Strawberry-Shortcake Macarons
I wanted to make this variety of macarons because I had never seen it before, the filling is so easy to whip up (literally), everyone loves strawberries, and you can make it year round. Usually macarons are filled with a buttercream of some sort. But if I can make something whipped cream over a buttercream, I’m gonna take that opportunity to save a lot of effort. I thought the whipped cream + macaron combo also made sense because a lot of the time a traditional buttercream is so rich inside a macaron (especially when you add as much filling as I do).
You can also feel free to experiment with other kinds of jam (just make sure to dye to shells accordingly). Raspberry would work great, as would blueberry and cherry.
Tips
You can also skip the bulls-eye step and just fill each macaron sandwich with just the whipped cream.
18-22 1.5” macarons
Ingredients
1 recipe of prepared macaron shells, dyed pink
1 cup heavy cream, chilled (240g)
3 tbsp. granulated sugar (37g)
3 tbsp. strawberry jam (60g) + more jam for the bulls-eyes
1 tbsp. greek yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, or a little lemon juice
About 1 dozen small strawberries, cut in half length-wise (optional)
Directions
In a large bowl, by hand or with an with an electric mixer whisk the whipped cream with the sugar until it holds soft peaks. Add the jam and greek yogurt and continue whisking until stiff-peaks form (do not over-mix). Add to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2in. round tip (or just cut the end off of the bag to the same diameter).
Turn a macaron shell over so the flat side if up. Pipe a border of whipped cream just inside the circumference (leave a little room so the filling can spread when you sandwich it together). Using a small spoon drop some strawberry jam into the frosting well, creating a bulls-eye. Take another macaron (preferably one that matches the bottom half so they align well) and gently twist the two halves together. Repeat with all remaining shells.
Optional: With any remaining whipped cream, pipe a small dollop on the top of each sandwich, follow by a strawberry half. Do this the day you serve them; they whipped cream will start to sog out the top meringue after a day.
Refrigerate if not serving immediately for up to 2 days. You can also freeze them (covered) in a single-layer for up to 2 weeks, just make sure to thaw them in the refrigerator before serving.
