-10 seconds.
8. Prepare a pastry bag with the 1/2 inch or larger round piping tip. Carefully transfer the macaron mixture to the pastry bag.
9. Pipe the macaron mixture onto the baking sheets. Hit tray on the counter for a few times to let out air bubbles. Then let them rest for at least 20-40 mins, could be longer if humidity is high.
10. Preheat the oven to 295 degrees Fahrenheit.
11. Test if the macarons are ready to bake: lightly touching the macaron mixture, a light coating should have developed and it should not stick to your finger.
12. Bake for about 14 minutes at 295 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake only one tray of macarons at a time. The macarons are ready when they lift off the parchment paper easily.
13. Let them cool on the sheet for 5-10 minutes then transfer the macarons to a cooling rack.
14. Make the apple pie buttercream filling - Cream the butter with a whisk for 1-2 minutes. Then add the apple sauce and continue whisking. Lastly add the rest of the filling ingredients in small batches to prevent the powdered sugar from making a mess. Add a drop of green coloring if desired to get a light apple green color. Move to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4 inch piping tip.
15. To assemble the macarons: Make sure the macarons after they have cooled to room temperature. Make a well on the under-surface of a macaron using the buttercream filling. Do this by piping a circle. Add apple sauce or jam to the well and sandwich with another macaron of comparable size.
16. Enjoy.
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