Oh man. This flavor might have bumped Crème Brûlée out of the top spot as my all time favorite macaron flavor. I first tried pistachio and raspberry together a few years back when I made the Gateau aux Framboises cake from Tessa Huff’s cookbook Layered and fell in love with the combo! I was feeling deep in my soul that those flavors needed to be MAC-IFIED, so get ready for the run down on my Pistachio Raspberry Macaron recipe!

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Like most of my macaron recipes, I recommend starting off with your shells! If you’re looking for more detail on the Macaron making process, jump over to my Basic French Macaron recipe before beginning.

This soft muted green color was achieved by mixing several drops of Americolor Leaf Green, and several smudges of Wilton Brown. You might be asking, what the heck is the amount of a smudge? Let me tell you. Unfortunately I wasn’t using my usual Americolor dropper style so I had to guess how many small butter knife dips into the Wilton container I used, so therefore, SMUDGE is my term of measurement.

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As usual, make sure to get your meringue nice and stiff!

While your macs are resting and baking, whip up your fillings. I recommend starting with the raspberry filling so it has ample time to cool down. You do NOT want to experience the stomach dropping feeling of watching a hot filling melt your buttercream.

This recipe makes just a pinch more than you need for two dozen macarons, but it’s so good I don’t think you’ll mind! Use it on toast, PB&J, or whatever your heart tells you.

Next, here’s a little bit of background on why I chose to use straight up pistachios to flavor the buttercream. I don’t sell at pop ups or anything like that, so most of the time, I only need enough flavoring to work through a few dozen macarons. I love the idea of pistachio butters or oils, but it’s a lot to invest in a whole bottle when you’re not sure if you’ll even need it or use it.

I wanted to choose a form of pistachio flavor that I could easily access at most grocery stores, and also find something that I wouldn’t have a large excess of if I only ended up needing enough for a few batches of macs.

I chose to use dry roasted, lightly salted, no shell pistachios, and they worked out great! All you’ll need to do to prep the pistachios for your buttercream is use a food processor to grind up 1/4 cup of them until they start forming a paste. The paste created a pronounced flavor in the buttercream, and the added nutty texture enhanced the eating experience.

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If you’d like to decorate your shells the way I did in these photos, you’ll need to do your decorating BEFORE you assemble your macarons.

The secret to this intricate geometric texture, is a textured parchment product I just recently heard about from Intricut Edibles! They were kind enough to send me some to try out. I’m SO thankful they did because it has opened up a whole new world of decorating options! The sheets are 4″x4″ and are even reusable for 3-4 times depending on what you’re making.

I’ve been scheming up a way to use them on the macaron shells themself, but that’s a post for another day!

They have dozens of designs on their website and I highly recommend checking them out if you’re interested in adding depth and dimension to your desserts in a simple efficient way. 

To prep the textured parchment for decorating my macarons, I cut each square sheet into 6 rectangles. I only wanted to cover half of the circle, so this size worked well.  See the video below for the decorating process!

Prep your white chocolate by melting it down in a tall narrow glass. Microwave in short increments, stirring in between to avoid burning your chocolate. Add a small amount of vegetable oil or shortening to your chocolate to make it more workable. I almost always add a pinch of oil with white chocolate because it likes to be particularly sassy and difficult.

Once your chocolate has melted, match up your shells with a partner of equal size. Select one shell from each pair and dip halfway into the white chocolate. Don’t shake off TOO much of the excess, because if the chocolate layer is too skimpy, the macaron color will show through the texture and you may not have enough chocolate to fill in the full indents of the parchment design.

Place your dipped shell on a piece of parchment, and then gently place your small piece of textured parchment on top. Gently press down the parchment working from one side to another to avoid air bubbles.

Once you’ve finished laying the parchment down, pick up your shell and place on a clean spot of the parchment to move it out of any excess chocolate pooling around the base.

Allow chocolate to completely harden. If you want to speed up the process you can pop your tray in the fridge once you’ve dipped and layed parchment on all of your tops.

Carefully remove parchment, and trim any excess chocolate off with a butter knife or whatever tool works for you. Grind up a few more tablespoons of pistachios and set aside.

At this point, your chocolate might need to be reheated a pinch to make it workable again. Melt chocolate down and then add it to a Ziploc bag. Cut a small corner off and the use your bag as a piping bag to drizzle a few lines of chocolate right at the seam between your dipped side and your naked side of your shell.

While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on finely chopped pistachios to cover your seam. That’s it for decorating!

To assemble, pipe a ring of your pistachio buttercream around your bottom shell, and then fill the center with your raspberry filling. Sprinkle a bit more ground pistachios on, and then sandwich your decorated shell on top.

Refrigerate your macarons in an air tight container for 24 hours to mature and achieve optimal textures. Serve at room temperature, or just slightly chilled. Enjoy!

Pistachio Raspberry Macarons

With or without the geometric white chocolate design, these pistachio raspberry macarons are a dessert to remember. Creamy pistachio buttercream, bright raspberry filling, and a pistachio garnish make these a delicious treat full of contrast in flavor and texture.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Rest Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 26 Assembled Macarons

Ingredients

  

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Macaron Shells

• 130 grams Egg Whites Approximately 4 Large Eggs
• 120 grams Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 200 grams Almond Flour
• 200 grams Confectioner’s Sugar
• 1 Pinch of Salt Optional
• Several Drops Americolor Leaf Green Gel Food Coloring
• Several Smudges of Wilton Brown Gel Food Coloring

Shell Decoration

• 11 oz White Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup finely ground Pistachios
• 4 Intricut Edibles Textured Parchment Sheets cut into 6 equal rectangles

Raspberry Filling

• 1 cup Frozen Raspberries
• 3 tbsp Granulated Sugar
• ½ tsp Lemon Juice
• 2½ tsp Cornstarch
• 2 tsp Water
• Pistachio Buttercream

Pistachio Buttercream

• 4 oz Unsalted Butter
• ¼ cup Dry Roasted Lightly Salted Pistachios no shell
• 8 oz Powdered Sugar
• 1 tbsp Heavy Cream

Instructions

 

Macaron Shells

• Line 2 baking sheets with either parchment paper or a silicone mat (circle template optional but recommended).
• Place a medium/large round piping tip in a large piping bag. Twist the bag right behind the tip and add a clip to seal off the opening. Place the bag tip down into either a clean tall cup with the edges folded over the rim to keep the bag open, or clip it into a bag holder.
• Using a kitchen scale, carefully weigh out and sift the confectioner’s sugar and almond flour into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk well to fully blend the two together.
• Place egg whites, granulated sugar, and cream of tartar into a large mixing bowl, and begin beating with a whisk attachment using either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer for 2 minutes on a medium low speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 4).
• Turn up the mixer to a medium speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 6) and beat for an additional 2 minutes.
• Add desired gel food coloring (optional)
• Turn mixer up to medium high speed (Kitchen Aid Speed 8) and beat for 3 more minutes, or until peaks are very stiff and the meringue clumps up in a ball in the center of the whisk. Test stiffness by removing whisk and pointing it upward. (See photo in post) Once the peaks can hold their shape flipped upright, your meringue is ready.
• Pour half of your almond flour/confectioner’s sugar mixture into the bowl with your meringue, and fold 15 times. One fold is scraping all the way around the edge of your batter in your bowl, and then dragging your spatula through the middle. Be sure to scoop around the bottom of the bowl as well so you don’t miss any dry ingredients.
• Pour in the remaining powdered sugar and almond flour, and continue folding (approximately 30 more folds) until dry ingredients are fully incorporated, your batter is no longer clumpy and stiff. Do not overfold, this recipe stays thicker than most traditional french macaron recipes. Start checking your batter’s readiness every 5 folds or so at this point by scraping all batter down to the bottom of your bowl, and then wiggling your bowl back and forth several times. If the batter levels out with very few peaks and lines remaining, it should be ready.
• Pour batter into prepared piping bag, and twist the opening off. Hold your bag at the twist between your thumb and pointer finger. Remove the clip.
• Holding the piping bag straight up and down, apply pressure to begin piping your batter in the center of your circle templates, releasing pressure once you are a few millimeters short of your desired size. After you release pressure, use a small quick circular flick to release your tip from the piped macaron.
• Once you’ve piped a full tray, firmly bang the tray on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles and smooth out shells. Pop any remaining large bubbles with a toothpick. Repeat with the second tray.
• Begin preheating your oven to 300 degrees, using an oven thermometer if possible to ensure accurate temperature readings.
• Set aside shells to dry until they form a skin and are no longer tacky to the touch. Once you can gently run a finger over your shells, they are ready to bake. Use a fan to speed up the process, rotating the tray every few minutes to ensure even drying. This usually takes at least 20 minutes for me even with a fan. (OR, try out oven drying! I have a tutorial in my post "How to Oven Dry Macarons and Skip the Resting Process)
• Once shells are dry, and the oven has fully preheated to 300, place one tray in the center of the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 18 minutes.
• Quickly open door to check the shell’s doneness by gently pressing on the side just above the feet to see if it’s firm. If it moves at all, bake for another 2 minutes.
• Check shells by performing the same test, pressing on the side. If they are still unstable, bake for one more minute, and check again. Repeat until shells are firm and do not budge, then remove from oven. Make sure oven is still at the correct temperature and then bake your second tray.
• Allow shells to cool completely, and the carefully remove from silicone mat or parchment paper by gently peeling them off.

Raspberry Filling

• Place raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the berries have broken down. Mash and stir with a wooden spatula as you go.
• In a small bowl, stir cornstarch and water together until completely combined.
• Add cornstarch slurry to raspberries while stirring, and continue to stir.
• Bring mixture to a low boil while stirring frequently. Be sure to fully scrape the bottom and sides of your pan as you go. Continue to cook until the filling has thickened.
• Remove filling from heat. Place in the fridge to chill.

Pistachio Buttercream

• Beat butter in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
• While butter is beating, place pistachios in a food processor, and blend until the nuts are finely ground and are beginning to form a paste.
• Add pistachio paste into the mixing bowl with your butter, and beat until thoroughly combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl down as you go.
• Add in powdered sugar slowly,stopping to scrape down the sides here and there to fully incorporate all ingredients.
• Beat for another few minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
• Pour in heavy cream and mix until just combined. If you’d like a softer frosting, add more heavy cream bit by bit until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

Shell Decoration

• If using parchment sheets, cut into rectangles that will comfortably cover half of your shell.
• Match up each shell with a partner shell of equal size, and line pairs up on parchment paper.
• Using a food processor, grind up the 1/4 cup of pistachios into tiny pieces and set aside for decorating and assembling. For this part of the recipe, you do NOT want to grind the nuts up to the point where it breaks down into a paste.
• Place chocolate in a tall narrow glass. Microwave for 1 minute on the auto defrost setting.
• Stir, and microwave for 30 more seconds on auto defrost.
• Continue stirring and microwaving in short intervals until the chocolate has completely melted.
• Add a small drizzle of vegetable oil or shortening to the chocolate and stir until combined.
• Choose one shell from each pair, and dip it halfway in to the chocolate. Let some of the excess drip off, and then place back on parchment. Don’t let too much of the chocolate drip off, because you want to have a thick enough layer to fill in all the spaces of your parchment.
• Place your parchment rectangle on your chocolate half, gently pressing down working from one side to the other to avoid air bubbles.
• Move shell to a clean spot on the parchment to remove a little of the excess chocolate that has pooled at the base of your shell.
• Allow chocolate to harden completely, and then remove your parchment.
• Trim any excess chocolate off with a butter knife.
• Remelt white chocolate and place it in a ziploc bag. Cut a small tip off of one of the corners to create a makeshift piping bag. Drizzle a few lines of chocolate across the line where the dipped half of your shell meets the plain half.
• Sprinkle ground pistachios to cover the drizzled lines. Set the remaining pistachios aside to use during the assembly process. Set aside to allow the chocolate to set.

Assembly

• Make sure each shell is still matched with a partner shell of equal size.
• Wait to fill macarons until the raspberry filling is no longer warm. Using a piping bag with a round piping tip, pipe a border of pistachio buttercream on one shell in each pair.
• Fill the center of the pistachio buttercream border with the raspberry filling. A quick way to do this is to place the filling in a ziploc bag, and then cut off a corner of the bag and use it to pipe the filling.
• Sprinkle more of your ground pistachios on top of your piped fillings.
• Gently sandwich the matched shell on top to complete your macaron.
• Refrigerate in an airtight container for 24 hours to allow the macarons to “mature” and fully develop their flavor and texture. Eat within 3-4 days. Enjoy!

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