Raspberry Sherbet Macarons

In my mind macarons have always been one of those things that are super difficult to make and you have to be professional and delicate and French to make them properly. Saying that, they have been on top of my list of things to learn/attempt for ages now but I’ve been putting it off for fear of total failure. After making these I can say that they are really simple and fun to make. There’s more than one way of making macarons but I decided to look around for the simplest recipe, anticipating that lots of steps, ingredients and time would be involved in the process. I chose this recipe because it seemed friendly, and it was. Only a couple of things to note: I added food colouring to the meringue, the temperature is 140°C, and they only really take about 12 minutes to bake. Oh and another thing, do not use greeseproof paper like I did on my first batch. They stick, so badly (Doh!). Use baking paper or those wonderful reusable baking sheets. Because I didn’t want to make anything too serious I chose to make raspberry sherbet flavour. I did this by sprinkling some raspberry sherbet on the macarons just after I piped them, before they had formed a skin, and then baked them. For the filling I made a buttercream with jam, fresh raspberries and more sherbet (recipe below). I put them in the fridge after assembling them which makes them taste even better. I survived my first macaron attempt and can’t wait to try some more complex combinations!

Macaron Filling

(for approx 20 whole macarons)

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter (room temperature)

2 tbsp seedless raspberry jam

splash of milk

a handful of fresh raspberries

2 tsp of raspberry sherbet

Beat together the icing sugar, butter and milk. Then add the jam and sherbet and mix until smooth. Add in the fresh raspberries and mix until the berries are broken up in to large pieces.