Raspberry Vanilla Macarons (with Fresh Raspberries)

These raspberry vanilla macarons are delicious, light, and ideal for any occasion. They are the perfect addition to your dinner party or replacement for a birthday cake!

Fresh raspberries between sweet macaron shells give the macaron a fresh kick. These macarons look fabulous and unique. You would not believe how easy it is to put them together by yourself – let me guide you through the process.

Let’s start with the macaron shells. I love baking light pink shells for raspberry-vanilla macarons, but they would also look super cute in any other color.

Tools and ingredients for making raspberry-vanilla macaron shells

I have put together a comprehensive recipe for baking perfect homemade macarons with the Italian method. It goes into detail on every step of the process and should help you increase your success rate! I highly suggest you take the time to read this post thoroughly as well.

Making the batter for raspberry-vanilla macarons

The best thing you can do while cooking is to take care of all the preparation beforehand. That way, you don’t have to worry about anything when it comes to the actual cooking part.

1. Cleaning your tools is crucial to avoid contaminating what you’re working on. Make sure to keep everything clean for the best results.
2. Shift 7 oz (115 g) almond flour and 7 oz (115 g) powdered sugar to the stainless steel (or glass) bowl and mix until even.
3. Add 1,4 oz (40 g) of egg whites into the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture. If added, set it aside.
4. Add 7 oz (115 g) white sugar and 1 oz (30 ml) water to the small saucepan and place it on the stove on medium heat, stick in the candy thermometer.
5. Add the other part of egg whites 1,7 oz (50 g) to the mixing bowl and set aside.
6. Once the candy thermometer shows 230°F (110°C) it’s time to turn on the mixer and begin whipping the egg whites on medium speed.
7. Once the thermometer reaches 244°F (118°C), pour the hot sugar syrup slowly into the egg whites. Do not stop mixing now, stay with it!
8. Mix the egg whites and sugar syrup mixture on medium speed for 5 minutes and then 2 minutes on high speed (it can take longer while using a hand mixer that is not so powerful).
9. Take the bowl with almond flour, powdered sugar, and egg whites. Using a silicone spatula, mix everything together until it’s all even.
10. Once the mixture is even, add 1/3 of the egg white and sugar syrup foam into the bowl at first and slowly fold the mixture until even. Then add the next 1/3 and continue mixing. The folding technique for macarons is called macaronage. If you like to make macarons, you may know what this means 😉
11. You can always make macarons without adding food coloring to the batter. But if you want to get the pretty pink macarons, then it is time to add it now. I like to use a toothpick and just place it into the food coloring bottle. Once you have some on there, just mix it into the batter.
12. Now it is time to add the last 1/3 of the egg white foam. Gently fold the batter until the batter can slowly flow down from the spatula without breaking (like a ribbon).

TIP: Macaronage is a macaron batter folding technique. It is one of the most important parts of making macarons. You want to be gentle with the batter and be sure to not mix it too much.

Slowly mix everything together with a silicone spatula, making sure you mix in all of the edges. It is important to mix the batter slowly and gently because then you can see when the batter is ready and can stop immediately.

Mixing too fast, you can miss the right consistency and once you over-mix the batter – there is nothing you can do to fix it. Try to avoid that at any cost. Once you’re finished with the mixing, put the mixture in the piping bag.

Piping the raspberry-vanilla macaron batter

Place the batter into the piping bag and at a 90-degree angle, pipe the macarons to the parchment paper or silicone mat. If using a silicone mat with templates, make sure you do not fill all the templates with the batter.

The batter will spread a little so make sure there is room for that. If the batter won’t spread enough to reach the template’s edges, take a toothpick and help the batter spread to the edges. The macarons will look prettier when baked evenly in the template.

When using a silicone mat with templates, be careful not to fill the outer round entirely. As the batter will spread a little, make sure there is room for that. Otherwise, it is possible that the macarons will spread together and you will end up with one large weirdly shaped macaron like this.

If the batter won’t spread enough to reach the template’s edges, take a toothpick and help the batter get to the edge.

Make sure you are doing this right after piping! The batter will start to form a skin quickly and if that happens, it is impossible to get it done without bumps.

Once the macarons are done baking, take them out of the oven and remove the baking sheet/silicone mat from the pan.

Otherwise, the macarons will keep baking on the hot pan and can over-bake. Let them cool down before removing them from the baking sheet or silicone mat.

Tip: Sometimes it is hard to get the macarons off the silicone baking mat as they tend to stick to the mat. In that case, I recommend putting the silicone mat with the macarons into the freezer! Wait around 30 minutes and take them out. Remove the macarons fast from the silicone mat before they start to warm up. With the help of your fingers, gently press on the bottom of the silicone mat to help the macarons get off.

Filling for raspberry-vanilla macarons

It is time to make the filling now. My go-to filling for the raspberry-vanilla macarons is buttercream-mascarpone cream with fresh Madagascar Vanilla Beans.

Mascarpone cheese is an Italian cream cheese that’s typically used to fill cannolis. It’s also frequently used as a dessert topping with fruit, chocolate, nuts, or other sweets. Mascarpone cheese can be a great substitute for heavy cream in the filling of macarons.

It has a light, creamy texture that is perfect for blending with fresh raspberries. The fat content of mascarpone has a very enjoyable texture and makes it very easy to pipe it out on the macaron’s shell. This filling is sweet and delightful, just perfect with vanilla and fresh raspberries.

Ingredients for raspberry-vanilla filling

• 7 oz (200 g) butter (room temperature)
• 3 oz (85 g) mascarpone cheese (room temperature)
• 7 oz (200 g) powdered sugar
• Fresh raspberries (as much as you want)
• 2 pods of Madagaskar Vanilla Beans
• Raspberry Extract (optional)

How to make filling for raspberry-vanilla macarons

• Prepare the raspberries – gently wash them with warm water and lay them over the towel or paper tissue to dry. Let them dry completely before placing them between the macaron shells as the water can ruin the shells by making them wet and soggy.
• Place 3 oz (85 g) of mascarpone and 7 oz (200 g) of butter into the bowl and start whisking using a mixer. Slowly add 7 oz (200 g) of powdered sugar. Mix on high speed until fluffy and even, it takes around 3 minutes to achieve the perfect texture.
• Cut the vanilla bean in half and scrape the vanilla seeds with a spoon. Add it to the mixture. You can also add raspberry extract if you want.
• Take the piping bag and place the filling into the bag.
• Once the macarons are done baking, arrange them on a serving plate or tray and find an identical partner to each shell.

Now it is time to start piping the filling between the shells. There are two ways to fill the raspberry macarons.

The first option

Pipe a small amount of filling on the center of the macaron, making a flat round in the middle of the bottom shell. It should be done like this because that way the fresh raspberry is not touching the macaron shell. As we already know, the raspberry can be moist and make the macaron soggy.

Next, draw a higher line around the circle. Now there should be a little pouch in the middle and you can put half of the raspberry in there. Once all the raspberries are placed, pipe a little bit of the filling on top of the berry to glue the macaron together. See the pictures below for a better understanding.

The second option

Firstly, pipe a small amount of the filling on the center of the macaron. It should be the same height as the raspberry. Pipe a flat layer of cream to its surroundings as well.

Cut the fresh raspberries in half and stick them to the cream. Make sure the berries are not touching the macaron’s shell, there should always be a layer of cream between them.

Once all the raspberries are placed, pipe a little bit of the filling on top of them to glue the macaron together. See the pictures below for a better understanding.

To make these macarons even cuter, you can glue fresh raspberries or mini macarons on top of the macaron shell. I recommend using melted chocolate to glue the raspberries on the macaron shells.

Storage and shelf life

Place the macarons into the airtight container and let them mature for a few hours if possible. If you can’t wait for that long, feel free to serve them right away – they still taste amazing!

Macarons last for about one week but as you have fresh berries inside yours, you should eat or serve them on the same day or at the latest the next day. Remember to put them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Enjoy your macarons!
Belli xx