White Chocolate Raspberry Macarons
These white chocolate raspberry macarons are bursting with fresh juicy raspberry flavor through and through. Macaron shells are flavored with freeze-dried raspberries, and white chocolate raspberry buttercream filling turns this sweet dessert into a heavenly one.
Out of all the macaron flavors I’ve made over the years, I think these raspberry macarons are THE BEST! I mean, they burst with juicy raspberry flavor through and through!
Instead of messing the batter with fresh juicy raspberries, which will clearly add too much moisture into the delicate batter, I opted for freeze-dried raspberries instead.
And note, we’re not talking about regular dehydrated raspberries here. Freeze-dried raspberries are different!
What’s freeze-dried raspberries? And how they are different from regular dehydrated raspberries?
Freeze-dried raspberries are raspberries that were quickly frozen and then slowly heated in a vacuum chamber, drying the fruits by evaporating ice before it turns into water. The end result is beautiful dried berries in its original shape and color, that’s feather-light. Dehydrated raspberries are berries that were dried by evaporating moisture through heating process, which yields withered and harder berries.
Now to use these beautiful freeze-dried raspberries, we’ll need to crush them into fine powder by processing them in a food processor, or with a rolling pin. I included the directions in the recipe below. I find that this raspberry powder has lots of seeds, so I go extra mile and sift them through a sieve to remove those seeds.
A few tips on how to make sturdy French meringue:
- Make sure all the utensils for beating egg whites are completely grease-free. Just a touch of oil has power of ruining your meringue. Some advise to wipe the bowl and whisk with vinegar, but I don’t really bother with that. Just washing and drying with a clean towel does the trick for me.
- Be careful not to include even the smallest drop of egg yolk in the egg whites. Egg yolk=oil. See the above note.
- Don’t beat the egg whites on high speed right away. Instead start on medium low speed then slowly increase the speed for sturdy meringue.
- It’s best to add food coloring when the meringue reaches soft peaks. I highly recommend avoiding liquid food coloring, because it adds more liquid. Gel and powder food colorings are your best bet!
- And it’s crucial to stop beating the meringue as soon as it reaches stiff (hard) peaks. Because over-mixed meringue is #1 reason for hollow macaron shells. You know your meringue reached hard peaks when you lift the beaters, the meringue holds its shape pointing up without drooping.
White Chocolate Raspberry Macarons
Yield: 23-25 filled macarons
Ingredients:
- ½ cup (10gr) freeze-dried raspberries (Yields about 3 tablespoons of powdered raspberries)
- 1 cup (100gr) almond flour
- 3/4 cup (100gr) powdered sugar
- 70gr egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, optional
- ¼ cup (50gr) sugar
- Red gel food coloring
- 1/3 cup (80gr) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (50gr) powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup (60gr) white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon (5gr) freeze dried raspberry powder
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
For dipping:
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Directions:
- To make macaron shells, place the freeze-dried raspberries for both shells and filling in a small food processor and process until fine powder. (Alternatively, you can place freeze-dried raspberries between two sheets of parchment paper and crush them with a rolling pin.)
- Sift the crushed raspberries through fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
- In a medium bowl, sift together almond flour, powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of powdered raspberries. (Reserve 1 tablespoon of raspberry powder for the filling.) Sift everything one more time and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy.
- Add cream of tartar and continue to beat. (Cream of tartar is optional, and is added to stabilize the egg whites.)
- Slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until hard peaks form.
- Add food coloring and beat on medium speed for one more minute.
- Sift the almond flour mixture over the whipped egg whites. Gently fold the mixture running the spatula clockwise from the bottom, up around the sides and cut the batter in half. The batter will look very thick at first, but it will get thinner as you fold. Be careful not to over mix it though. Every so often test the batter to see if it reached the right consistency. To test the batter, drop a small amount of the batter and count to ten. If the edges of the ribbon are dissolved within about ten seconds, then the batter is ready. Again do NOT mix again at this point. But if you still see edges, fold the batter couple more times and test again. This step is so crucial, so please make sure to test often to ensure not to over mix the batter.
- Transfer the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip. (I used this Wilton 1A plain round tip.)
- Pipe out 1-inch rounds about an inch apart on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. You’ll get about 46-50 shells.
- Tap the baking sheets firmly on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. If you don’t release the air bubbles, they will expand during baking and crack the beautiful macarons shells.
- Let the macarons rest and dry for 15-30 minutes. On a humid day, it might take an hour or so. To see if it’s ready to be baked, lightly touch it. If the batter doesn’t stick to your finger, then it’s ready.
- Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Bake the macarons for 18-20 minutes. To check the doneness, remove one macaron. If the bottom does not stick, they are done.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, and then carefully remove from the baking sheets.
- To make the filling, in a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the butter and powdered sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Melt the white chocolate chips in microwave according to package directions. (I microwaved mine for 1.5 minutes at 50% power. Stirred and microwaved for another 30 seconds at 50% power. Stirred again and microwaved for 15 seconds at 50% power.)
- Add the melted white chocolate, raspberry powder, lemon juice and pinch of salt to the whipped butter mixture. Beat until the filling is smooth and well combined.
- Transfer the buttercream into a pastry bag and fill the macarons.
- To make white chocolate coating, melt white chocolate in microwave as described above. Dip macarons half way and place on a wire rack. If desired, sprinkle more raspberry powder.
- Macarons are best when served the next day. Store the filled macarons in airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the filled macarons in airtight container for up to 5 months.
For additional tips and notes, read the post above.
For more tips and visual troubleshooting guide, check out this post.
You can now watch a full macaron tutorial video here.
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1) I love the your idea of using freeze dried raspberries! I made them today and they turned out well. 2) One way to get inexpensive almond flour is grind it yourself with a spice grinder. I used my electric Cuisinart Spice and Nut Grinder (costs about $36 on Amazon) today to grind the almonds into flour, and it turned out beautifully fine and fluffy. Much better than using my food processor, which made more of an almond meal when I tried it on my previous batch. 3) To figure out the exact right amount of mixing, I spooned some batter onto my parchment paper at a few different points when I knew the batter was not quite mixed enough. It was interesting to see how the batter behaved then (the bumps did not sink into the rest) and how it looked after baking. It was a fun bit of experimentation! Now I feel more confident about how exactly the batter should look – I can see why learning this in person is a big help. 4) I thank you for all your tips, instructions and recipes!!!
I’m no Martha Stewart but I’ve made a few batches of macarons before and never have they turned out quite as bad as these. The batter, as good as it tasted was thicker than concrete no matter how much I mixed it. After struggling for at least 20 minutes a gave up and started piping, only for the piping bag to literally explode because of how hard I had to squeeze to get it out. I ending up shaping them into small balls, plopping them on a tray, and hoping for the best. I’ve followed other recipes of yours, including other macaron recipes and needless to say, I am disappointed.
How should i measure egg white
You can weigh it on a scale, or measure by volume. You’ll need 1/3 cup.
Its looking so pretty and testy
Thank you, Yogesh!
Hi,
Do these require 3 tbsp of raspberry powder in addition to 1 tbsp for the filling? The ingredients list only requires 3 tbsp but the directions for the shells say to use 3 tbsp of powder for the shells and 1 tbsp for the filling. Which in total would be 4 tbsp
Never mind, I figured out that the ingredients are listed separately!!
Awesome. Hope your macarons turned out good, and you enjoyed them. 😉
I tried making these, macarons, and followed the recipe exactly but i think there was a mistake with the egg whites. I added 70 grams but after trying to fold it for 5 minutes straight i noticed it was waaaay too thick. If you make this recipe i would recommend adding another egg white. Mine turned out wrinkly and had no feet at all. I have quite a bit of experience with macarons to know that the recipe was not right. Flavor was there, but they did not look the best/
Hi, Mina. This recipe has been very carefully tested and retested multiple times. And 70gr of egg whites is the correct amount. How did you measure the dry ingredients, Mina? It does sound like your macarons had excess moisture issue, which yields soft wrinkly shells.
Hi,
These look great! Could I make these with freeze dried strawberries instead (and keep all other ingredients/quantities the same)?
I think that would work fine! You could probably use any freeze dried fruit.
Hi, KJ. Yes, you can definitely use freeze-dried strawberries. Actually here’s my strawberry macaron recipe.
Finally made these today and OMG, I agree these are the best tasting Macarons ever!!! The freezedried raspberry powder made the perfect addition and the white chocolate filling and dip was the perfect compliment. I will be making these again
Dyanne, so glad you tried and agree that these are the best macarons yet!! Thank you for your feedback.