Pistachio Macarons

UPDATE 2019 I now use 55 g almond flour, 50 g powdered sugar, 45 g egg whites, 45 g granulated sugar and bake for 25 min at 285F.

Update Jan 2020, lately I’ve been doing 305F for 20min. once again you just nead to learn your oven (going to leave this recipe at 285 though). See my notes in my General Macarons Recipe for the most up to date.

This was my first time 1. making pistachio macarons and 2. using a buttercream as a filling (I usually prefer curds, as most of the macarons I make are fruit flavored.

My swiss meringue buttercream is not a normal one because I initially tried making the buttercream from Sweet and Savory by Shinee, but it was too sweet and too runny, so I made some swiss meringue and incorporated that in. And for the shells, I saw pistachio macaron recipes online were all Italian method, but the ratio of pistachio flour to almond was roughly 1:2, so I followed that for the French method recipe I use.

1. Macaron Shells: For about 10 1.5 inch macarons:

• 30 g almond flour (sift, no big almond pieces)
• 16 g pistachio flour (grind up pistachios, sift) 
• 41.66 g powdered sugar (give or take, since kitchen scales don’t have this precision)
• 35 g egg whites (room temp)
• 35 g granulated sugar

1. Oven to 300F (or 325F, see below). Measure out and sift your powdered sugar and almond flour. Whisk together and set aside.
2. Make your meringue. Beat/ whisk your egg whites until frothy and start to incorporate the granulated sugar a bit a time. Beat until stiff peaks. If you want food coloring, add it at the soft peaks stage.
3. Okay. You should look up macaronage (folding of ingredients) on Youtube if you don’t know how already.
   • In summary: add in dry ingredients to the meringue, a third at a time until mixed. And folding by basically scraping along the edge of the bowl and then pressing down along the center in sort of a J shape. Do this until you have a lava like consistency, where you can pick up your spatula and the batter will drop down in a ribbon. My test is to bang the bowl on the table and see if the ribbon that just fell incorporates back into the main blob—if it does, it’s ready. Otherwise, I do a few more folds. Put into a piping bag.
4. Pipe out your macarons. I use a silpat (would highly recommend). Rap the baking sheet against the table a few times. 
5. Add larger chunks of pistachios on top.
6. I hate waiting for the shells to dry, so I cheat and actually put the oven temp at 325. Then I open the oven and hold the tray in the oven, rotating it every 10 seconds or so for about a minute. Then again for another 30 seconds. This quickly dries out the shells :p. You want to be able to touch the shell and have it not be sticky. Then I drop down the oven temp back to 300 (it’s about this low anyways since the door has been open.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

2. Pistachio sort of Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

• 32.5 g sugar (1)
• 15 ml water
• 1 egg yolk
• 27.5 g butter (softened)
• 10-20 g pistachio paste (grind up pistachios and add a bit of water)
• 1 egg white
• 32.5 g sugar (2)

1. Dissolve one amount of sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring up to 250F to make a syrup.
2. While heating up syrup, beat egg yolk.
3. When syrup is ready, slowly pour into bowl while mixing at medium speed until temp drops to 100ishF (smooth and white mixture).
4. Add the butter, a bit at a time. Then add pistachio paste and food coloring.
5. Make meringue by putting egg white and second amount of sugar in a bowl and mixing until incorporated.
6. Put bowl over boiling water and mix until mixture reaches 120F (sugar dissolved), then take off and finish mixing until stiff peaks.
7. Add meringue, a bit at a time, to the pistachio cream until you get a stiffer filling. I ended up using about 1/4 of the meringue.
8. Pipe on filling and assemble macarons.
9. Let the macarons rest in an airtight container in the fridge overnight for optimal chewiness! Gluck!
   -Mario