Jelly Doughnut Macarons (with Macaron Tutorial)
tasty almond macarons with raspberry jelly and cake icing filling
Equipment
- baking sheets
- parchment
- macaron template
- scale
- candy thermometer
- 1/2 inch piping tip
- piping bags
Ingredients
- 212 g almond meal or 1 3/4 cup plus 2 1/2 tbsp
- 212 g powdered sugar or 1 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp
- 82 g egg whites or 1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp
- 90 g egg whites or 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp
- 236 g sugar or 1 cup plus 3 tbsp plus a pinch for the whipped whites
- 158 g water or 2/3 cup
For the raspberry jam filling:
- 2 cups frozen raspberries
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp powdered gelatin
For the cake icing filling:
- 1/2 cup shortening or butter room temp
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp doughnut or cake batter extract
- 2 tsp water or milk as needed
Instructions
- Prepare your baking sheets and templates as directed in the post and have them all set up before you begin. This is one of those recipes that you want to prep all your tools and ingredients before you start the process.
- Make the jam so it has time to cool, and you can also make the icing so it is ready to go and just store it in a piping bag until ready to use.
- For the jam, heat the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat. Dissolve the gelatin in 1 tbsp of water and microwave for 10 seconds until melted. Stir and mash the raspberries to break them down and cook until you have a mostly liquid jam and the sugar is dissolved. Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds, then whisk in the gelatin. Cover and place in the fridge to set up. When fully cooled and set, mix it gently and place into a piping bag and set aside for filling.
- For the icing, add the butter or shortening to a mixer with paddle and whip on medium until fluffy. Add in the extract and the powdered sugar and mix well again, scraping the bowl as needed. Thin with a little milk or water if needed to get a consistency you'd use to frost a cake. Place into a piping bag and set aside until later.
- In a large bowl, sift your almond meal and powdered sugar to be sure they are well combined. Add the 82 grams of egg whites and fold together until you have a cohesive mix. This will seem too dry, but it will come together if you fold it long enough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
- Place the 90 g of egg whites into a clean stand mixer with whip attachment. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add the sugar and water. Mix well and start watching the temp. When the temp reaches 203, start your mixer on medium and add a pinch of sugar. Keep whipping the whites while your syrup is heating. If they reach soft peaks before the sugar hits 248, turn the mixer to low.
- When the sugar hits 248, turn the mixer to medium low and very slowly drizzle the hot syrup between the whisk and the side of the bowl. Do this slowly so you don't curdle your eggs. Continue slowly adding the syrup and then turn the mixer up to medium and whip for 5 minutes, or until you have glossy stiff peaks an the meringue is cool. The bottom of the bowl may still feel slightly warm.
- Remove the plastic wrap from your almond meal mixture and add about 1/4 of the whipped whites to it. Slowly fold the egg whites in. This will take some patience at first as the mixture is thick. Be careful to fold gently as to not deflate your whites. Add another 1/4 and fold that in. You may not use all the whites, so start adding smaller amounts here.
- Continue to fold in additional whites until your batter makes a ribbon when you pick up your spatula and hold it over the bowl. You want the batter to fall smoothly off, but you also want it to hold its shape in a ribbon when it falls into the bowl and it should slowly move but not disappear completely. This takes some practice and there are some great videos on youTube on what it looks like when correct. I forgot to take my own. It is better to be a little stiff than too runny so proceed carefully.
- Once your batter is ready, prep a piping bag with the 1/2 inch tip and fill the bag.
- Pipe circles onto your prepped guides by holding the bag at a 90 degree angle and holding steady pressure on the top of the bag until the circle reaches your guide. Then quickly flick the bag in a circle to detach the stream of batter (plenty of good videos online of this too, it takes a little practice).
- Preheat oven to 310 degrees with no convection. Fill all your trays and then allow the macarons to sit for 30-60 minutes until they develop a skin. This depends on time of year, humidity, etc. If you can very gently touch the top of one and it feels dry and doesn't stick to you, they are likely ready. Wait 5 more minutes after this point and bake one tray at a time.
- Bake about 12-15 minutes, depending on the size and temp. They are ready when they have feet, have not yet browned, and when you press gently on the cap from the side it only moves very slightly or not at all. Remove to a counter to cool.
- When they are all baked and cooled, match them with the most similar other halves and pipe a circle of icing around the outer edge of the bottom cookie. If you want to make jam doughnut looking ones like my pic, leave a small hole in the piped icing for the jam to squeeze out. Pipe jam into the center and out towards the little gap. Top with your top cookie and gently press slightly to bring them together. Fill all the cookies. Eat a few because who can wait.
- Refrigerate or freeze the finished cookies for 24 to 48 hours to cure them, then return to room temp to serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!