Strawberry Cheesecake Macarons
These strawberry cheesecake macarons are filled with a delicious cream cheese buttercream and homemade strawberry jam. The combination of the cream cheese and strawberry jam make the perfect little cheesecake bites!
Servings: 18 macarons
Calories: 130kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Strainer
- Whisk
- Stand mixer
- Two spatulas
- Small bowl (for separating the batter)
- One 16 inch pastry bag
- Four 8 inch pastry bags
- Round piping tip (Wilton 12)
- Two silicone baking mats
- Two half sheet pans
- Oven thermometer
- Small saucepan (for strawberry jam)
- Potato masher (to crush the strawberries)
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
- 4 drops red gel food coloring
- 3 drops white gel food coloring
Cream cheese buttercream
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ clear vanilla extract
Strawberry jam
- ½ lb frozen strawberries (can also use fresh strawberries)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (bottled or fresh)
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 (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 well being very careful not to over mix.
- 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 4 drops of red 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 red 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 circles to get the red 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.
Cream cheese buttercream
- Using the stand mixer, whisk the butter and cream cheese until creamy.
- Add the powdered sugar and whisk until fully combined.
- Add the clear vanilla extract and continue to whisk until the buttercream looks smooth and creamy.
Strawberry jam
- Add frozen strawberries and sugar to saucepan and heat on medium, stirring frequently.
- Continue stirring and breaking down the strawberries with a spatula.
- Once it starts to boil, add the lemon juice, and continue stirring so that the jam doesn't burn.
- Boil for about 20 minutes and using either the spatula or potato masher, crush the strawberries. Jam will thicken as it cooks.
- Check the consistency by running the spatula down the middle of the jam. If it takes a few seconds to come back together, it's ready. Jam will thicken as it cools.
- Remove saucepan from heat and let the jam cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a glass container, or a bit longer if transferring to a plastic container.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour so the jam cools before filling the macarons.
Assemble the macarons
- Transfer the jam to an 8 inch pastry bag and set aside. Don't cut an opening at the tip yet.
- Fill another 8 inch pastry bag with the cream cheese buttercream and cut about a ¼ inch opening at the tip of the bag.
- Pipe the cream cheese buttercream around the outer edge of half of the macaron shells, leaving a space in the middle for the jam.
- Take the pastry bag filled with the jam and cut a ½ inch opening at the tip and fill the middle of the macarons with jam. It will be a bit runny but the buttercream will keep it in place.
- Place the top half of the macaron shells on top of the filled macarons.
Notes
*Calories reflected are for macaron shells only
Mixing bowl should be clean and grease free
Weigh all ingredients in grams for accuracy
Use room temperature egg whites (to bring eggs to room temperature quickly, put them in a bowl filled with hot water for about 5 minutes)
Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar together because almond flour is moist and doesn't sift well alone
Mix the egg white powder and the granulated sugar before adding to the egg whites to fully dissolve the egg white powder
Whisk the meringue until you have stiff peaks
Let macarons dry before baking so they don't crack
Nutrition
Serving: 1macaron | Calories: 130kcal