French Macaron Baking Adventures, Part 14: Decadent Blackberry Macarons

By Lisa Maliga, copyright 2016 On Tuesday, I baked my twentieth batch of macarons! Again, I used a natural powdered colorant and the pictures will show you how they turned out.

I’m calling them decadent because they contain both blackberry buttercream filling and blackberry jam. Yes, I used fresh blackberries. Summer is berry season and I believe in celebrating that fun fact!

Using my new silicone mats saves time, as I don’t have to cut parchment paper to fit the baking sheets.

Macarons only contain a few ingredients yet they require some advance preparation from preparing the fillings to separating and aging the eggs to sifting and mixing the almond flour and confectioners’ sugar together. It sounds very precise but by doing this I end up saving time when baking the macaron shells.

I’m adjusting to my new used oven and I’ve found that 300 degrees is the best temperature and the oven rack being one level below center prevents browning. This is why an oven thermometer is a great [and inexpensive] investment.

I added the powdered colorant to the meringue just before adding the flour/sugar mixture. It worked out so well. This is the first time that the powdered color was the same color before and after baking!

Here they are: real fruit flavored macarons. 

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Want to bake these and several other varieties of macarons? Check out my new eBook and paperback cookbook BAKING FRENCH MACARONS: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE.