I’ve never had banana-flavored macarons before, which means, that was going to be my next bake. These banana macarons are sweet and super banana-y!
So I’m trying to make macarons more often now that I’ve developed a good ratio for the ingredients. However, I’m not really a fan of just basic flavors for macarons (i.e., vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, etc.). I also didn’t have too many interesting flavors on hand, but I did have two bananas that were close to getting overripe. Initially, I wanted a banana cookie buttercream as a filling, but that didn’t work out, so I thought making a curd would be foolproof. It came out delicious!
The problem
Man, I failed so hard attempting the banana cookie buttercream. Andrew and I got all kinds of goodies from Trader Joe’s, one of which was cookie butter. I thought it would be good to pair cookie butter with bananas, and so I planned to make macarons using those two as a filling. Well, not only did it come out way too sweet, but the consistency was also all wrong. I even tried to salvage it by making chocolate cupcakes and using it as frosting, but alas, it could not be saved. Don’t worry though, I made good use of the remaining cookie butter in another recipe.
The solution
I still had bananas to use, and I really wanted to make macarons, so I thought, why not make a curd instead? Curds are so easy to make, and a great vehicle for any type of fruit. Plus, it’s really hard to get curds wrong, so I went with it. To be honest, I just eyeballed the ratios for the curd since I’ve made them in the past. It worked out pretty well! Adding a bit of lemon also counterbalanced the sweetness, so I’m definitely adding this recipe to my arsenal.
Tools you’ll need
Ingredients
Macaron shells
- 143 g egg whites
- 134 g caster sugar (or regular granulated sugar will do)
- 152 g powdered sugar
- 170 g almond flour
Banana curd
- 2 bananas
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- juice of 1 small lemon
Instructions
- Boil water in a small pot. Place your egg whites and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and place it on top of the pot, making sure the boiling water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. This is called a double boiler, making sure you're cooking the egg whites low and slow. Keep whisking until the egg white-sugar mixture reaches 130°F.
- Pulse the almond flour and powdered sugar in a food processor until there are no significant lumps left. Be careful to not process it so much that it turns into a paste. About 5-7 pulses should do the trick.
- In a stand mixer, mix the cooked egg white-sugar mixture on medium low (4 on the KitchenAid stand mixer) until it gets foamy. Then mix on medium (6 on KA) until soft peaks form. Turn it up to medium high (8 on KA) until stiff peaks.
- Sift the almond flour and powdered sugar mixture into the stand mixer bowl and mix on the lowest setting, just enough to incorporate the dry ingredients in.
- Add some food coloring gel in the batter to make it look tan. This will really depend on the brand and color you use, but for me, I use Cake Craft's food coloring gel. For this, I used one drop of java brown, 1 drop of sunset orange, and 2 drops of sunset yellow. I like this brand because a little goes a long way.
- With a rubber spatula, fold the macaron batter until it reaches a lava-like consistency.
- Pipe the batter into a lined baking sheet. If you want to make things easier, I highly recommend using a template. I always use a template because my piping is not very stable. You'll likely need two baking sheets for this. Let it rest for at least 40 minutes until it forms a bit of skin on the top.
- Preheat your oven to 300°F.
- Bake the macarons for 15 minutes. Since you have two baking sheets, you'll want to cook each batch one at a time.
- While your macaron shells bake, put all the banana curd ingredients in a food processor or blender and mix until you have a smooth mixture.
- Pour the curd mixture into a small saucepan and keep stirring while it cooks until it thickens. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Before filling, make sure your macaron shells and banana curd are cool. If the macaron shells are ready, pipe the curd on to half of the shells (or all your designated bottom shells) and top with another shell. Enjoy!
There’s not really a golden ratio for the macaron shells. However, I did end up stumbling upon a ratio of the ingredients that works for me, specifically for the Swiss meringue method. Feel free to use the calculator below (coded with the mentioned ratio) by entering the weight of your egg whites in grams. It will then provide you with the weight in grams for the almond flour, caster sugar, and powdered sugar.
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- Back backdrop: Replica Surfaces — Cement
- Bottom backdrop: Replica Surfaces — Biscotti Linen