Blood Orange Walnut Macarons
These blood orange walnut macarons are sweet, crunchy and bursting with the bright winter citrus flavors of blood oranges.
This whole losing an hour business is making me very lazy today so I am going to keep this short and sweet. Sweet being the key word for these blood orange walnut macarons. If you have been around this blog for a while you know I have a soft spot for macarons ever since I tried my hand at them almost a year ago. These French cookies are always fun to whip up and play with flavors despite their challenging temperament from time to time.
I’ve been meaning to adventure into more nontraditional macarons ever since my friend Allie shared her walnut macarons with spiced cream cheese and cranberry here with us over the Christmas time. I finally gave them a shot and was pleasantly surprised how toasty walnut macarons were.
These blood orange walnut macarons are a burst of citrus that are perfect as we are warming up in most parts of the country. The walnut macaron shells are pillowy crunchy with lovely notes of sweet citrus from the blood orange zest infused in the shells. The shells are filled with a simple vanilla buttercream full of blood orange zest.
OK, so now that I have convinced you to make some walnut macarons, my job here is done. I shall return now to being lazy, catching up on some sleep and to ensure I can rejoice in the fact that spring is almost here!! Happy Monday 🙂
Blood Orange Walnut Macarons
These blood orange walnut macarons are sweet, crunchy and bursting with the bright winter citrus flavors of blood oranges.
Ingredients
- 155g powdered (confectioners) sugar
- 50g walnut pieces
- 50g almond meal/flour
- zest of one blood orange
- 3 egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- pinch of salt
- 55 grams granulated sugar
- Few drops of orange food coloring (optional)
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- zest of one blood orange
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons blood orange juice (optional)
Instructions
- Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. I used a 1½-inch round cookie cutter to draw circles on the parchment paper and flip over the paper (drawing side down). Prepare a pastry bag with a round tip. I used Wilton 2A.
- Using a food processor, pulse the powdered sugar, walnut pieces, almond flour and zest into fine powder. Sift several times until there is less than 2 tablespoons of almond bits left. Add these to the mixture.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, sugar and salt. Whip on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes. Add the food coloring and whip for another minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the meringue and fold with a rubber spatula. Gently fold to deflate the meringue by pressing against the side of bowl and scooping from bottom until batter is smooth and shiny; about 20-25 folds. To check consistency, drop a spoonful of batter and it should have a peak that quickly relaxes back into the batter. Start checking the batter after 20 folds.
- Transfer batter into pastry bag and pipe the batter into the pre-traced circles on the baking sheet. Tap baking sheet hard on counter to release any air bubbles trapped in the batter. Let shells sit on counter for 20-30 minutes to dry.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. When ready to bake, put macarons in heated oven and reduce temperature immediately to 325 degrees. Bake for 11-12 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer shells to a cooling rack. Remember to raise the temperature back up to 375 degrees F before baking the next batch.
- Whip the butter until light and creamy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix on low until combined. Increase speed to low and whip for additional 2-3 minutes.
- Fill macarons with blood orange filling. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Let get to room temperature before enjoying!
I’ve always wanted to try to make macaroons! These look yummy!
Thanks Megan!
Oh I love the sound of this flavor combo! I’ve been meaning to try walnut macaron shells for a while and you’ve convinced me!
Thanks for joining the March of Macaron link party!
These are so beautiful! And macarons are so hard to get perfect!
these are beautiful! love the flavor combo too!
Holy moly this looks good! I am way too scared to make macarons, but someday..when I feel confident in my baking skills..I will attempt it..
Ahhhhh spring! It’s been sunny and warm in Vancouver and even though I hate the blasted time change, it’s so nice to drive home at the end of the day and it’s still light out. I can’t wait for the summer to come. Your blood orange macarons look like little bright bites of summertime. They’re absolutely perfect, Zainab! Because they’re so finnicky, I’ve been too scared to make them myself. Shame on me, right – a food blogger who hasn’t made macarons? You’re inspiring me to try because these look so beautiful.
Yes Nancy! It has felt so good driving home after work in the daylight…Spring is closer!! I can’t wait to wear flip flops lol! You should give them a try. I was afraid for a while too but finally broke and now I’m obsessed.
Those macarons look beautiful and delicious!
Girl, I am so impressed that you took the time to make macarons. I have no patience for these, and when I try, I can never get the “feet” just right!
Shikha they have a bad rep for how delicious they are! The lowering temperature worked great for me this time. Maybe you could try that next time? Also, leaving them to dry helps a lot too.
These are gorgeous! I want to try macarons this weekend, hopefully I can them right the first time around!
Believe it or not, I am reading this in Paris (I fly back to the US tomorrow) and can tell you that your macaroons look every bit as amazing as the ones we had here (I only had two, one simple chocolate and a pistachio that was to die for)
I wish I had the skill to try and make them at home, but I know my limitations… 😉
That’s so amazing!! I’ve always wanted to go to Paris and would love to try macarons from a patisserie there!! Hope you had a great trip. Will be looking forward to a trip recap on the blog!!
these look absolutely delicious! nice job 🙂
You are really great at making macarons – the form of the cookies is absolutely perfect and the flavor combo totally rocks!
Thanks Nora!!