Elevate Your Dessert Game with Pistachio Cranberry Macaron
Elevate your dessert game and impress your guests with these elegant and delicious Pistachio Cranberry Macaron. Take your baking skills to new heights and indulge in the luxurious flavors of this gourmet treat today.
If you’re ready to impress your guests and bring your dessert game to a whole new level, Pistachio Cranberry Macaron are the way to go. These elegant treats combine the luxurious nuttiness of pistachios with the tart sweetness of cranberries. It’s a flavor pairing that’s both surprising and delightfully harmonious. Whether you’re baking for a special occasion or simply indulging your own craving for something decadent, this recipe is sure to transform your repertoire.
Can you whip egg whites to stiff peaks? Can you process almond meal and powdered sugar together in a food processor? Are you able to pipe circles on a baking sheet? Finally, do you know how to bang baking sheets on a counter? If you say yes to at least two of these, then you can make pistachio cranberry macaron. It’s just that simple! Trust me on this one.
Why Pistachios and Cranberries?
Pistachios and cranberries are a match made in dessert heaven. The savory, earthy notes of pistachios complement the bright, tangy flavor of cranberries. This makes each bite a balanced taste adventure. This combination feels festive and sophisticated, perfect for holidays or any time you want your baking to stand out. And the colors are festive! Red and green are the epitome of holiday season colors.
The Secret to Perfect Macaron Shells
Achieving that iconic smooth, crisp macaron shell is all about the right ingredients and technique. For this recipe, you’ll use a blend of half almond flour and half homemade pistachio flour. Almond flour is readily available in most grocery stores. Heck, even Walmart has it. And they have their own Great Value brand of almond meal.
The biggest tip for making macaron is controlling moisture and fat in the ingredients. For example, when you make chocolate shells, you need to find a cocoa powder that has .5g of fat or less. This is a fun tip I learned when I took the Sur le Table macaron class with Mom. I learned three tips that day. The other two I’ll get to later. The fat content can make for a softer macaronage (batter). This can result in wrinkled shells.
Homemade Nut Meal or Nut Flour
However, pistachio meal or flour is not as easy to come by. I’ve used this trick to make a few different kinds of nut meals to make macaron. My favorite are the Derby pie macaron with pecans in the shells.
First, freeze the pistachios. This solidifies the fat in the nuts which prevents pistachio butter from forming when you process the nuts. We learned about fat earlier. The same is with cocoa powder as it is with fat in nuts.
Put the nuts in the bowl of a food process with 1 ounce of powdered sugar and process until the pistachios (or nut of choice) is a fine powder. Make sure to deduct that 1 ounce of powdered sugar from a total of 4 ounces for your recipe. Add the remaining powdered sugar and almond meal and process until finely ground. Then sift per the instructions.
Creating the Cranberry Filling
Don’t let leftover cranberry sauce go to waste. I have turned leftover cranberry sauce into many things including this delicious macaron filling! Simply blend your cranberry sauce until smooth, then whip it with cream cheese, a bit of butter, and powdered sugar. It makes a silky and tangy buttercream perfect for the earthy pistachio shells. The vibrant color and fruity punch elevate the macaron and make them truly irresistible.
Make Sure Your Ingredients are Fresh
Yes, that includes the egg whites that you will “age” before using. I was stuck on a particular macaron recipe. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why they were failing. I followed all my steps that I have completed repeatedly with success time and time again. The culprit was old powdered sugar. It wasn’t even really THAT old, but I guess it was just old enough to prevent the shells from forming.
Weigh Ingredients for Best Success
I highly recommend a kitchen scale if you don’t have one already. I store mine on it’s side in the cupboard so it doesn’t take up much space at all. And it’s great for baking macaron and bread. Though I haven’t quite gotten into bread baking. One of these days I’ll get organized to try making bread. I’ve been religiously feeding my starter.
If a macaron recipe has standard measurements like cups instead of ounces or grams, then I move on to the next recipe. There’s no guarantee that my nut meal or powdered sugar have the same moisture content in summer than it does in winter.
Keep Moisture at Bay for Perfect Shells
Moisture can make or break successful shells. And for that reason, when you pipe your shells let them dry out on top. If you can tap them with your finger and it doesn’t stick, then you’re safe to start baking them. The dry top forces the batter to push out from the bottom which makes the feet.
“Age” Your Egg Whites
Most recipes say to use aged egg whites for better structure and stability. I separate the eggs and let the bowl sit on the counter until I’m ready to make the macaron which is usually a couple of hours later. I also add a little cream of tartar for more stable meringue. Some recipes call for adding meringue powder, but I haven’t felt the need to use them.
Creating Perfect Macaronage
This is the last tip I learned about in the cooking class. Folding the meringue isn’t like folding for a souffle. You actually want to sort of deflate the meringue but not so forcefully that it overmixes the batter, or macaronage. The instructor told us to watch the sheen of the batter. It will be dull for a while.
When it changes to shiny, that’s when you want to check it frequently. Lift the spatula. If the batter flows off the spatula “like lava” then it’s ready. To me, it’s like pouring conditioner into another bottle. It’s not so runny like water or soup, but it’s not thick like a quick bread batter. Like a thick cheese sauce? I’m trying to think of other analogies.
Use a macaron piping pattern to make sure your shells are roughly the same size. I have a silicon mat with circles on it, but you can print my template out and put it under your parchment or silpat mat to use for piping. If there’s little tips even after banging them on the counter, then dampen your finger and press them down. I usually put decorations like chopped pistachios or crushed dried cranberries on the shells after piping.
Assembly and Decoration
Once your shells are baked and cooled match the shells into pairs. I do this before filling them. Then I pipe a generous amount of cranberry filling onto the bottom shell and then put matching shell on top. For an extra touch of elegance drizzle the macaron with white chocolate. Presentation matters, and these colorful macaron are sure to wow your crowd.
Store assembled macaron in the fridge overnight for the best flavor and texture. They really should rest in the fridge overnight. This will allow the shells to absorb some of the flavor and moisture from the filling. This makes the shells chewier and more delicious.
With these tips and flavor combinations, you’re ready to elevate your dessert game and treat yourself, and your guests, to the gourmet experience of Pistachio Cranberry Macaron. Just look at them! That green shell filled with pistachio flavor is the perfect vessel for the sweet tart cranberry buttercream filling. It’s also a good way to use up some of that leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.
Pistachio Cranberry Macaron
Enjoy the Pistachio Cranberry Macaron, where traditional French pastry meets the vibrant flavors of pistachio and cranberry. Each bite offers a wonderful mix of chewy texture and refreshing taste, perfect for any dessert table.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces almond meal
- 2 ounces pistachio meal, or frozen pistachios
- 7 ounces powdered sugar
- 4 ounces egg whites
- 40 grams granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon green gel food coloring
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/2 cup cranberry sauce, or frozen cranberries thawed
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 4 - 5 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Place the almond meal, pistachio meal (or pistachios), and the powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture is finely ground.
- Sift into a large bowl.
- Place the large pieces in the food processor and pulse until ground.
- Sift the mixture two more times and set aside.
- Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Sprinkle the cream of tartar over the eggs and hand mix the two together with the whisk attachment for the stand mixer.
- Fasten the whisk attachment and beat the mixture on medium speed until foamy.
- Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form.
- Increase the speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Add 1/3 of the almond mixture into the bowl with the meringue.
- Fold the ingredients together with a large spatula until incorporated.
- Add the food coloring and continue folding the almond meal until all the mixture is incorporated into the meringue and then drips slowly off the spatula; like lava flowing.
- Transfer the batter to a large piping bag fitted with a 1A tip and pipe 1 1/3-inch rounds onto a Silpat covered baking sheet. There are several different templates out there. You can download mine here.
- Preheat oven to 325.
- You're going to LOVE this next part! Once all the batter has been piped or your sheets are full, grab the edges of the pan, secure the silpat with your thumbs (or any extra batter) and rap the pans on the counter. This releases any remaining air bubbles in the meringue. Continue rapping the sheets, turning occasionally, until no more air bubbles surface.
- Allow the macaron to rest on the counter at least 30 minutes.
- Once they've rested and the tops are no longer sticky to the touch, bake at 325 for 9 minutes.
- Rotate the pans front to back and top to bottom and bake an additional 9 minutes.
- Do the wiggle test to see if the meringue is cooked. If the tops move easily from side to side when wiggled, indicating the meringue isn't completely cooked, then continue to cook in 4 to 5-minute intervals until they no longer wiggle.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before filling.
- While the macarons cool, make the cream cheese buttercream.
- Place the cranberries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
- Add the cream cheese and process until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and add the butter.
- Beat until smooth.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
- Pipe a quarter sized dot of buttercream in the center of the shell. Top with a matching shell. Repeat with remaining shells and buttercream.
Nutrition Information
Yield
18Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 621Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 11mgSodium 62mgCarbohydrates 141gFiber 1gSugar 136gProtein 3g
I HIGHLY doubt that.
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One of these days, I’m going to have to finally break down and make macaron cookies…and these would be a great recipe to start with!!!
I’m more than happy to pop over and help!
You are the macaron queen. These are beautiful.
Thank you!
Your macaron recipes are always loaded with so much good information and tips! Love the colors on this one and the flavors too.
Thank you! I try to show people how they shouldn’t be intimidated to try them.