Macarons - A Gluten Free Treat. Natural Dye Used for Color!

I am not going to lie. Making macarons is a little bit time consuming. I had read all of the horror stories going in to my first attempt. I had received a macaron cookbook for review and of course I couldn’t effectively do the job without trying a macaron recipe. For a first try they came out quite tasty. I was sent some Organic Almond Flour by Pereg Gourmet so after trying a recipe for Apricot Cherry Bars I thought I would return to the most famous gluten free treat produced by this flour – the macaron.

Pereg Gourmet provided the flour for this post but all opinions are my own.

Since I made that first batch of macarons my thoughts have changed on using food dyes and I now only use natural colorants so I wanted to try to achieve a nice color that way in today’s recipe. So while I used the base recipe from the cookbook Macarons by Cecile Cannone, I did adjust it to accommodate my use of a natural product. I also deviated from the book for my filling. I wanted a whipped ganache and so I made one.

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Table of Contents

Macarons with Natural Dye

Makes between 25 and 30 cookies

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2 3/4 cups almond flour
2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup egg whites at room temperature (about 7 or 8)
pinch of salt
3/4 cup superfine granulated sugar – if you don’t have superfine sugar you can make it by running regular granulated sugar through the food processor
1 TBS butterfly pea flower powder (or other natural colorant like beet powder or dragonfruit powder)

For the Filling
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chopped
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

sugar sprinkles if desired

Line your baking sheets with parchment or use a marked silicone mat

Sift together the almond flour, powdered sugar and butterfly pea flower powder to make a fine blend. If there are a lot of big crumbs make up the difference by adding some additional almond flour to compensate. You want as fine a blend as you can get so you don’t get crumbs on the top as they bake.

Beat the egg whites with the salt until foamy. Increase the speed and slowly add the superfine sugar until the whites are at stiff peak stage and are stiff and shiny

Add the beaten whites to the almond flour mixture and gently fold together until it is combined.

Place a #8 tip on a pastry bag (for whatever reason I don’t have an 8 so I use a 12 and it works fine) and add the batter to the bag.

Pipe the batter in one smooth push until it forms a 2 1/2″ circle. Push down with the tip to release the batter.
After the sheet is full, tap it a couple of times on the countertop to help any peaks settle.
Let the macarons sit for 15 minutes before baking.

Sprinkle one side with light sugar decors if using
While the macarons are resting preheat the oven to 325° If you have a convection oven, set it to 325° which converts to 300°
Total baking time will be around 14 minutes.
After the first 5 minutes open the door to let steam escape.
Bake one tray at a time in the middle of the oven.

Let the macarons cool completely on the tray before moving to a wire rack for filling
Press the bottom of the cookie – it should be a little soft. If it is hard, lower the baking time by a minute or two for the next batch.
Make the filling:
Add the chopped semisweet chocolate to a bowl
Heat the heavy cream just to boiling.

Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for a minute.
Stir until the chocolate dissolves.
Refrigerate until the mixture is completely chilled

Whip until light and fluffy
Stuff Macarons:

Using a star tip of your choice add the whipped ganache to a pastry bag and pipe the filling on to the bottom cookie piece.

Add the top and enjoy!

How Was the Gluten Free Treat?

Even though I didn’t start my story in the typical way, I will end it with the words….the hubby had a meeting and he asked me to bake for him. Are you really surprised? Although I do thank Pereg Gourmet for sending me the organic almond flour so I could make more macarons. I do love these little gluten free treats and was happy to send them along to the hubby’s meeting.

I did snag one before he went out the door so I could give it a taste test. It was pretty yummy. I will admit that these were not as successful as my first try. They didn’t poof as much – clueless as to why but they tasted good so as always, that is what matters. I will make them again when I have the time. I have found on both occasions when I baked macarons that while I could have completed them in one day, they are better as a two day project.