Menu
Author:
Tracy Nawara
Macarons are classic French pastries with two lovely, light crispy cookies stuffed with homemade buttercream. They are often regarded as time-consuming, but the flavor and texture of a macaron are unlike any other pastry or cookie. Plus, they are a French sandwich cookie with cream filling inside, so you know they’re deliciously outrageous.
These Easy Espresso Macarons are a decadent update on the classic dessert. The cookie itself features cocoa powder and coffee extract for a perfect mocha experience. Between two cookies, you’ll find a rich and sweet coffee buttercream that transports you to your favorite cafe in Paris.
The ingredients for these light cookies should always be weighed for exact measurements. Baking macarons is an exact science, so you need the ingredients to be precise. Otherwise, the texture of the cookie will change completely. Once the batter is assembled, the piped cookies need to rest for an hour to rise and gain the classic “footed” look of a classic macaron.
Finishing the macarons is simple. Once they are completely cooled, you can make the buttercream. It features butter, powdered sugar, instant espresso powder, and vanilla. The filling and the cookies sit and mature for 1 day before the ideal macaron can be served, as they blend together and enhance the final texture.
For the Buttercream:
Begin by weighing out all of your ingredients. Macarons need to be accurate, so measuring by weight is best.
Sift your confectioner’s sugar, almond flour, and cocoa powder into a bowl.
Add the egg whites into your stand mixer and whip them until frothy. Add the granulated sugar, coffee extract, and salt gradually and continue to mix until you reach soft peaks.
Fold about ⅓ of the almond flour mixture into the meringue using a spatula. Once fully incorporated, add the rest of the flour and fold.
Continue folding until no dry flour remains. The batter is ready when it reaches the “ribbon” stage, where the batter falls off of the spatula in ribbons and you can make a figure 8 shape with the cascading batter. Once this consistency has been reached, you can stop folding.
Ready a piping bag with a small round tip. Place the bag inside a measuring cup to make adding the batter easy and less messy. Add the batter carefully.
Place a macaron template on a silicone mat on top of a baking sheet. Holding the piping bag vertically and straight up, pipe 1.5-2-inch circles of batter as evenly as possible.
After all of the batter is piped, pick up and drop your baking sheet on the counter to pop any air bubbles in the macarons. Use a toothpick to pop any surface bubbles.
Let the cookies air dry for 30 minutes to 1 hour to allow them to form a shell on the outside of the cookie. When you touch the tops, no batter should transfer to your finger.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until the cookie has no wiggle to it and is lightly browned. The macaron should also have “feet”, showing a rise from when you piped them.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting, cream the butter, sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla until light, fluffy, and homogenous.
Pipe a generous amount of frosting on ½ of the cookies. Top with another cookie and push slightly so the filling reaches the edges.
Keep the macarons in an airtight container in the fridge for 24 hours. This will allow for that perfect macaron texture.
After they have matured, serve the macarons.
