These Pumpkin Cheesecake Macarons are filled with a creamy pumpkin spice cheesecake filling and are the perfect dessert for fall! Learn to make these delicious and beautiful swirled macarons which are easier than they look!
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Pumpkin Cheesecake Macarons Recipe
- Almond Flour – use blanched, fine almond flour. You don’t really need to sift more than once if you’re using fine almond flour.
- Powdered Sugar – whisk together with the almond flour since almond flour won’t whisk well on its own because of the moisture content.
- Granulated Sugar – you can also use caster sugar which is a bit finer, but regular granulated sugar works just fine.
- Egg Whites – use room temperature egg whites, they’ll whip up to stiff peaks faster.
- Egg White Powder – this is optional, but if you’re having problems getting a strong meringue, using egg white powder will help. (Note: Egg white powder, which is made from dehydrated egg whites and can be used to replace egg whites, is NOT the same as meringue powder, which is used to replace all ingredients in meringue)
- Gel Food Coloring – to achieve this orange color, I used orange, terracotta, and warm brown gel food coloring. Gel (or powder) works best because liquid food coloring will add extra moisture to the batter which can affect the texture of the macarons.
Swirl Macarons
When making swirl macarons, the most important thing to remember if you want your swirls to be very defined, is to use a separate pastry bag for each color. Once you’re finished mixing your batter, transfer each color to a separate pastry bag, and place both of those bags inside the larger pastry bag.
How do You Make Swirl Macarons?
To make the swirls, once you start piping the batter, move the bag slightly in a circular motion. This is how you create the swirls. If you don’t move the bag around, you will most likely end up with a macaron shell that is half orange and half white, but not swirled.
When to Add Food Coloring to Macarons
For solid color macarons, you will usually add the food coloring to the meringue. But with swirl macarons, you need to make the meringue, add the dry ingredients, mix the batter just until you can’t see any more dry ingredients, and then separate the batter. After you separate the batter, that is when you add the color.
Macaron Batter Consistency
Macaron batter consistency should not be runny or thick, and should be able to hold its shape for a few seconds before sinking back into itself. I’ve found that the easiest way to figure out when the batter is the right consistency is by folding until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated, then folding a couple more times, deflating some (not all) of the air, and then testing how the batter falls from the spatula.
If you lift the spatula and the batter flows down in ribbons without breaking and sinks back into itself within 30 seconds, your batter is ready. If you lift the spatula and the batter falls down in clumps or breaks as it’s falling, you need to continue mixing. Check the batter every two or three folds because it only takes a couple of extra folds to over mix.
Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Filling
- Cream cheese – Use the one in block form and allow it to soften before mixing. Cold, firm cream cheese will not whisk well.
- Salted butter – Should be at room temperature. You can use unsalted butter but you’ll need to add a pinch of salt to balance the sweetness of the sugar.
- Powdered sugar – If your sugar is very clumpy you should sift it so that your filling is not grainy.
- Pumpkin pie spice
Whisk the softened cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add the powdered sugar in two parts so that it fully dissolves and the filling is not grainy. Add the pumpkin pie spice and continue mixing until spice is completely mixed in and filling is smooth. The filling will be soft when you’re piping, but will firm up once the macarons are filled and refrigerated.
More fall flavor macarons to try
- Pumpkin Spice Macarons
- Caramel Apple Macarons
- Salted Caramel Macarons
- Gingerbread Macarons
- Hot Chocolate Macarons
More swirl macarons to try
- Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons
- Mango Macarons
- Cotton Candy Macarons
- Galaxy Macarons
Macaron resources
Pumpkin Cheesecake Macarons
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Sifter
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Two spatulas
- Small bowl (for separating the batter)
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- Three 8 inch pastry bags
- Round piping tip (Wilton 12)
- Two silicone baking mats
- Two half sheet pans
- Oven thermometer
Ingredients
Macaron shells
- 90 grams powdered sugar
- 80 grams almond flour
- 70 grams egg whites
- 70 grams granulated sugar
- 2 grams egg white powder (optional)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 drops orange gel food coloring
- 2 drops terracotta gel food coloring
- ½ drop warm brown gel food coloring
- 3 drops white gel food coloring
Cream cheese buttercream
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
Prepare dry ingredients
- Sift powdered sugar and almond flour using a whisk to break down any clumps. Set aside.
- Line sheet pans with silicone mats.
- Insert the piping tip into the 16 inch pastry bag.
Make the meringue
- Whisk the egg whites on medium speed (speed 4) until you start to see small bubbles and the egg whites start looking opaque (this can take as little as 15 seconds sometimes).
- Slowly add 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time.
- Whisk until you start to see tracks in the meringue.
- Increase speed to 6 and continue slowly adding the remainder of the granulated sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until you’ve added all the sugar.
- Once you have soft peaks, stop the mixer, scrape the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla.
- Whisk for another 5 minutes or until stiff peaks.
Combine ingredients
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the meringue and fold the batter until you can't see any of the dry ingredients.
- When folding the batter, slide the spatula under the batter, lift it in a U motion, go over the top of the batter, and slide it under again. This way you make sure to get the batter at the bottom of the bowl.
- Once fully combined, add in another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and repeat the process of folding.
- Add in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients and fold until fully combined.
- Once all of the powdered sugar/almond flour mixture has been added, fold just until all the ingredients are combined and then stop mixing.
- Transfer half of the batter to the small bowl and add 3 drops of white food coloring. Fold just until the color is fully mixed in.
- Now you need to deflate some of the air in the batter by taking the spatula and smearing the batter on the sides of the bowl two or three times, and then folding once or twice.
- Continue this process of smearing some of the batter on the side of the bowl and folding once or twice until the batter starts to run off the spatula in ribbons.
- You can test the consistency by lifting the spatula and letting the batter run down. If it falls in ribbons and sinks into itself within 30 seconds, it's ready.
- Transfer the white batter to an 8 inch pasty bag and set aside. Don't cut the opening at the tip yet.
- Now add 3 drops of orange, 2 drops of terracotta, and ½ drop warm brown gel food coloring to the batter in the mixing bowl and repeat the process above of folding and deflating, being very careful not to over mix the batter.
- Once the batter is ready, transfer to an 8 inch pastry bag.
- Cut a ½ inch opening at the tip of the bags with the orange and white batter and place both bags inside the 16 inch bag with the piping tip.
Pipe the shells
- Holding the pastry bag at a 90° angle, pipe the macarons into ¾ inch circles about 1 inch apart, swirling the batter slightly in a circle to get the orange and white swirls.
- Tap the tray against the counter about 8 times to release any air bubbles.
- Let the macarons rest until they form a skin and are no longer sticky.
- While the macarons are resting, preheat the oven to 310°F.
- Bake the macarons for 14-16 minutes.
- Macarons are ready when they no longer shift if you touch the tops.
Pumpkin spice cream cheese filling
- Using the stand mixer, whisk the butter and cream cheese until creamy.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and whisk until fully mixed in. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and pumpkin pie spice and whisk until the filling is creamy and smooth. It will be soft when piping but will firm up once the macarons are filled and refrigerated.
Assemble the macarons
- Fill an 8 inch pastry bag with the cream cheese filling and cut a ½ inch opening at the tip of the bag.
- Pipe the cream cheese filling on half of the macaron shells and top with the other half.
- Refrigerate the filled macarons for at least 24 hours before eating.
- When ready to eat, remove from the refrigerator at least 20-30 minutes and allow macarons to come to room temperature before eating.
This recipe was delicious!