OK so they may not have a shiny shell, they certainly don’t have ‘feet’ and they aren’t full of sugar BUT these little mouthfuls of delight are still macarons-ish! I’ve decided I’m still allowed to call them that seeing as the technique of macronage is still used even though the sugar is not!

Meringue is a tricky substance at the best of times but it seems to be even more fussy when made with a sweetener so I don’t advise adding flavours to your shells, keep the flavour to the fillings only. You can use any ground nuts you like, though macarons are usually almonds, I may have to try using hazelnuts with a dash of cocoa powder … yummmy!

Don’t be alarmed when these come out of the oven feeling spongey, the outsides crisp up as they cool but leave the centres delishiously squishy 🙂

Today I made raspberry cheesecake macs and pistachio ones too, the methods are exactly the same, you simply swap the almond for pistachios in the shells and pistachios instead of raspberries in the filling.

 

Makes 5-7 macarons

Ingredients

• 1 egg white
• 25g Sukrin (I prefer this sweetener but use whatever you like, it needs to be a 1:1 ratio with sugar)
• 60g ground almonds (or pistachios)
• 1tsp coconut flour
• 1tsp Sukrin
• 20g cream cheese
• 20ml double cream
• 25g raspberries, I used fresh ones but freeze dried may be better as their flavour is much stronger (or 15g pistachios) … you can also use unsweetened flavourings
• Gel food colouring (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 140c fan assisted or 160c without and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
2. In a food processor (or in my case a coffee grinder!) combine the ground almonds (or pistachios), 1tsp Sukrin and coconut flour until very fine and mixed well.
3. Sieve this mixture through the finest sieve you have, you will have to help it through with the back of a spoon, get rid of any large chunks.
4. In a scrupulously clean bowl whisk the egg whites into a foam then slowly add the remaining Sukrin whisking all the while until you have a glossy mixture which can hold stiff peaks. If you want to add colouring do that here!
5. Put half the nut mixture into the whites and gently fold until all combined. Then add the remaining and continue to fold.
6. You want to push some of the air out so the mixture will run off your spatula in ribbons, don’t be afraid of your beaten egg whites as you aren’t going to ruin any feet here!
7. Fit a piping bag with a round nozzle approx 1cm and fill the bag with your mixture. Now holding your piping bag vertically above your baking sheet pipe 10-14 rounds. You want to keep the nozzle low so youre mixture pushes out sideways instead of upwards.
8. Bake for 14 minutes until they feel firm but springy to touch.
9. Remove from the oven and move onto a wire cooling rack, if they’re stuck to the sheet pop them back in the oven for another minute.
10. While they’re cooling you can make the filling… whisk together the cream cheese and cream until stiff peaks form. If you’re making the raspberry ones, mash the raspberries with a fork and then stir into your cream mixture. If you’re using pistachios add the ground nuts to your cream mixture and mix well.
11. Use the same 1cm nozzle and put in a new piping bag and fill with your cream.
12. Once your shells are cool pair them up into the best size matches and pipe a blob of cream onto one side of each pair.
13. Put the other half on top and squeeze until the cream reaches the edges.
14. Chill for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Values – per macaron based on making 6

Raspberry cheesecake: 95kcal | 8.3g fat | 1.2g carbs | 3.1g protein

Pistachio: 103kcal | 8.5g fat | 1.6g carbs | 4g protein