PISTACHIO & RASPBERRY MACARON CAKE
This is a recipe for a large macaron cake. This quantity makes 2 large shells and about 10 smaller macarons, these can be frozen as long as they are unfilled. The filling is a combination of Creme Patissiere and Pistachio Cream, the recipes for the filling can be found in the 'Icing and Fillings' section.
Ingredients
- 130 g Ground Almonds
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- 115 g Shelled and Unsalted Pistachios
- 50 ml Water
- 200 g Granulated Sugar
- 150 g Egg Whites about 5 eggs
- Green Food Colouring
- Pistachio Cream see recipes section
- 50 g Raspberry Jam
- 400 g Raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Draw two 20cm circles on the reverse of the baking parchment to help with the piping. Also draw 20 smaller circles on another piece of baking parchment, the standard size is usually a diameter of 4cm.
- Add the water and sugar to a pan and stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Put half of the egg whites into a stand mixer and whisk them on a medium speed until frothy.
- Bring the syrup to a boil and heat until it reaches 121 degrees.
- Pour the syrup in a slow steady stream into the egg whites as they are being whipped on a high speed. Keep whipping until the meringue forms a stiff peak, about 5mins.
- Add the green food colouring and mix through.
- Grind the ground almonds, 100g of the pistachios and icing sugar together in a food processor and then sift them into a clean bowl.
- Add the remaining egg whites to this mix and beat it, until it forms a paste.
- Add a third of the meringue to the almond paste and beat it in thoroughly.
- Fold through the remaining meringue, ensure the ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
- Put the macaron mix into a piping bag and pipe out two circles working in a spiral from the centre, then pipe out the small macarons, using the remaining mixture.
- At this point chop the remaining pistachios and sprinkle them on top of the large and small macarons.
- Tap the bottom of the tray for the smaller macarons only. Place the large macarons in the oven for 15mins. Turn the trays halfway through cooking to ensure an even bake.
- Then cook the smaller macarons for 10mins.
- Let the cooked macarons cool completely before trying to remove them from the tray.
- Using a piping bag, pipe a line of raspberry jam around the flat inside of one of the large macarons.
- Arrange raspberries on the ring of jam, so they are touching.
- Pipe a thin spiral of pistachio cream inside the raspberries.
- Cover the cream with rings of raspberries.
- Pipe more pistachio cream over the raspberries, but don't go too the near edge and spread it round with a palette knife.
- Sandwich a plain macaron on the top and add any decorations of your choice.
- With the smaller macarons, pipe a ring of the pistachio cream around the edge and sit a raspberry in the middle, add a tiny blob of cream and sandwich a macaron on top.
- Place the smaller macarons in an airtight container for at least an hour, the larger one will be fine in the fridge on a plate, but if you can wait, they'll be much better the next day. They should last for 2-3 days in the fridge.