Easy Mango Macarons
Easy Mango Macarons with a crisp shell, a pillowy inside and a mango reduction and vanilla buttercream filling.
Servings: 18 macarons
Calories:
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Alter quantities (metric only) 18 macarons
Here's what you'll need...
- Food processor optional
- Macaron mat or greaseproof (parchment) paper
- Stand or hand mixer with whisk attachment and beater attachment
- Mixing bowl must be metal, glass or ceramic
- Large heavy base baking sheet
- Small saucepan
- JEM 3R piping nozzle
- JEM 22 star nozzle
- 2 Large glasses
Ingredients you'll need...
Mango Macarons
- 110 g Almond flour (1 Cup)
- 110 g Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar = 13 level tablespoons)
- 100 g Egg whites roughly 3 large eggs (US = extra large) aged for 24 hours and at room temperature
- 100 g Granulated sugar (½ Cup)
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- Yellow gel food colouring
- Dried mango a few pieces, chopped up very small
Mango Reduction
- 300 g Mango flesh fresh and ripe (1⅓ Cups )
Mango Buttercream
- 40 g Butter softened (3 tablespoons)
- 150 g Icing sugar confectioner's sugar (1¼ Cups) sifted
- 1-2 teaspoon Milk
Here's what we do...
Mango Macarons
- If not using a macaron mat, draw circles measuring 1½ inches (3 cm) onto your greaseproof paper, leaving a gap of 2 cm in between each one. The circles need to be very dark, so that you can see them when the paper is turned over.
- Cut the ends off your piping bags and then fit one with your round piping nozzle and the other with your star nozzle. Stand them up, one in each glass, and roll down the sides of the bag over the glass edges, so that you and easily fill the bottom half of the bag.
- Sift together your almond flour and icing (confectioner's) sugar. The almond flour will need rubbing through the sieve, it can be useful to use the back of a spoon to do this.
- Ensure your bowl is spotlessly clean, best practice is to wipe it and your whisk attachment with white wine vinegar to remove any grease that can't be seen.
- Place your egg whites and your cream of tartar into your mixing bowl, fit the whisk attachment to your stand mixer (or hand mixer) and start to beat your egg whites on a low setting.
- After a minute turn up to a medium-high setting and continue to beat for about another 1-2 minutes or until the egg whites form white, soft peaks.
- Leaving your mixer running on low, add a tablespoonful of your granulated sugar and leave it to beat in for about 20 seconds before adding another. Continue until all of your sugar has been added. Ensuring your spatula is spotlessly clean, wipe down your bowl several times during this process to ensure all of the sugar from the sides is incorporated.
- Turn your mixer up to medium-high and beat your meringue until it forms stiff peaks. This can take 1-3 minutes. Stop regularly to check progress as you don't want to overbeat. Stiff peaks will be unmistakable, they simply don't droop over. If you are not sure then you probably have not reached this stage and need to keep beating.
- Add your vanilla extract and a small dash of food colouring and beat in. You want a very bright yellow as the colour will fade as the macarons bake.
- Next, take your almond and icing sugar mixture and add about a third to your meringue. Use your spatula to carefully fold it in. Folding involves turning the mixture over onto itself rather than mixing in circles, this helps retain air. Once incorporated add another third and repeat the process, then the final third.
- Once you have added all of your almond and icing sugar mixture, carry on folding a few times, just until the mixture starts to loosen up a bit and become a bit wetter. At this point scoop up some batter onto your spatula, hold it above the mixture and see if it slowly drops from the spatula, enabling you to "draw" a figure 8 without the stream breaking. If the mixture breaks, fold it a few more times and then try again until you can achieve this.
- On the same side as your drawn circles, dot some macaron mixture onto the corners of your greaseproof (parchment) paper, then turn it over and affix to your baking tray.
- Add your macaron mixture to your piping bag with the large round nozzle fitted. Squeeze it down to the base and twirl the top to stop the mixture from coming out.
- Then hold the bag about a centimetre directly above each circle, gently squeeze the macaron mixture so that it fills most of the circle, you need to leave about 2mm gap between your piping and the edge of the circle so that the macarons have room to spread.
- Sprinkle over a few bits of dried meringue over half of your piped macarons, not much though or it will prevent the macaron from rising.
- Once you have piped all of your macarons, take the tray, hold it about a foot above your worksurface then let it drop, do this 4 times. This gets rid of any air bubbles. Use a tookpick, or the end of a sharp knife, to burst any remaining air bubbles on the surface.
- Leave your macarons to rest for 20-40 minutes, until the tops are dry to touch.
- Preheat your oven to 130°C Fan/150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and set a shelf in the middle.
- Place a tray of macarons onto the middle shelf and bake for 18 minutes, don't be tempted to open the oven door mid-way, it will affect the outcome of your macarons.
- Remove and leave to cool on the baking tray.
Mango Reduction
- Chop your mango up small (or puree it with a hand blender) and place it into your saucepan.
- Heat on medium and simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring with your wooden spoon regularly so that it doesn't stick.
- Then press your mango through your sieve to puree it.
- Leave to completely cool.
Mango Buttercream
- Using your paddle attachment or hand mixer beaters, beat your butter to ensure very soft, then add about a third of your sifted icing sugar a spoonful at a time.
- Add 1½ level tablespoons of your mango reduction and beat in.
- Then gradually beat in the rest of your icing sugar.
- Add milk, a teaspoon at a time, if the mango buttercream is stiff.
- Fill your piping bag with the star nozzle.
- Take one plain macaron and pipe a swirl of buttercream around the edge, leaving a small, 2mm gap between the icing and the edge of the macaron.
- Fill the centre with about ¼ teaspoon of mango reduction.
- Place a macaron half with dried mango on top and squeeze just slightly to secure.
- Enjoy!
Supporting Notes
Eggs
- ideally should in date but 3-4 days old;
- the whites should be placed in a spotlessly clean container (not plastic) and covered in clingfilm (plastic wrap), pop a hole in the top of the cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours before using;
- the whites need to be brought up to room temperature before using.
Colouring macarons
- the best food colouring for macarons is gel food colouring such as Sugarflair, as it prevents extra moisture being added to your whipped meringue;
- ensure your meringue is quite deeply coloured, as it will fade when baked.
Equipment
- use a metal/glass/ceramic bowl;
- measure your ingredients using kitchen scales for accuracy;
- wipe down your mixing bowl and whisk with white wine vinegar to be sure they are totally grease-free;
- use the whisk attachment for your hand or stand mixer for your meringue.
Piping
- use large, professional piping bags, they are thicker and have much more capacity;
- use a macaron mat to save having to draw out circles.
Baking
- use an oven thermometer to be sure that your oven is at the correct temperature.
Resting macarons before baking
- as soon as your easy mango macarons are dry on top you need to bake them; overdrying affects the final mango macaron quality;
- if you live in a humid climate you can heat your oven to the very lowest temperature and, leaving the door open, pop them inside to help dry the top.